Lakers just too good for the Suns. Kobe leads LA past Phoenix

The Steve Fan is back in action after spending a week on the DL on a silly injury (broke my left elbow, very badly indeed, while walking on a wet street) just in time to catch the Suns battle the Western Conference’s best team, the L.A. Lakers.

The NBA decided it was going to be a special night (double header on TNT) with only two games on the schedule, but what a couple of games: Lakers-Suns, Pistons-Celtics. All I had to do was sit back, relax, and enjoy the best the NBA had to offer as a couple of “pretenders” teams knocked on the champions’ doors only to hear a clear “sorry guys, maybe next time” as both the Celtics and the Lakers proved why they were in the Finals last season.

Kobe Bryant (AP Photo/Matt York) scored 24 points (plus 5 rebounds, 3 assists and an outstanding +17 in +/-) and played like the NBA Mvp he actually is, to lead the Lakers past the Suns 105-92. Raja Bell did his usual good job against Kobe (who shot just 8-of-23) but that clearly wasn’t enough as Gasol (9 assists), Radmanovic (5-for-5 from 3-point range) and Co. were ready to step in.

We already knew each time Shaq, Kobe and Phil get back together it’s not going to be just another game. Shaq had a solid game (15 points, 9 rebounds) while Stoudemire led the Suns with 21 points and 8 boards. Nash, who is looking more and more uncomfortable under coach Porter, had just 8 points but 10 assists. As usual the Suns committed too many turnovers and the Lakers scored often (21 points to be precise) on those plays as Shaq confirmed after the game:  “(The Lakers) are a pretty good team and they capitalized on our mistakes – they got a lot of shots“.

The Lakers proved they’re the best team in the Conference, possibly in the League, but most important of all, last night’s game proved they’re so much better than the Suns it’s almost impossible to figure out how Phoenix could ever win a playoffs series against such a team. In the meantime the Suns seemed to confirm what has been their most glaring weakness over the last couple of seasons: they’re good but simply not good enough to beat consistently the Western Conference top teams.

“I thought out effort was pretty good. They played well, they made shots and a lot of rebounds bounced right to them” were the final words of Steve Nash speaking of the “work in progress Suns”. Work in progress or not, the Lakers are simply too good for these Suns. Period.

Anyway, time to move on and face another tough challenge by the up and coming Blazers the Suns will host on Saturday night (7 PM). It could also be the first Oden vs Shaq meeting.

Yours truly, Steve “elbow cast” Fan 

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