Sunday, May 23, 2010

The Suns are back

At least for now.

3 comments:

Blue Devil Knight said...

I can't believe it! That makes up for the Lost finale sucking eggs. People are saying they basically lifted it from the ending to the Narnia Chronicles. Good science fiction transmorgrified into crappy religious allegory before my eyes. I was horrified.

Victor Reppert said...

The Lakers still lead, of course, and have home court advantage even if the Suns even the series at 2-2 tomorrow night. Kobe Bryant's consistent excellence is remarkable. However, the players to watch in this series are the two coming off of injuries: Robin Lopez for the Suns and Andrew Bynum for the Lakers. Lopez missed the first two series for the Suns, and in the first two games, both Suns losses, he started by played minutes more typical of a reserve than a starter. In game three he was in for 30 minutes and scored 20 points. The problem for him was conditioning, getting used to the rigors of playing a whole basketball game after being out three weeks. Bynum, on the other hand, was a presence in game 2, but did nothing but foul in game 3. If you take Bynum out of the picture and leave Lopez in, you have Lopez and Stoudemire against Gasol and Odom in the center and power forward positions. With that, the Lakers' size advantage pretty much disappears, and you can expect a long series that could go either way.

If, however, Bynum gets back into it, and Lopez's play doesn't merit starter-type minutes, then there isn't going to be anybody in the paint who can take pressure off Amare Stoudemire. If that happens, you might still see a quick Laker knockout.

Blue Devil Knight said...

Bynum is a wildcard. His knee is obviously giving him trouble.

My hunch is Bynum is a bust in general. One of the risks when you get someone out of High School, with their ridiculously lite (compared to college/pro) schedule. You don't know if you have someone whos body is constantly saying "No" or a Brett Favre.