Meet
Can Phoenix Rise from the Ashes?
Posted by: deb on May 27th, 2010
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.
While many of you were watching the 4+ hour series finale of Lost or the 3 hour season finale of Dancing with the Stars (well maybe not too many watched Dancing with the Stars) I was watching Phoenix figure out how to beat the hated Lakers. And I was surprised. I had all but penciled in a Boston/Lakers finals, and it still may end up that way, but both Phoenix and Orlando have made it very interesting. My dad used to tell me, mostly about the BYU/Utah rivalry, “it’s easy to figure out who should win a game, but not so easy to know who will win a game, that’s why they play them”.
As far as the Phoenix wins, a couple of reason for their success jump out at me: 1. they have a couple of players who can match up with the length of the Lakers. 2. they seem to be able to throw a zone defense at the Lakers that causes them trouble. 3. in the two games they won, they committed quite a few less fouls and shot free throws and three point shots at a higher percentage. 4. although Kobe Bryant still had his 30+ points a game, he looked tired and frustrated the last few minutes of both games. 5. Phoenix has a player who after having his nose broken can dribble down the court at the same time he is trying to put his nose back into alignment, it freaked me out just watching.
Now as far as the Orlando/Boston series goes, the only things I noticed were the Boston players dropping like flies tonight and the older players starting to look a little tired. I need your help with other reasons why this series is going at least six games, maybe seven games.
I cannot imagine the NBA nor the sponsors are looking forward to a Orlando/Phoenix series.
Let me know who you think will win these series and why. Also which players have stepped up and which are planning their vacations to Aruba and thinking about where they will be playing next year and for how much?
A final note. Did anyone see the stats about how much better Derek Fisher plays on the road in the play-offs than at home? I thought he just hated Utah.
Replies: 0
Views: 97
No Responses
I always thought that Orlando would take that conference but Boston seams to still have it tho they are older now . I expected to see Phenox give the Lakers a run for their money . But when it is all said and done it looks to be a Lakers Celtics series comin again .