The Phoenix Suns finally beat the Los Angeles Lakers after struggling in LA. The Suns were lead by Amare Stoudamire right from the start who exploded for 42 points and 11 rebounds, Nash and Amare dominated the offensive end by using the “pick and roll” which has been the calling card for years and they ran it to perfection tonight. The Suns bench still did not play great but they did play good defense against the Lakers in the 2nd quarter by using the “zone defense” which they used for the remainder of the game and it continued to work throughout and it really slowed down LA’s high octane offense that was averaging 126 points in the 1st two games of the series. The Suns didn’t hit many 3 pointers hitting only 5 on the night but as Reggie Miller pointed out in Inside The NBA the 3 pointers that Phoenix hit were in critical points of the game. Nash had a great all around game getting into the seams of the Lakers defense scoring 17 points and handing out 15 assists. Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol once again led the charge for the Lakers on the offensive end scoring 36 & 23 points respectively and they also got a huge boost from Derek Fisher who finished with 18 points by far his best game of the series however no one else showed up. Artest, Bynum, and Odom all struggled shooting only 9/28 and only getting 13 rebounds in between them. So Phoenix gets their first win of the series however they still have all the pressure on them to win game 4 or else it’s over essentially because …
Video Rating: 5 / 5