Don't Buy The Hype, The Suns Can't Beat The Lakers

 I really don't like the Lakers.

 I want to get that out of the way so that nobody confuses me with a Lakers fan trying to tout his teams' dominance under the guise of a sports article.

 I would love to be seduced by the Suns. As a 5'11 guy, I would love to believe that height doesn't matter in the NBA. I would love to believe a 38 year old Grant Hill can do a reasonable job on a suddenly re-energized Kobe Bryant, or that Robin Lopez will somehow be able to give Los Suns something after coming back from injury and getting the extra rest from the San Antonio sweep.Or even that this Suns team is being spurred on by destiny or fate or some force stronger than man.

 But unfortunately none of those things are true.

 The Lakers are taller, more athletic, and have 5 of the best 7 players in the series including the best closer in the game, in case things are close.

 These Suns are great, it's been really cool to watch them come together as a team, they obviously like each other and like playing for each other. But this Lakers team is the ultimate storm of a bad match-up for them. The twin seven footers that the Lakers start along with Odom off the bench will make it really hard for the Suns to get rebounds on both sides of the floor. If you can't get rebounds, it's hard to get out into transition and run which is the strategy everyone breaking their ankles to jump on the Suns bandwagon are championing as the way to beat the Lakers.

 Furthermore, the length of Gasol, Odom and Bynum will make it hard for the Suns to get anything going towards the basket in half court sets, especially with Artest and Kobe roaming around the perimeter. The Lakers simply have more options, size, and talent than the Suns can deal with.

 Even the Suns best match-up of Nash Vs Fisher isn't as bad as the past couple of match-ups have been for Fish as Nash doesn't have the foot speed to really burn him like D Will and Westbrook. Plus Nash is WAY more of a defensive liability than either of those two were. I suppose Amar'e could have a huge series, but again the length of Bynum and Gasol and the Speed of Odom will probably slow him down quite a bit as well.

  Overall I'd be very suprised if The Suns won more than one game in this series. The Lakers can do what they do against every small team, which is essentially play volleyball by lobbing the ball up there and having one of their myriad of big guys go get it. And if that's not working, there's always Kobe. The Suns have a puncher's chance and not much more. Anyone talking themselves into this Suns team should be very careful.

 Lakers in 5.

 JL