Suns vs Lakers no sweeping Phoenix
There will be no sweeping the Phoenix Suns as they used their home court to defeat the La Lakers 118-109 to cut the series deficit in half at 2-1.
Amar’e Stoudemire, the player the Suns need to play big every game, finally showed what he is capable of in tying a play-off career high 42 points and grabbing 11 rebounds to give the Suns some hope of reaching the NBA finals.
Even with the Suns’ bench struggling to score any meaningful points, Phoenix’s starting five played well enough to carry the bench. Channing Frye went 0-7 from the field, Leandro Barbosa didn’t fare much better going 0-4 and Jared Dudley did only slightly better than that going 1-4.
The Suns’ starting five went 35-61 from the field and following criticism of his play in the last two games Stoudemire responded to his critics.
"You can never question my determination, my focus, my dedication,” he said. “That's one of the reasons I've persevered through injuries and continue to try to improve every summer. My dedication to the game is at an all-time high."
Steve Nash orchestrated the offence as he always does, scoring 17 points and handing out 15 assists, and Jason Richardson added 19 of his own.
Despite getting 36 points and 11 assists from Kobe Bryant the Lakers could not stop the Suns offence and it left head coach Phil Jackson frustrated.
"We certainly didn't come out to play the way I wanted," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said, "and we certainly didn't play the way I wanted at the end."
"They attacked the hoop today, and, you know, earned 42 foul shots. That's really the game plan. We seemed to be staying home on the 3-point shooters, and Stoudemire and Lopez had a night for them,” he added.
If the Suns want to make the finals they will need another big performance for Stoudemire, in fact they will need nights like that from him every night because the Lakers will no doubt come out and play harder in game four.
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