Before the San Antonio series 8 of 10 “Experts” on ESPN predicted that the Spurs would dispatch the Suns from the playoffs. This time around, this same panel of experts has 7 out of 10 picking the Los Angeles Lakers to defeat the Suns. Bill Plaschke of the LA Times wrote a recent article entitled “It’s a big deal, and the Suns aren’t big enough to handle the Lakers” .  This article basically stated the Suns have absolutely no chance against the Lakers after their sweep of the Jazz, I guess he forgot the Suns swept the Spurs as well. This is the same Spurs team that beat the Lakers by 19 near the end of the season.

Of course we all know the regular season does not matter that much in the playoffs, after watching the Boston Celtics dismantle the Cleveland Cavaliers. However, the players are still the same. If the Lakers are in fact “too big” for the Suns they did not show it. In their 4 match-ups this season, the Suns had a +3 rebounding margin against the Lakers despite losing 3 out of 4 games. The Lakers did have a +7 margin in blocked shots against the Suns, however over the course of 4 games that is relatively insignificant.

Anyone who think the Lakers will simply crush the Suns, have not been watching enough basketball this postseason. There is still the impression out there that the Suns are the run and gun no defense team of old. However, as evidenced in the Spurs series, they are now an efficient half-court offense that uses the pick and roll and 3-point shooting to space out opposing defenses. Additionally, the Suns do play defense now, especially when their dynamic bench is on the court.  The combination of Channing Frye, Jared Dudley, Lou Amundson, Leandro Barbosa and Goran Dragic would be a good enough starting lineup to be the 5 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Lakers bench of Josh Powell, Luke Walton, Lamar Odom, Jordan Farmar and Shannon Brown simply is not as good as the Suns bench. Most teams use their bench just to “get by” as the starters rest. This is clearly not the case for the Suns. In the Spurs series, the bench actually expanded on leads. Take a look at these +- margins with the Suns bench players on the court netted for the entire Spurs series: Jared Dudley +38,  Channing Frye +27, Leandro Barbosa +21, Lou Amundson +4, and Goran Dragic +1. In comparison to the Lakers: Lamar Odom +51, Shannon Brown +3, Luke Walton -3, Jordan Farmar, -4 and Josh Powell -12. What these figures show is that after Odom, the Lakers have nothing coming off the bench.

If the Suns continue to make their 3′s and the bench continues to excel this could be a long series for the Lakers despite what everyone thinks….