The PHX Suns get past the Laker’s first game – but should that last?

The PHX Suns get past the Laker’s first game – but should that last? The Suns have gotten off to a great start as Devin Booker, De’Andre Ayton, and even Chris Paul had a huge effect on that game. With multiple mishaps and injuries that happened for Phoenix, they were able to keep their lead and beat the crud out of the Lakers.

The final score was 99-90 and the Suns just kept bringing the fight and pressure. Their defense was amazing, how? Well, take it into this perspective. They were able to hold LeBron and Davis to 31 points combined, now ready for the crazy part? Devin Booker got 34 points that game, beating out both LeBron and Anthony Davis in the statistics category. However, that is not the only thing that they can win in. They won the game and they did it in Phoenix, Arizona.

Why is this such a big deal?

This is such a big deal due to the fact that the Suns have not been in the playoffs since 2010, which meant it took a little over a decade to win a playoff game. Not only were we able to win our first game in the playoffs; but we were able to take Game 1 over LeBron James and Anthony Davis. This is significant because those two monsters had the majority of popular votes of winning against the Suns.

Their bench couldn’t do a thing, the defense was not their regular, and the offense was sloppy. The Suns capitalized on that and used it to their advantage; which was amazing and it showed.

This is not an easy task to handle, but somehow the Suns won the first game. Winning the first game, at home, against the defending champs is a huge deal and a great accomplishment. However, more work is to be done and we can not be getting relaxed on them because we are facing Playoff-Bron and Anthony Davis.

Notable injuries of that game:

We saw in the first half Chris Paul go down with a right shoulder injury that looked very nasty. He wasn’t moving his arm, grabbing at his neck/shoulder, and walked back to the locker room very slowly with a towel over his head. However, he has elected to come back into the game while the Suns were still trying to hold onto a double-digit lead.

What was the injury? It was a right shoulder contusion, not a significant bruise but still one that hurt like all heck. It was shown, this is not speculation but what was written on the face of Paul.

Good news for the Suns is the fact that Paul won’t be missing any time as he said he will be playing Tuesday’s game against the Lakers; that would be for Game 2 of the First Round of the NBA Playoffs.

Now, here is the other notable injury that got the sports world talking. It was the LeBron James injury, people can blame the injury for LeBron not playing at 100%. However, prior to that injury, we saw him not converting any shots and the defense completely shutting him down. That is along with KCP, who couldn’t hit one single 3PT-shot, THT, Caruso, and even Davis.

Most likely this was a shoulder injury, as reported per game analysis, and this shouldn’t keep LeBron James down. Unless it is significant enough to do just that. But, that is highly unlikely as this is the playoffs and LeBron would never miss a game.

Finally, how can the Suns keep this momentum going?

Look, without any doubt in any of our minds do we see the Suns sweeping them. Or even beating them 4-1, 4-2, things along those lines. We have seen this before in the playoffs, especially last year with A.D. and LeBron James. The Trail Blazers and Rockets went up 1-0 in the first game and then repeatedly lost 4-1 in both matchups.

So the Suns need to stay with it and they need to keep the lockdown coverage, change up your plays for defense and offense. Why? Because LeBron James will be able to beat the same coverage, same scheme that a team is rolling with. He will be able to better assess this, able to make changes to his playing style, and that includes Anthony Davis.

What type of matchups do we need to see in Game 2?

Also, have Davis guarded by DeAndre Ayton. This would be that both he and Ayton have the same built, the same height, and could go one-on-one if given the chance. That would be whether in the post, paint or anywhere for that matter. Right? For LeBron James, you need to have two guys on him. Not even kidding as when he is about to shoot or driving we need someone like Saric or Crowder to help Booker/Paul that is covering him. Because you can’t get too close as he will beat you to the hoop, you can’t be too far away or he will drain it in your face, and you have to play the right coverage on everyone or LeBron will just give it up to someone else. Say KCP, THT, or even Caruso. Those three players are highly skilled, especially on the bench.

They can hit mid-range jump-shots, three-pointers, and everything else. To put it into simplistic terms, they just need to be consistent on both ends of the court. Don’t let the Lakers catch fire to them, if up a considerable amount don’t loosen your grip of the game. Keep that 0-0 mindset as the Lakers will come back and torch you mentally, physically, and emotionally. Also, remember that this has happened before so they have to go all out. Injuries or not.

Conclusion:

This is pretty much everything as we have covered all the notable injuries, what the Suns need to do to keep their momentum alive, and we even broke down the game. If you want play-by-play updates look at our social media because we covered a good sum of the game, especially that one, and we talked about other games.

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