#Suns v lakers score series#

The Lakers were heavy favorites in both matchups. The Rockets didn't have a fully healthy Russell Westbrook and lost Danuel House midway through the series. 8 seed and dealt with injuries throughout that series. So do the Lakers.īut last year's team got away with it in large part because of their competition.

#Suns v lakers score series#

LeBron tends to get stronger as series go. If you only count series that didn't end in sweeps, James was below. Not bad, but it's the only point in a given playoff series in which his winning percentage is below 60. He entered Sunday with a 29-20 record in Game 1's. This has been a frequent bug in LeBron's career. They went on to sweep the next four games in each of them. The Lakers lost Game 1 of their first two series last season. They'll need a far more aggressive Davis in Game 2 if they hope to turn this thing around. That's the last thing the Lakers need given their overall shooting woes. If his jumpers aren't falling, opposing defenders won't respect the shot and will sag into the paint. So much of their defense relies on him blowing up multiple actions in a single play, and so much of their offense relies on him making his jump shots, as he did last postseason, rather than missing them, as he has for most of this season. But Davis has to be at his athletic best for the Lakers to win the title. He did that today with his passing, and sure enough, the Lakers had a positive point-differential with him on the floor at plus-2. His basketball IQ is so high that he can still find ways to impact the game at a superstar level. The Lakers can live with a sub-peak LeBron. He shot 5 of 16 from the field and wasn't his typically destructive self on defense. Davis had a game-worst minus-18 point-differential.

They lost this one, and Davis was a major reason why. The Lakers won that game without James or Dennis Schroder. He had 42 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, three steals and three blocks. But Davis played against the Suns two weeks ago today.

If Anthony Davis was just hurt, that would be one thing, and hey, he might still be dealing with the nagging effects of his calf injury to some extent. It took care of business, and if there were any doubts about how this team would hold up in the postseason, those should now be gone. For most of them, it was their playoff debut. The Suns had every excuse to lose this game. Cameron Payne was an important supplementary ball-handler before his ejection. Ayton had more rebounds (16) than Davis had points (13). Devin Booker scored more points (34) than LeBron James and Anthony Davis combined (31). The young Suns couldn't lean on Paul to carry them to the finish line after he hurt his shoulder, so it was up to the youngsters to lead the way. Well, one game in, we have our answer, and it's about as resounding a yes as you possibly could have imagined. Could such a young team really be expected to keep up with the defending champions? This was a genuine concern for the Suns entering the postseason. The next nine most-used players on Phoenix's roster this season had played in 100 combined. There was an error processing your subscription.Įntering Sunday, Chris Paul had played in 109 playoff games. Here are the biggest takeaways from Game 1. We'll just have to wait and see what sort of shape Paul's shoulder is in after the quick turnaround. Phoenix now takes a 1-0 lead in their best-of-seven series with Game 2 scheduled for Tuesday at 10 p.m. Deandre Ayton and Devin Booker were masterful as the two combined for 55 points and 23 rebounds. With Chris Paul certainly not looking like himself after suffering a right shoulder contusion during the second quarter, it would have been understandable if Phoenix would have given up its lead and ultimately dropped Game 1. In a game that featured just about everything including apparent injuries to star players, multiple technical fouls issued and even an ejection, it was the Suns that came out on top on their home court in a 99-90 win. The 2021 NBA playoffs have provided fans with some thrilling games to this point, and that continued Sunday afternoon in the Game 1 matchup between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Phoenix Suns.