Kobe Bryant loves playing the Suns.
Through the years, the one constant in the Lakers/Suns battles -- Kobe got his. The Suns could not stop him. For a couple years, Raja Bell did a respectable job, but those were the days Kobe had to keep gunning because his other options were pass to Smush Parker or pass to Kwame Brown. Better to shoot over the triple team.
In this series if Kobe gets his, the Lakers will be in good shape. Los Angeles is going to get points inside from Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom. The Suns are going to struggle with the Lakers length and efficiency inside. But if the Lakers are getting points from the perimeter -- efficient points -- the Suns are in a lot of trouble.
Good luck Grant Hill, the job is all yours. Just go out and stop Kobe.
Hill has been the defensive specialist for the Suns these playoffs. He made the Trail Blazers offense sputter when he was on Andre Miller (well, that and Brandon Roy being injured made their offense sputter). He slowed Manu Ginobili of the Spurs last series.
We are required to mention that Grant Hill is 37 years old. That is old in basketball years. It only means one thing -- he's not as quick as he was at 25. Hill now relies more on veteran savvy and his fantastic basketball IQ than just pure foot speed anymore.
He is not as quick as Kobe Bryant anymore. In a pure isolation clear out, Kobe should be able to blow past Hill.
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Except that Kobe is not Kobe -- he's not healthy. He has not practiced with his team once in the week off between series. He had his knee drained of fluid. His ankle is still sore, his finger still hurts. Kobe is not the explosive Kobe of old.
Kobe now relies much more on his veteran savvy, his basketball IQ to get the shots he wants in the offense. To set up his teammates.
And that's where Game 1 gets really interesting -- if Kobe is explosive enough to get the 28 points a game he is averaging in the playoffs in an efficient manner on Hill, the Lakers win. The Suns would have to switch to Jason Richardson on Kobe, and that worked well for the Lakers during the regular season (Kobe just posted him up).
There are a lot of other things to watch: Can the Lakers slow the Suns running game? Can Pau Gasol guard Amare Stoudemire? Can Stoudemire guard Gasol? Who would win a footrace between Robin Lopez and Andrew Bynum at this point? (The correct answer to the last one is nobody.)
But as always, things circle back to Kobe. In the regular season, Lakers won three of four meetings with the Suns. If Hill doesn't change that equation, the Lakers will win four in this series pretty quickly.
Kurt Helin lives in Los Angeles and is the Blogger-in-Chief of NBC's NBA blog Pro Basketball Talk (which you can also follow in twitter).
