In the first quarter of Game 3, the Lakers torched the Suns defense once again.  The Lakers scored 32 points in that quarter, and it ended up being the 9th straight quarter that the Lakers scored 25+ points.  The Suns needed to do something extreme to get themselves back in the game, and they did exactly that by playing zone the rest of the game.  In the second quarter, it was very effective.  In the third, it seemed that the Lakers figured it out, but in the 4th it went back to being effective, and this is how the Suns ended up with the win.

Second Quarter

Point Total – 15

Why It Worked - It caught the Lakers off guard.  The Suns sprinkled in some zone in Games 1 & 2, but they didn’t run it an extended period time like they did in the second quarter of Game 3.  I don’t think that the Lakers were prepared for it, and they didn’t really know how to attack it (or where to attack it from).

The first thing that you notice in the above video (the Lakers’ second possession against the zone) is how unsure the Lakers are on offense.  It is pass, catch, wait, then pass again.  You attack a zone by quickly zipping the ball around the perimeter.  This forces the defense to rotate with the basketball, thus opening passing lanes to the inside.  When you pass it slowly, you allow the zone to shift and get set with each pass, and that is how the Suns are able to challenge Odom’s shot here.

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There has been much talk about the Boston Celtics’ defense during the Eastern Conference Finals, and rightfully so.  The Magic have been out of funk the entire series, but game 3 was special.  How special?  The Magic scored only 71 points on 91 possessions, while turning it over nearly 20% of those possessions (all numbers from Synergy Sports).  In the following video, I take a look at a few keys to Boston’s defense: