Nobody is really talking about this play, mainly because on the next possessions the Suns came down and hit the game tying three, but I thought it was an interesting move that should be looked at.  For just about the entire game, the Lakers were switching all screen and rolls, basically inviting Steve Nash to become aggressive on defense.  Nash obliged by putting up 29 points on 20 shots.  Towards the end of the game the Suns weren’t even running the screen and roll, they were just setting the screen up high to get the switch and let Nash work against a mismatch:

As you can see, the Lakers don’t initially switch the screen, so the Suns just run it again.  The second time, Gasol ends up on Nash who knocks down a step back jumper.

Now with the Suns down three and under a minute left (after Ron Artest’s quick three pointer), they called a timeout.  This is where Phil Jackson showed some smarts:

See what he did there?  He put Ron Artest on Amar’e Stoudemire, gambling that the Suns were going to run the pick and roll to draw the switch.  That is exactly what happened and instead of Nash either pulling up from three against Gasol (or penetrating on him and kicking it out), Ron Artest switched onto Steve Nash.  Instead of pulling it out and creating, Nash seemed a little unsure about what to do.  It lead to a quick shot from Channing Frye.

Like I said earlier, this isn’t getting much attention because of what happened afterwords, but I still think it was a very nice move and it shows why Phil Jackson is one of the best coaches around.