Lakers look to dismantle Suns’ zone in Game 4

PHOENIX (AP)—Losing one game in Phoenix was tolerable for the Los Angeles Lakers. Two losses and things start to get uncomfortable for the reigning NBA champions.

It’s safe to say that coach Phil Jackson was giving his team a refresher course on how to beat a zone defense when the Lakers worked out at US Airways Center on Monday after Phoenix employed the strategy to great success in its 118-109 victory on Sunday night. The Suns can square the series at 2-2 with another home win in Game 4 on Tuesday night.

Jackson said he had never seen a team use the zone so much in a playoff game since the NBA legalized the defense in the 2001-02 season, not that Kobe Bryant(notes) seemed all that concerned.
When asked if a day of practice would be enough to work out how to attack the zone, he answered sarcastically.

“Nah,” he said. “We’re doomed.”

The Suns used the zone much of the second quarter and the entire second half. Phoenix coach Alvin Gentry said that was more than he anticipated but he stuck with it because it worked when nothing else had against the Lakers, who averaged 126 points and shot 58 percent in the series’ first two games.

There were inferences on Monday that the zone is somehow an “unmanly” defense, that real teams play man-to-man.

“We have to try every way we can to find a situation where we can win,” Gentry said. “Whatever that takes, that’s what it is. If we have to play our ‘girlie zone’ as somebody said, we’ll play our ‘girlie zone.”’..........read more