Los Angeles at Phoenix

The Lakers are really fortunate to even be here as they finished 16-27 down the stretch, and an even more revealing 7-18 against playoff teams. Kobe can only do so much, but Phoenix has answers and mismatches all over the floor as well as on the bench. They also learned something valuable last year. They led the Lakers 3 games to 1, and let it slip away, so you can be sure they are going for the jugular tonight, and will leave nothing to chance. The Lakers are not going to try and get into a track meet like they did in game two, where Phoenix put up 126 points. They will try to shorten the game and try and allow Kobe to do his thing as the shot clock winds down. We look for a dominating performance by Phoenix to close out the Lakers, which should also mean no garbage points at the end to run the total up, so we will also play UNDER.