The Phoenix Suns had a record three-point shooting night in their 121-116 road win over the Los Angeles Lakers. The Suns hit 22-of-40 three-point attempts, which set a new franchise record and came close to breaking the NBA record for threes made in a game.
Reading through the post game quotes from both sides, you get a mixed bag of reaction. The Suns certain credit "hot shooting," but also seemed to say the style of play and fast pace created the opportunities. The Lakers, or at least some of them, basically are saying, "Whatever, they got lucky."
"They were on fire and they made all of them, it seems like," Kobe Bryant said. "If you can do that four games in a playoff series, God bless you. Even guys in a gym by themselves can't shoot that percentage. It was a historical night tonight, almost."
Personally, I think that's deflecting the blame a bit too much. The Suns have great shooters on the floor and were getting wide open looks, especially early in the game when the Lakers defense was forced to collapse and then didn't rotate out on the shooters.
When the Lakers made their run to close the gap the Suns had opened, they did it with Matt Barnes playing power forward and Luke Walton and Shannon Brown in the game instead of Ron Artest and Derek Fisher. We've seen the Lakers and other good defensive teams both defend the paint and chase shooters off the line. Last night, the Lakers didn't do that.
But to really answer the burning question, "Great (lucky) Suns shooting or poor (lazy) Lakers defense?", we need to check the tape and fortunately YouTube provides a video of each one of the Suns' 22 three-point shots. Watch and learn.
And as a bonus for Suns fans, here's Kobe Bryant pouting in his locker after the game. Nice fuzzy robe, Kobe.