Serge Ibaka makes his presence felt in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals. (GETTY IMAGES)

Oklahoma City Thunder’s Serge Ibaka had a Willis Reed moment.

For those who are too young to remember Willis Reed, he’s the guy who lifted the New York Knicks to a world championship in 1970 by sinking two baskets at the start of Game 7 despite a leg so badly hurt he could barely jog.

Ibaka did more that score two baskets in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals. He made his first five shots from the field for 10 points in the first quarter and made his presence felt on the defensive end where he has earned the nickname Serge Protector.

Not bad for a guy who was supposed to miss the remainder of the playoffs with a calf injury.

After the Thunder won Game 3 106-97, Popovich made reference to Ibaka’s “out for the remainder of the season” during his post-game comments by making light of Manu Ginobili’s minor foot injury.

“[Manu’s] fine. Or he’s going to out for the rest of the playoffs,” Popovich joked.

When the Thunder made the announcement that Ibaka is done for the season, the Spurs rolled their eyes. They had a feeling he was going to return. And he did.

Ibaka finished with 15 points, seven rebounds and four blocks in a little more than 30 minutes of work.

On offense, Ibaka may the Spurs pay every time he picked and popped to the elbow. San Antonio had been loading up defensively on Russell Westbrook the first two games of the series because Nick Collison wasn’t a threat to shoot. But in Game 3, Westbrook found Ibaka wide open each time they ran their high pick-and-roll offense.

But Ibaka made his biggest impact on defense. He had a team-leading four blocks, but he probably altered 10 shots near the rim. He also allowed the Thunder to stay connected with the Spurs’ 3-point shooters especially Danny Green, who was coming off a Game 2 in which he buried seven 3-pointers.

Green had just eight points and was 3-for-12 from the field in Game 3.

Spurs point guard Tony Parker, who had his way against OKC’s defense in Games 1 and 2 (both Spurs blowouts), struggled to get into a rhythm in Game 3 mainly because Ibaka was patrolling the paint. Whenever Parker turned the corner off pick-and-rolls, Ibaka was right in his face. One time he made Parker lose his balance on a drive and another he rejected Parker’s flip shot to trigger an OKC break.

“Serge has put so much work in throughout the season that missing a couple of days didn’t hurt him,” Westbrook said. ”Tonight, he jumped right back into where he was.”

Scott Brooks should also get some credit. He did a great acting job in the first two games, leaving the impression that Ibaka was lost for the season. He repeated four times to a reporter after Game 1 that Ibaka was not coming back. Each time he said it his nose grew.

”When you talk about a teammate, that’s everything you want in a teammate,” Thunder All-Star Kevin Durant said about Ibaka. ”I gained so much more respect for Serge for sacrificing himself for the team. Regardless of what happened tonight, that’s something you want beside you.”

Ibaka certainly has the Spurs’ respect — and full attention.

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.

Thunder coach Scott Brooks pressed all the right buttons in the series against the Spurs. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

What a difference a week makes. Last week the San Antonio Spurs were on a historic roll, winning 20 in a row and were a perfect 10-0 in the postseason.

Seven days later the unbeatable Spurs are going fishing after dropping four consecutive games to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Spurs’ season ended Wednesday night in Oklahoma City, as the young and hungry Thunder — led by three-time scoring champ Kevin Durant — overcame a 15-point halftime deficit in Game 6 and closed out the Western Conference finals series with a 107-99 victory.

The Thunder will get their first taste of the NBA Finals while the Spurs are left with a bitter taste in their mouths after dropping the ball on what seemed like a sure-fire championship. The Thunder showed remarkable composure for such a playoff novice, while the veteran-laden Spurs were the ones looking unsure and played out of character.

“As sad as disappointed as we are it’s almost like a Hollywood script for OKC in a sense,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “They went through Dallas, last year’s NBA champion. They went through the Lakers and they went through us. Those three teams represent 10 of the last 13 championships.”

It’s not often Popovich gets outcoached in a playoff series but Scott Brooks pressed the right buttons for OKC. It started with the hack-a-Splitter in Game 2, staying with Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins and deciding against small ball, and putting Thabo Sefolosha on Tony Parker in Game 3.

Brooks challenged his big men to switch every pick-and-roll and Ibaka and Perkins rewarded their coach with more energy and effort. There was a great moment in Game 3 in OKC when Perkins was caught in a switch with Parker and instead of backing up Perkins started clapping his hands as he moved forward on Parker, signaling to the Spurs point guard to “bring it!”

And instead of minimizing his role in the series Brooks increased Sefolosha’s minutes and although he didn’t completely shut down Parker he made it harder for the Spurs’ leading scorer to find open teammates because of his length.

Another adjustment Brooks made was the ball screens for Durant. He had Durant in high pick-and-rolls with Russell Westbrook and Perkins to create mismatches and forced Duncan and Parker in one-one-one situations against Durant and created better floor spacing for the OKC shooters.

After the Thunder tied the series at 2-2, Popovich gambled by starting Manu Ginobili in Game 5. It was an uncharacteristically desperate move by the four-time world champion coach. The move not only pushed Danny Green to the bench but it also junked up a rotation that had been so good all season.

In hindsight Popovich probably should have stayed the course and a former Spurs player was also critical of Pop’s decision to tinker with his lineup this late in the season.

Robert Horry, who won two titles with the Spurs, said on NBA TV’s “Game Time” what hurt the Spurs having Ginobili in the starting lineup is it zapped San Antonio’s scoring punch off the bench especially in the fourth quarter.

“It’s a tag team that him and Tony share,” Horry said. “First quarter Tony does his thing then Manu comes in the second quarter.

“They are both very ball dominant, and they get their plays off the pick-and-rolls,” Horry continued. “Now with the insertion of Manu it takes away that punch that you have and you need to keep that punch sometimes because it’s the rhythm you have and that’s what the team is used to and I just think it went helter-skelter kinda crazy with both those guys trying to handle the basketball.”

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.

Spurs guard Tony Parker (middle) drives between Thunder forwards Serge Ibaka (left) and Kevin Durant. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Forget about who is going to the NBA Finals. The bigger question is “can anyone win a playoff game against the San Antonio Spurs?”

In case you hadn’t looked it up, the last time the Spurs lost a game was on April 11 against the L.A. Lakers. That’s more than a month ago and the team that handed San Antonio’s last defeat is already on vacation. Since that 14-point embarrassment at home, the Spurs have reeled off 20 straight victories — the third-best streak in NBA history — and they’re far from done. They finished the regular season on a 10-game winning streak and so far they’re turning the postseason into a rout and easily the best bet to win the NBA title.

San Antonio is halfway to reaching its goal after going up 2-0 in its best-of-seven series against the second-best team in the West, and the team that was eliminated in the first round a year ago is just six wins shy of completing the first perfect playoff run in the NBA.

The Thunder gave the Spurs their best shot in Game 2 as Kevin Durant (31), James Harden (30) and Russell Westbrook (27) combined to score 88 of Oklahoma City’s 111 points. Normally scoring 111 points should be more than enough to win a playoff game, but the Thunder walked off the AT&T Center court nine-point losers.

“Playing against the Spurs, you take away something you give up something. Today they made a lot of threes,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. “They’re a good team, that’s what makes them a good team. That’s why they’ve won 20 in a row. We just have to figure it out.”

Brooks must feel like the captain of the Costa Concordia. His ship has hit a massive rock and is sinking fast, and there’s not much he can do about it. In Game 1, Manu Ginobili hit the Thunder with 26 points. In Game 2, Tony Parker got loose for 34 points. What makes the Spurs so difficult to figure out is because they play as a team. They’re not the Miami Heat, they’re not the Lakers, they’re not the Thunder. They win with a championship-tested system that involves good ball movement and floor spacing.

In the words of Brooks, “they’re a very, very good basketball team” with the heavy emphasis on “team.”

“That’s what they do. They spread you out, they put some tough decisions on the floor,” Brooks said. “You have to guard their big rolling, you have to protect against their 40 percent 3-point shooters, you have to really handle the ball who looks to attack.”

Brooks added, “They have great experience, they know how to play, they pass the ball extremely well. Very rarely do they take an extra dribble. When a man’s open to pass. It’s good basketball.”

“We’re playing against the best team in basketball.”

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.

Oklahoma City center Kendrick Perkins dunks over Boris Diaw in Game 1 of the Thunder-Spurs series. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The biggest mistake Oklahoma City head coach Scott Brooks made in the Game 1 loss to San Antonio was his decision to play “small ball.”

Instead of sticking with his normally rotation, Brooks tried to match the lineup Spurs coach Gregg Popovich went with in the fourth quarter and it totally backfired. The nine-point lead Oklahoma City took into the final quarter vanished as the Spurs — mainly using a lineup that included four guards and one center — were able to get to the basket at will and punished the Thunder in the paint.

Manu Ginobili, who scored a team-high 26 points, and Tony Parker took turns driving to the basket and the end result was a 39-point fourth quarter for the home team. The Thunder defense faltered down the stretch and Brooks knows why. He decided to sit the league’s best shot-blocker, Serge Ibaka, and went with a smaller lineup that included three guards (Derek Fisher, Russell Westbrook, James Harden), one forward (Kevin Durant) and one center (Kendrick Perkins).

Brooks later admitted that keeping Ibaka, the runner-up in the NBA Defensive Player of the Year balloting, on the bench in the fourth quarter was a mistake and he’ll likely change that strategy in Game 2. He said he beat himself up over not putting his defensive ace back in the game, while explaining how sidelining Ibaka seemed the right idea at the time. After all, Brooks said keeping Ibaka out and going with a smaller lineup worked in the previous playoff series against the defending champion Mavericks and the Lakers.

”I think every decision you make, if it doesn’t work out, you say, ‘Why did you do that?”’ Brooks told The Associated Press. ”And I’m with you on that. I wish I would’ve played Serge [Sunday].”

By keeping Ibaka — who played just 21 minutes in Game 1 — on the bench, it allowed Popovich to use two point guards (Parker and Gary Neal) and got away with using Stephen Jackson (who is better suited at guard or small forward) at power forward and did a decent job on Durant.

Expect Brooks to call Ibaka’s number a little bit more the rest of the series and make the Spurs react to their big lineup. Having Ibaka and Perkins on the court forces Popovich to play a more conventional lineup, which means Neal has to sit and Boris Diaw or Matt Bonner may have to play big minutes.

Oklahoma City star Kevin Durant looks dejected after his team was eliminated in Game 5 of the 2011 Western Conference finals by the Mavericks. (GETTY IMAGES)

For the first time in his young NBA career, Kevin Durant is sick to his stomach. Never before has the 22-year-old superstar been subjected to this kind of cruel fate.

Last season, Durant and the young and exciting Oklahoma City Thunder squad became an instant hit when they stretched the defending world champion L.A. Lakers to six games in the first round of the playoffs. With higher expectations this season, Durant and the Thunder went two steps further by reaching the 2011 Western Conference finals.

But this is where the fairytale ends, with the Dallas Mavericks serving as reality checkers. The Mavs eliminated the Thunder with a 100-96 victory in Game 5 in Dallas, taking the series 4-1 and advancing to the NBA Finals. OKC was game and resilient, but it was obvious the stinging loss from the previous game still lingered. And the way they executed (or how they didn’t execute) down the stretch in Game 5 reminded them of their epic meltdown in Game 4.

The overtime loss in Game 4 in Oklahoma City left a huge scar on Durant, something he’ll probably carry around all offseason until he gets another opportunity to play in the conference finals.

Even though the Thunder, as a team, blew a 15-point lead with five minutes to play in the fourth quarter of Game 4, Durant felt responsible because he knows the fate of the franchise begins and ends with him.

“I feel upset because I let [the Oklahoma City fans] down. Let the city down,” Durant said after getting outscored by Dallas, 28-6, in the final five minutes of regulation and in overtime that deflated not only the Thunder but their loyal supporters who thought they had locked up the series at 2 midway through the fourth quarter.

When someone brought up the “inexperience” issue during Durant’s postgame news conference, Durant scoffed at that notion and delivered a terse reply. “This is basketball, man. Our youth had nothing to do with what we do on the floor. We showed we can play at this level.”

Durant added, “I was trying to play with so much force, played so hard. Early on they were playing straight up defense. Later on, I see three, four guys around me. Late in the game, that was my time. But a few of those times the lane was too clogged up and I didn’t want to force a shot, so I passed the ball to my teammates. I believe in my teammates. I have trust in them.”

The end of regulation came down to Durant, who had the ball near midcourt with under 10 seconds left on the clock. Normally, he would calmly dribble to his left and pull up for his signature jump shot. But Shawn Marion blocked his path, and Jason Kidd was also playing free safety in case Marion gets beat. So Durant really had nowhere to go.

“I didn’t have anything else to do,” said the normally unflappable Durant. “I saw three Mavericks in front of me, three seconds on the clock, I didn’t know what else to do. I tried to get a shot, but I didn’t want run into their defense. I didn’t know what else to do. They played good D.”

Sorry, KD. When you say “I didn’t know what else to do” is basically admitting that your inexperience played a part in your indecision. But that happens to all young stars. Durant will learn from this and be a better player because he failed. Based on how he attacks each offseason and always strives to be better each year, I predict KD won’t fail too many times when he’s placed in the same predicament in the future.

Joel Huerto is the publisher and editor of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/onemanfastbreak.

L.A. will face the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, a matchup of two teams with a combined 32 NBA championship banners. Game 1 of The Finals begin Thursday night in Los Angeles.

Against the Suns in Game 6, the Lakers built a 12-point lead at halftime and led throughout the second half. But backup point guard Goran Dragic led a furious fourth-quarter rally by the Suns in which the home team sliced an 18-point deficit to three points with under three minutes remaining. Dragic ignited the surge when he scored six points in nine seconds, two coming on free throws after Sasha Vujacic was called for a Flagrant 1 foul when he hit Dragic in the chin as the two Slovenians got tangled up in the backcourt.

Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher make their third consecutive trip the NBA Finals, their first trip with Ron Artest as a teammate. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

But when the game got close, the Lakers turned to the best closer in the game – Bryant.

After the Suns cut the lead to 99-96 with 2:19 left, Bryant got the ball on the wing and buried a shot over Grant Hill and Channing Frye to give the Lakers a five-point lead. Then, with 35.2 remaining, Bryant put the game away when he drove past the Suns bench, rose up over Hill and swished a fadeaway shot from about 22 feet to make it 107-100.

“Just had to keep attacking, trying to stay aggressive,” said Kobe Bryant, who scored a game-high 37 points – his ninth 30-point game in his last 10 playoff games.

“They had help coming from the weakside, with traps and things like that, and made it difficult for me to get to the basket. So, I just had to create a little bit of space and raise up,” Bryant said. “I had a good look, it looks like a tougher shot than it actually is. I got a good look, got my legs underneath me and was able to knock it down.”

Suns coach Alvin Gentry got a great view of Bryant’s fall-away shot and thought Hill played it about as well as any player could defend it. Unfortunately, Bryant was just better than any defense the Suns threw at him.

“After I had knocked down a shot, I just heard him mutter something like ‘That’s BS!’ Something to that effect. It just made me smile. I just padded them on the butt,” Bryant said of his sideline encounter with Gentry.

“I mean, what can you say about Kobe?” Gentry asked. “There’s an intense game going on and you almost have to laugh at what he does. I thought we played great defense on him and he just made tough shot, after tough shot.”

Bryant’s got some help offensively from Ron Artest, who carried over his game-winning play from Game 5 to a very solid 10-for-16 shooting night and 25 points in Game 6.

Ron Artest is surrounded by his teammates after hitting the game-winning shot in Game 5. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

Ron Artest waited all season to make his mark as a L.A. Laker and his moment finally came Thursday night.

After the Phoenix Suns rallied from an 18-point deficit and tied the score at 101 with 3.5 seconds left on Jason Richardson’s bank shot from the behind the 3-point line, the Lakers drew up a play for Kobe Bryant to win the game but his shot from near the sideline fell way short. Fortunately for the Lakers, Artest never gave up on the play, grabbing the loose ball and beating the clock with a short, off-balance bank shot that gave the Lakers a 103-101 victory in Game 5 at Staples Center.

“I thought Kobe got fouled on his shot, so I figured it was going to be short,” Artest said of the final play. “I just thought I’d throw my weight a little bit, and let my weight work for me.”

The Lakers now lead the 2010 Western Conference finals, 3-2, with a chance to close out the series in Game 6 in Phoenix.

“It’s amazing you go through all this stuff, all the preparation, and it comes down to fundamental things,” said Bryant. “They knock down a 3-pointer because we didn’t box out, and they wound up losing a game because they didn’t box out. Little things like that are the difference between winning big playoff games and losing them.”

Bryant took the inbounds pass from Lamar Odom, but when he turned to shoot Steve Nash and Grant Hill converged on him and didn’t allow him to get a clean look at the basket.

“I felt I had a great look, but Grant Hill stuck his hand in there at the last second and forced me to double pump,” Bryant said. “Other than that I was gonna shoot over Steve. Once I release the ball I saw Ron sneaking in, and I was just hoping he got it off in time.”

It was easily Artest’s biggest play as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers and it almost didn’t happen because Phil Jackson contemplated about taking him out of the game for taking an ill-advised 3-pointer with under a minute left in the fourth quarter and Lakers ahead by three. “I’ll have a substitute to get you next time, that’s what I said,” Jackson joked. “I don’t know why I left him in the game. I questioned it myself when I put him out there. But there he was made the key play.”

Artest was 1-for-9 from the field prior to the last play, but found redemption by being at the right place at the right time.

“It was a great moment,” said Lakers guard Derek Fisher, who has had his share of game-winning shots during his career. “We’re very happy for Ron because Ron has been asked to sacrifice a lot with his game to really try to fit in on what we do things. He has sacrificed a lot to get to where we’re trying to go. And that’s why we were so happy for him.”

The Lakers led for much of the game but had to withstand a furious Suns fourth-quarter rally led by Nash, who scored 29 points.

“We just didn’t quite finish the play,” said Suns coach Alvin Gentry. “They made a good play. You gotta give Ron Artest credit. He ran down the ball and put it in the basket.”

Gentry continued: “The only thing negative is the way we approached the game a little bit. We weren’t quite as aggressive and they got into us defensively and we struggled a little bit getting into our offense. But on the defensive side of the ball we did great. We’ve now gotten them down from 58 percent to 41 percent. They keep talking about the zone, and our zone has been fine.”

Artest’s last-second shot was the second game-winning putback for the Lakers in the 2010 playoffs. Pau Gasol made a similar play in the first round when he followed up Bryant’s miss to win Game 6 in Oklahoma City.

“It was a crazy game. It had a bit of everything,” Nash said. “We found a way to tie it up and we lost on a last-second putback. Just when you thought everything was OK, and we’re going into overtime, we lose. But that’s life. We take a lot of positives from tonight and we gotta home and play as well as we did in games 3 and 4.

“Everything’s OK. We came back obviously with a great effort,” added Nash. “Maybe we deserved this game, maybe we didn’t. We lost and they held homecourt. We’ll go back home and we’ll do the same, and we’ll come back here for Game 7.”

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net, an online journal for basketball fans around the world and a proud partner of SportsFanLive.com. To read more about the NBA playoffs, visit OneManFastBreak.net.

Video courtesy of NBA.com

After two convincing victories in Game 1 and Game 2, the Lakers appeared to be headed for sweep until the Suns, out of pure desperation, went exclusively to a zone defense that not only slowed up the Lakers’ offensive attack but it has energized the Suns’ offense. Despite 38 points from Kobe Bryant, the Suns got enough stops on defense and a huge lift from their reserves to score a 115-106 win in Game 4.

“The only thing that we tried to do is that we look at the tape and we try to look at it as if we were the Lakers, and we said, ‘OK, where would you attack us?’ ” said Suns coach Alvin Gentry, whose team has held the Lakers under 50% from the field on consecutive games after L.A. shot 56% in two games in L.A.

The Suns bench also played a big role in Game 4. They not only outscored the Lakers bench, 54-20, but they also brought a lot of energy on the floor and helped Phoenix outrebound the Lakers, 51-36.

Suns reserve forward Jared Dudley gets the Phoenix fans excited after knocking down a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter. The Suns bench outscored the Lakers bench, 54-20, in Game 4. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

“We saw some areas where we were really vulnerable so we talked to our guys about being well aware of that. One of them was the high screen-and-roll with Kobe,” Gentry explained. “We thought that we would have to get up and at least make him drive it and not just come off and rise up and shoot the ball. We also thought that they would try to pound the ball a lot more, so we would have to be inside and then close out on shooters and I thought we did a good job with that.”

Gentry said the other day the Suns will continue to play their “girly zone” for as long as it keeps the bigger and taller Lakers from dominating inside. “The whole key is, although it’s a zone, we try to match up,” Gentry said. “Initially, everyone has to have a man and then from there we try to pass guys off. Early on they were making jump shots, and I think we’ll have to live with the jump shot.”

Lakers coach Phil Jackson dismissed the notion that the Suns won Game 4 because of the zone defense, noting that the Lakers shot 49% from the field. Instead, he highlighted the fact the Lakers were outshot from the free throw line again.

“We shot 49 percent didn’t we? That’s pretty good. Nothing wrong with that. I won’t say we struggled against the zone. I think we’re struggling at the defensive end,” Jackson explained. “We outscored them from the field in both games, shot better than they did, we did a lot of things very good but still wasn’t enough to win the game. They beat us at the foul line both nights and that’s the difference in the margin of the game. We have to do a better job in that activity.”

Jackson pointed out the discrepancy in the number of foul shots in the two games in Phoenix. In Game 4, the Suns were 22-for-32 from the free throw line while the Lakers shot 7-for-13. In Game 3, the Suns went to the line 42 times and converted 37 of them, while the Lakers got just 20 attempts.

“Every time we came near them they fell down and went to the line,” Jackson joked.

Bryant carried the Lakers offense for much of the second half, including a huge scoring binge in the third quarter. But in the fourth quarter, Bryant was silent and that’s when the Suns bench took over as Channing Frye, Jared Dudley and Leandro Barbosa helped build a nine-point lead on consecutive 3-point shots.

“Our defense could’ve been much better,” Bryant said. “Coming up here, we lost the sense of urgency defensively. I think our concentration was focused on how to attack the zone and it kind of flipped our attention to detail defensively. Our focus was on the other side of the floor, which doesn’t win championships.”

Bryant only had four shot attempts in the fourth quarter, but he says it wasn’t because of the Suns defense. “We didn’t lose the game because of that, we lost the game because our defense sucked.”

Though Jackson and Bryant made some valid points, the simple fact that they seem very agitated whenever the zone defense questions keep popping up gives reason to believe that the Lakers are frustrated with the way the zone has disrupted their flow and rhythm on offense. The Lakers’ triangle offense is an extension of their defense, and when the Lakers are rolling on offense they seem to play better defensively.

The Lakers are attacking the Suns’ zone defense from the wing, which goes away from the weakness of the zone. There were times when 7-footer Pau Gasol (who was held to 15 points) was out on the wing moving the ball, which takes him out of the low block where he is most effective. The attack must start with one player on the pinch post – either Bryant, Ron Artest or Lamar Odom – initiating the attack from the top of the foul line and down. By putting someone in the middle of the zone, this collapses the defense and opens up the baseline as well as the corner.

Whenever Bryant or Gasol got into the middle of the zone, the Lakers got easy buckets. They did this for much of the third quarter when they made their run but, for whatever reason, got away from it in the fourth quarter and began settling for 3-point shots. The Lakers are 18-for-60 from behind the arc in the last two games.

Video courtesy of NBA.com

The Lakers have a 2-1 edge in the Western Conference finals against the Phoenix Suns and Game 5 is on Thursday in Los Angeles so that would give Bynum three full days of not putting any weight on his right knee, which has a torn meniscus.

Bynum told Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com that he prefers to play because he’s not doing more damage to the knee. But Jackson is more concerned about how Bynum’s injury is impacting the Lakers, especially on the defensive end.

“I’ll talk to him and see what his suggestion is and how he feels about it, ” Jackson said of Bynum, who had two points, two rebounds and four personal fouls in a little over seven minutes in Game 3, won by the Suns 118-109.

“I think that he was ineffective tonight. There’s some things that got by him. He had one nice move in the post. Defensively, I thought he was a little bit late.”

Amare Stoudemire punished the Lakers defense with a series-high 42 points, aided by 14 free throws on 18 attempts. But Stoudemire scoring 40 points is not that surprising. What was surprising was that Robin Lopez made eight of 10 shots from the field and scored 20 points. If Bynum were healthy, Lopez wouldn’t have 20 points. Heck, he may not even have more than six.

Bynum doesn’t need to score to have an impact in the game. They have Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol for that. What Bynum brings to the floor is size and length on defense, which discourage players, such as Stoudemire, from driving to the basket. With Bynum and Gasol in the backline, the Lakers possess two 7-footers with extremely long wingspans and perimeter defenders such as Ron Artest can apply more pressure on the opposition and not worry about getting beat to the basket.

“Obviously, he’s been a key player all year. He can bring a lot to the table defensively and offensively,” Gasol said of his teammate. “He’s a big presence for us. We don’t know how much that knee is a factor. Of course, I would like for him to play more, and provide more, and help us.”

The Lakers are good enough to advance past the Suns without Bynum, but they will need him in the NBA Finals. And that’s the big picture Jackson and the Lakers are looking at.

Suns center Amare Stoudemire is sandwiched by 7-footers Pau Gasol (left) and Andrew Bynum. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

When you pick on the biggest bully on the block, you better be prepared to back up your talk.

Phoenix Suns center Amare Stoudemire first picked on Lakers forward Lamar Odom, dismissing his impact in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals saying that Odom got “lucky” despite scoring 19 points and grabbing 19 rebounds. Then Stoudemire turned his attention to Lakers centers Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol, saying he used to dominate Gasol when the 7-foot Spaniard played for the Memphis Grizzlies.

“It was total domination,” Stoudemire told The Arizona Republic of his 2005 first-round playoff matchup with Gasol. “But now he has a little brother (Bynum) with him so now he’s a little more confident because he’s got someone to help him in the post.”

Though Odom, Bynum and Gasol didn’t respond publicly to Stoudemire’s statements, they did their talking on the court as they took turns in punishing Stoudemire in the low post, combining for 59 points and 27 rebounds in the Lakers’ 124-112 destruction of the Suns in Game 2.

“Well, what can you say. We’re just having a hard time slowing them down,” said Suns coach Alvin Gentry, whose team is averaging 109 points and shooting almost 50% from the field in the series but still find themselves down 0-2.

“We played well offensively, but every time we make an adjustment to slow them down they go somewhere else. You do a great job on Kobe [Bryant], which I thought we did, they to go to Pau. We go double team Pau and there’s Lamar; we get it out of Lamar’s hands and Jordan Farmar makes shots. They are the reason they’re the world champs.”

After the Suns tied the game at 90 after three quarters, the Lakers went back to their low post attack, which meant a whole lot of Gasol and that’s when the game turned into a rout.

Gasol scored 14 of his game-high 29 points in the fourth quarter and made 11 of 19 shots for the game.

He took advantage of Stoudemire’s inattentiveness on defense. On one play, Stoudemire totally misplayed a pick-and-roll situation and allowed Gasol to slip in for an easy layup. On another play, Stoudemire completely lost Gasol in a crowd and Bryant was able to spot him for another uncontested layup under the basket. And when he’s not embarrassing Stoudemire on pick-and-rolls, Gasol punished him on simple isolations on the low block.

“We had to try to play him straight up, and when we played him straight up Pau had some success,” Gentry said. “The one time we tried to double he turned it over, the next time we doubled he found the open guy and the guy makes a three. You really do have to pick your poison.”

Gentry added: “We just have to take a look at the tape tonight, and maybe we’ll decide we let Kobe score 80 and try to guard the other guys.”

Bryant, who lit up the Suns for 40 points in Game 1, scored just 21 points but had a team-high 13 assists.

The Lakers are making nearly 58% of their shots from the field and averaging 126 points through the first two games in the series. They enjoyed another big advantage in points in the paint (54-46) and, thanks to another stellar game by Odom (17 points, 11 rebounds) and timely contribution from Farmar (11 points), the Lakers bench outplayed the Suns bench for a second time.

Though his team initially didn’t target Stoudemire on the low block, Lakers coach Phil Jackson said it became a top priority once the Suns’ All-Star center got into foul trouble.

“He’s the initiator of their screen-and-roll offense because of what he can do off his roll activity,” Jackson explained. “We took the ball down in the low post because he had five fouls and we knew it would tough for him to play defense at that time.”

This series can’t end soon enough for Stoudemire, who finished Game 2 with 18 points and six rebounds. The Lakers are just too big, too strong and too talented for the Suns, who will need a lot of luck just to win a game in this series.