Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers weathered a fast start by the Phoenix Suns to take Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals Monday night. Phoenix hit 8 of their first 11 shots and led by as many as 7, but LA quickly took charge and led after the first quarter by 9. From there they would never trail again and went on to win 128-107.Kobe finished the game with 40 points, and Lamar Odom dominated the middle with 19 points, 15 in the first half, and a whopping 19 rebounds. Pau Gasol also added 21 points of his own by spending most of the night posting up smaller Suns' defenders like Channing Frye and Louis Amundson.
Steve Nash added 13 points and 13 assists and Amare Stoudemire scored 23 points, but somehow could only pull down a pathetic 3 boards at 6'10". However, Robin Lopez impressed in his first game back from a bulging disk in his back as he scored 14 and had 6 rebounds. Channing Frye and Grant Hill both struggled as they scored a combined 10 points on 2-13 shooting.
Before tonight I thought LA was going to prevail in this series in 7 games, and I still do. But it won't if the Suns continue to play like they did tonight. Obviously. Phoenix had no answer for the inside game of LA, which most prognosticators figured would happen. Phoenix has a shot in this series if they can somehow increase the tempo to offset the points in the paint the Lakers are inevitably going to get. However, if LA is going to continue to shoot 58%, there is nothing Phoenix can do except pray they don't get swept.
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