Lakers need to find a way to stop Nash before he starts

If the Lakers are to make a series out of their first-round playoff matchup against Phoenix, they have to make things difficult for Steve Nash, the NBA’s two-time most valuable player.

First, the Lakers must keep pressure on the Suns’ point guard all over the court, and that main responsibility will go to guards Jordan Farmar, Smush Parker and Sasha Vujacic, who must be aggressive without making ill-advised fouls.

The Lakers’ perimeter players need to play solid defense against Nash on every inbounds pass and crowd him whenever the Suns are in transition looking for easy fastbreak points. The more energy Nash spends to get the ball, the better it will be for the Lakers, who hope to wear him down over a best-of-seven series.

The Lakers can help themselves even more by having their big men play assertive defense, especially against Phoenix’s bread-and-butter high screen-and-roll plays with Amare Stoudemire and Nash.

In last year’s playoffs, the Lakers did not have to deal with Stoudemire, who sat out the postseason because of an injury. But Stoudemire is back in the lineup and provides the interior power the Suns lacked a year ago when they fell behind, 3-1, against the Lakers before winning three in a row to advance to the second round.

The Suns like to have Nash drive around a screen near the top of the key set by Stoudemire, who may be on either side of Nash’s defender. This tactic puts the defense on the spot, because if the defender goes under the screen, Stoudemire uses his big body to push him out of position to open up a layup lane for Nash or an alley-oop path for himself.

A good way for the Lakers to defend this ball-screen play is to have Kwame Brown, Andrew Bynum, Ronny Turiaf and even Lamar Odom and Brian Cook, jump in front of Nash when he approaches Stoudemire’s screen.

By having their big men force the action and move Nash outside his comfort area, the Lakers could give their guards enough time to recover to resume man-defense. The key will be having Brown, Bynum, Turiaf and Co. not play soft and allow Nash to throw a pass to Stoudemire over the top.

In the NBA, teams that consistently execute help-defense win titles. Teams that do it only part time go home early. This is where the Lakers’ postseason fate will be determined.

Whether it’s Nash working with Stoudemire or Leandro Barbosa teaming with Shawn Marion, Phoenix has made a living exploiting defenses that do not communicate against screen-and-roll plays.

But that’s tougher in the playoffs, in which a team gets familiar with an opponent’s tendencies. And the Lakers should be well-schooled on Nash’s effectiveness, considering the Suns have won six of the last seven times the teams have met.

Summary: Expect Phoenix to show a couple of new wrinkles with its pick-and-roll plays, but if the Lakers stay disciplined with their defensive rotations, this could work to their advantage. The Suns led the NBA in assists, three-point shooting and field-goal shooting in the regular season because they controlled the flow of the game. If the Lakers’ defense can dictate Phoenix into forced shots, this could be a very interesting series.

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