Matchup nightmare deepens for Suns vs ‘underdog’ Lakers

The Suns came into this tricky trap-door playoff series with some legit concerns, which in hindsight really hadn’t been all that bad. Now, they seem worse.

Phoenix is halfway to a summer vacation, a place this franchise has known all too well over the last decade, a place the Suns were hoping to avoid and delay at least for a while this time … and then they drew the Lakers in the first round. In that sense, the Suns’ timing is poor, much like a water buffalo making a wrong turn and stumbling into a lion’s den.

The Suns are the No. 2 seed in the West, which of course means absolutely nothing when the No. 7 seed happens to be the reigning champion Lakers, lead by LeBron James and Anthony Davis. After missing a combined 63 games, they’re anxious to resume where they left off in the bubble.

It’s now 2-1 Lakers after Thursday’s 109-95 victory and by all accounts the seedings should be flip-flopped if only for cosmetic purposes. The Lakers are the heavy. The Lakers own momentum. The Lakers are favored to win two more. The Lakers are the Lakers.

The Suns? They had a nice regular season, one of great progress, given their recent history of skipping the post-season. But once again, the playoffs are a different animal, one that demands the beast in you, or else. And right now, the Suns are suffering from a lack of ferocity against a team built to last much longer.

The main problem for Phoenix, aside from Chris Paul not being able to use his right hand to scratch his back without a wince, is a lousy matchup. Anybody but the Lakers — this should’ve been the first item on the Suns’ wish list to the basketball gods, who evidently ignored those pleas.

Here’s whats troubling the Suns:

1) They aren’t constructed to defend LeBron and Davis. Sure, few teams are. Other teams, though, can at least bring athletic bigs into the picture; Phoenix can’t. LeBron is being guarded mostly by Mikal Bridges, who gives away almost 50 pounds. Seizing the opportunity, LeBron goes into post-up mode whenever Bridges is across from him. Meanwhile, same goes for Davis, who sees mostly Jae Crowder, who lacks the length needed to compete with an All-Star forward who can score from anywhere. LeBron and Davis averaged 56 points combined the last two games.

2) Their long-distance shooting is spotty. Crowder in particular came up empty in that regard Thursday; he went 0-for-6 until making his final attempt. Overall, the Suns’ starters were 4-for-15. That won’t cut it.

3) The Suns have limitations in reserve. Frustrated by the team’s lack of quality size with the exception of Deandre Ayton, coach Monty Williams turned to Frank Kaminsky for important playoff minutes. Kaminsky was cut in the preseason … by the Kings.

4) Devin Booker hasn’t seriously hurt the Lakers. In the Suns’ two losses, Booker shot 13-for-36. He’s the club’s first option by far, and coming off an All-Star season, and is a handful for even the league’s elite defenders. In this series, though, he must be Superman or close enough. Especially because …

5) Paul once again is a part-time player. The bum shoulder followed him to a third game and was problematic enough to limit him to 27 minutes (this after playing 23 minutes prior), none in the final 9 1/2 minutes. And that’s really damaging; Paul isn’t on the floor deep into games, when his composure and wisdom and bucket-making is required the most. Whenever Paul left Game 3, he was worked over on the bench like a cornerman in a championship fight. The Suns’ medical staff is grinding in overtime with him.

So that’s the story. The Lakers own the upper hand and they know it. This mindset was captured in an entertaining moment in the fourth quarter, in front of the Lakers bench, when LeBron James was aggressively egged on by teammates while he went mano-a-mano against Crowder.

LeBron did a Curly Neal impression by dribbling between his legs, and later finished Crowder off with an up-and-under reverse layup. It was more unfair than disrespectful. Or, maybe both.

The only red flag for the Lakers happened when Davis executed a chase-down block of Booker in the second quarter, landed funny, and spent the rest of the game running very gingerly. But running nonetheless.

The Lakers collectively are running in step, too, away from the Suns and toward the next round if you read the tea leaves of this series and they aren’t lying. A two-seed is wobbly and a seven-seed is strutting. The math says this would be an upset if the lower seed wins. The matchup says: Maybe not.