Boston Game Thread

[jbeecham]

The Boston announcers may have had a legitimate beef with the officials. I didn't realize it while watching the game, but the Suns shot 39 ft's to only 21 for Boston. About 8 of those free throws for Phx came in the last minute of the game or so, but they still got to the line more.

There were a lot of positives in the 2nd half both defensively and offensively. It seemed like the Suns caused more than 17 turnovers with their pressure defense. The aggressiveness of the defense really made the offense work in the 2nd half. It's really amazing that they did it without Amare.

 

[jbeecham]

Originally posted by sly fly
JJ with confidence. Ain't it a beautiful thing?

Yes and he wasn't hitting his outside shot so he took the ball aggressively to the basket. It's good when he realizes it's easier to hit an 8 ft shot than a 28ft shot.

 

[arthurracoon]

Wow. I turned the game off in the 2nd quarter and watched Forrest Gump...Dang!

 

[Joe Mama]

Originally posted by jbeecham
The Boston announcers may have had a legitimate beef with the officials. I didn't realize it while watching the game, but the Suns shot 39 ft's to only 21 for Boston. About 8 of those free throws for Phx came in the last minute of the game or so, but they still got to the line more.

There were a lot of positives in the 2nd half both defensively and offensively. It seemed like the Suns caused more than 17 turnovers with their pressure defense. The aggressiveness of the defense really made the offense work in the 2nd half. It's really amazing that they did it without Amare.

The Phoenix Suns shot more free throws in the Boston Celtics tonight because they were fouled more often. They really should have been to the free-throw line several more times. There were bad calls and no calls on both ends of the four. I don't think it's fair at all to look at the number of free throws and immediately claimed the officiating was biased if there is a large discrepancy.

Really the difference in free throws had more to do with defense than anything. In the first half the Phoenix Suns were so awful than most of the time when Boston went to the basket they shot uncontested or nearly uncontested layups. In the second half the Suns went harder to the basket, but at least the Celtics tried to stop them.

I really thought the Boston Celtics turned the ball over more than 17 times. If I remember correctly they had 9 turnovers in the 1st half. There's no way they had only 8 turnovers in the 2nd half... in more than the first half. I think one of the scorekeepers /statisticians messed up.

Joe Mama

 

[az1965]

Great win. Not to take away anything from the tremendous effort by the team, but was this win by design or by chance...? Interesting comment from Boston coach. It appears, they game planned for Amare but the small lineup confused them after Amare went down.

"...But Phoenix did have to go to a smaller lineup, making up for Stoudemire's absence with a swarming defense that befuddled the Celtics.

``We had a very difficult time contending with their small lineup,'' Celtics coach Jim O'Brien said. ``I guess the question is, 'How will we respond?''

 

[matt_whitlock]

I taped the second half of the game and watched it about 2 hours after the game ended, without knowing the score.

And I'll admit, when JJ threw down that dunk, I rewound the tape and watched it again. Picture a devout JJ-basher like myself sitting at home by myself watching a Suns game and laughing as JJ thunders one through in a crowd of 4 other Celtics.

It was sick.

 

[Chaz]

Get this.

BOSTON (AP) -- Phoenix Suns forward Amare Stoudemire had to be helped off the court after spraining his left ankle in the second quarter of Friday night's game against the Boston Celtics.

Stoudemire went to the floor after landing on Paul Pierce's foot under the Suns' basket. He was taken for X-rays and the team said he would not return to the game.

Last season's rookie of the year is averaging 15.6 points and 9.1 rebounds. He had five points and six rebounds before the injury.

The injury comes a year after Pierce chipped two front teeth and suffered facial abrasions when Stoudemire fouled him last Dec. 11, a game in which Celtics head coach Jim O'Brien was ejected after chasing down a referee at center court and being restrained by assistant coach Lester Connor.

They continue to call it a foul...no foul was called on that play.

 

[elindholm]

During tonight's telecast, they showed the replay of the Pierce/Stoudemire incident several times. Of course Heinson went on and on about how brutal and evil it was. To a normal person, however, it looks like a fine no-call, and certainly nowhere near anything that should have warranted Stoudemire any punishment.

 

[Chaplin]

Originally posted by sly fly
JJ with confidence. Ain't it a beautiful thing?

Ain't it an extremely rare thing?

Well, we've got JJ's "Good Game of the Month" for December--a whole 3 weeks until we get another one.

 

[Errntknght]

FJ can play small ball all he wants in situations like this game... using it to press when we're way down. It's good for just that.

The Celtics shot themselves in the foot by not attacking the press. I kept waiting for it but they stayed conservative.

Thankfully, the Nets played this evening, too, so it's going to be one of those 'last man standing' games tomorrow.

 

[Lefty]

Didn't get to see the game live but saw the highlights and JJ's dunk was just SICK! Is history repeating itself or what. The east coast is getting hit by a snowstorm, just like at this time when the Suns played the Nets.

 

[PhiLLmattiC]

How do u let a team come back from 29 points down? coach?

 

[Joe Mama]

Originally posted by PhiLLmattiC
How do u let a team come back from 29 points down? coach?

Remember when Sacramento did it against the Suns? That was probably the most disappointing game I have ever seen. I believe that one point the Phoenix Suns were up by 30 + points, and they ended up losing by 15 or 16. That was the night of Kevin Johnson's induction into the Ring of Honor. It's one thing to overcome a 29 point deficit. It's another thing to overcome an even bigger deficit and win the game by double digits. I feel sick even thinking about it.

Joe Mama

 

[frdbtr]

With Stoudemire in the game the Suns got outscored by 28. With Stoudemire out of the game the Suns outscored Boston by 32. Looks like we should bench him for the rest of the season. Or maybe we should trade him since he can't play basketball worth Krap.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Bball is such a momentum game. You play a quick, aggressive pressing defense, which makes a team tentative on their shots, which leads to misses and fast breaks, which makes a pressing defense even more effective. It snowballs.

If Boston had a vet pg who could have gained control of the pace of the game, we would have had no way of coming back.

I would love for the Suns to play under control, solid, in the half court, and then throw out an all-out aggressive press all-of-a-sudden. This would be especially effective with teams without competent pgs.

It won't work against the Nets.

 

[matt_whitlock]

Originally posted by Joe Mama
Remember when Sacramento did it against the Suns? That was probably the most disappointing game I have ever seen. I believe that one point the Phoenix Suns were up by 30 + points, and they ended up losing by 15 or 16. That was the night of Kevin Johnson's induction into the Ring of Honor. It's one thing to overcome a 29 point deficit. It's another thing to overcome an even bigger deficit and win the game by double digits. I feel sick even thinking about it.

Joe Mama

I still have that game on tape; right now the tape is about 15 feet from where I am sitting. I was watching it about a month ago, and we still had Jason Kidd, Mario Elie, Tony Delk, Cliff Robinson, Marion was a good shooter, and Tom Gugliota was coming off a game the night before where he had 25 points and 9 rebounds (this was after his knee injury as well). In the first half, the Suns really looked amazing, were really fun to watch.

As good as the Suns comeback was last night, it really doesn't compare to the Kings comeback that game. Or, I should probably say, as bad as the Celtic collapse was last night, it wasn't nearly as bad as the Suns collapse in that game. The Suns were up by 28 at halftime on national television and the Kings took the lead before the end of the 3rd quarter. For the Suns, it took them about 20 minutes to take the lead, but the Kings did it in 8 MINUTES!

The Kings were an extremely explosive team in those days though, even more than now because they had Jason Williams and Bobby Jackson splitting time at the point guard, two of the most streaky and explosive guards in the NBA at that time. Then, with Chris Webber in his prime, Peja Stojakavic having a break-out season, Doug Christie being as streaky as anybody else from long range, and a few energy guys coming off that bench, it's no surprise they made that sort of comeback in such a short time period. Nevertheless, what a collapse that was for the Phoenix Suns.

Not to stir up the Jason Kidd haters, but that was how it was with the Jason Kidd-led Phoenix Suns. That team let a lot of teams back into games after gaining large leads.

 

[matt_whitlock]

Originally posted by Chaplin
Ain't it an extremely rare thing?

Well, we've got JJ's "Good Game of the Month" for December--a whole 3 weeks until we get another one.

Actually, it JJ's good quarter of the month. In the first half, he was 1-8 from the field in typical Joe Johnson style, and his sole made field goal was a fastbreak layup.

 

[Joe Mama]

Originally posted by matt_whitlock
Not to stir up the Jason Kidd haters, but that was how it was with the Jason Kidd-led Phoenix Suns. That team let a lot of teams back into games after gaining large leads.

Exactly. I was one of the people they used to complain about Jason Kidd on a regular basis because while he was the best open court player in the NBA he was below average at creating offense in the half-court set. He's better in New Jersey because the offense and players around him fit him extremely well. They still struggle, however, when opponents sag off him in the half-court.

Looks like another slow start for the Phoenix Suns, down 0-6 to New Jersey.

Joe Mama