Charlotte @ Phoenix - Game Thread - March 7, 2007 - 7:00 pm

[mribnik]

And the Suns didn't have Amare for half the game.

I don't know about you, but I'm not going to use Amare missing half the game as an excuse why the Suns had to go to OT to beat the Okafor-less Bobcats. The Suns should kill that team by 20+ regardless.

 

[azirish]

I don't know about you, but I'm not going to use Amare missing half the game as an excuse why the Suns had to go to OT to beat the Okafor-less Bobcats. The Suns should kill that team by 20+ regardless.

Being without Amare meant the Suns relied almost entirely on outside shooting. This meant the Suns got only 6 offensive rebounds. At the same time, the Bobcats got 16 offensive rebounds as part of 13 rebound advantage.

This is almost inevitable when the Suns play ultra small. Marion had 11 rebounds, but Nash tied Amare in second for 6.

Marion 44.5 minutes 11 rebounds
Nash 41.6 minutes 6 rebounds
Bell 41.0 minutes 2 rebounds
Barbosa 42.3 minutes 3 rebounds
Jones 29.4 minutes 2 rebounds

Without Amare and limited minutes for KT and Diaw, the Suns usually were simply too small to rebound. The flip side is that this lineup hit 19 three pointers.

 

[mribnik]

Being without Amare meant the Suns relied almost entirely on outside shooting. This meant the Suns got only 6 offensive rebounds. At the same time, the Bobcats got 16 offensive rebounds as part of 13 rebound advantage.

This is almost inevitable when the Suns play ultra small. Marion had 11 rebounds, but Nash tied Amare in second for 6.

Marion 44.5 minutes 11 rebounds
Nash 41.6 minutes 6 rebounds
Bell 41.0 minutes 2 rebounds
Barbosa 42.3 minutes 3 rebounds
Jones 29.4 minutes 2 rebounds

Without Amare and limited minutes for KT and Diaw, the Suns usually were simply too small to rebound. The flip side is that this lineup hit 19 three pointers.

The Suns relied mostly on outside shooting the whole game. The Bobcats played a zone and they got killed for it. Their coaching staff admitted as such. Regardless, this team should be able to kill the Bobcats with or without Amare. They should definitely crush them when they don't have Okafor.

 

[mribnik]

On the other hand, as long as this team is winning without putting in any effort, they really shouldn't worry about minutes. So what if they played 40 minutes, they only put in about 10 minutes worth of effort in the first quarter and OT.