Clippers Game Thread

[Evil Ash]

Because thats when D'Antoni always rests Nash. He should try resting Nash mid quarter more.

Thats at the end of the 1st and 3rd. At the end of the half he was still in and it did nothing to stop the Clippers

 

[hsandhu]

The thing that pisses me off is the same old "well they just shot really well tonight" stuff we'll hear from d'antoni and everyone else. Isn't it more than a coincidence that every team, from orlando to san antonio, shoots lights out against the suns?

I'm so depressed by this team right now. 4 weeks ago we're on an 11 game win streak, looking like we're getting a lot of players back, and steve nash absolutely has the MVP locked up.
Now we're playing terrible, don't seem to be getting any healthier, and steve nash has lost the mvp.

 

[jibikao]

We have nobody who can draw fouls....

Diaw passes out again when he could have jumped up and possibly drawn a foul. Come on, we are not hitting our shots. You can do it!

 

[jibikao]

The thing that pisses me off is the same old "well they just shot really well tonight" stuff we'll hear from d'antoni and everyone else. Isn't it more than a coincidence that every team, from orlando to san antonio, shoots lights out against the suns?

I'm so depressed by this team right now. 4 weeks ago we're on an 11 game win streak, looking like we're getting a lot of players back, and steve nash absolutely has the MVP locked up.
Now we're playing terrible, don't seem to be getting any healthier, and steve nash has lost the mvp.

Probably but our core problem isn't offense. It's our inside presence. We have NONE. I am sorry but Tim Thomas is absolutely useless tonight and I wonder why we haven't seen Grant once?

 

[Absolute Zero]

Lead cut to 12, anyone believe in miracles here?

 

[Absolute Zero]

Nevermind.

 

[mribnik]

We better hear a good excuse for Brian Grant not playing, especially after him getting 20 minutes the other night. I don't see how playing Burke could've hurt us either. I'm not impressed with D'Antoni lately.

 

[jibikao]

Lead cut to 12, anyone believe in miracles here?

No. And I think the lead is more than 12 now.

 

[jibikao]

We better hear a good excuse for Brian Grant not playing, especially after him getting 20 minutes the other night. I don't see how playing Burke could've hurt us either. I'm not impressed with D'Antoni lately.

Exactly. I've said it so many times D'Antoni needs to train one of our bigs to defend inside. Either Grant or Burke. Whoever! Both of them have zero playing time now and it's not like Tim Thomas is helping tonight.

 

[Absolute Zero]

Someone Said Grant twisted his ankle. There were a few excuses floated this morning the the Az Repub, including someone with flu symptoms.

Suns want to minimize distractions in stretch

Norm Frauenheim
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 5, 2006 12:00 AM
[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]
A playoff spot is assured, but not much else is for the Suns, who could count on only nine players for practice Tuesday.

Guard Leandro Barbosa was home with the flu. Forward Tim Thomas was suffering from pain in a knee. Forward Brian Grant hurt an ankle.

"Brian did it at home, trying to make a move around his 10-year-old kid," Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said
[/FONT]

 

[arthurracoon]

We better hear a good excuse for Brian Grant not playing, especially after him getting 20 minutes the other night. I don't see how playing Burke could've hurt us either. I'm not impressed with D'Antoni lately.

I thought he had a hurt ankle.

 

[damo]

4 clippers with double doubles, and kaman one rebound short of it. this team is dead in the playoffs without kurt thomas, he should be getting some mvp nominations the way they play without him.

 

[jibikao]

Sigh.. I was expecting a blowout win tonight.

The thing I can't understand is we usually shoot so well in the 1st quarter and then all of sudden EVERYBODY goes cold in late 2nd quarter and 3rd quarter. And once our shots don't go in, we totally fall apart.

I didn't tape the game but what did the opponent do to shut down our offense? Did we just miss them or what? Nash's passing got interrupted so many times when he did that pass at the baseline. That's usually his bread and butter. Was the guy's hand that long?

Do you think every team has figured us out?

The only cure I can see (especially in playoffs) is for Nash to turn into scorer forcing the team to double team him. Nash's offense hasn't looked all that good recently. Now the defense just waits for him to cut and dish out and our shooters panic when they are not open and nobody go inside. Marion doesn't go inside enough and the only time he really goes inside is to cut in when Nash drives.

Defensively, we are helping way too much. Personally, I don't mind letting their big guys scoring big but we have to stop double teaming that much. This is not helping and it tires us out. And I have not seen ANY HARD FOUL tonight. None. Why? Because Grant/Burke did not play and Diaw didn't want to use his fouls. That's where our big weakness is because either D'Antoni told Diaw not to get into foul trouble or Diaw is saving his playing time. When we had that 11 winning streak, we had Kurt Thomas who is not shy about giving fouls. Opponent big guys need to earn their shots at the foul line. We don't have that. Marion is saving his fouls too but for obvious reasons.

I am not liking D'Antoni's defense philosophy now. We are playing way too soft.

PS: Bell needs to drive inside more. His shooting is too inconsistent and he gets really upset when he doesn't hit anything. It really shows. When the team rotates the ball to him, he can easily make a pump fake and go inside to do a little jumper. It does not have to be a 3pt.

 

[jibikao]

4 clippers with double doubles, and kaman one rebound short of it. this team is dead in the playoffs without kurt thomas, he should be getting some mvp nominations the way they play without him.

I think it's more because D'Antoni doesn't make good adjustments. Yes, Diaw is providing offense but he doesn't give hard fouls enough and obviously he has his limitations for being a skinny 6'8. Grant is back and Burke hasn't been injured. Kurt Thomas's job isn't that hard to do. Play physical and give hard fouls. KT's offense wasn't really part of the big picture anyway. Tonight Grant and Burke did not play at all. Ok, maybe Grant was injured but he did wear jersery that means he "could" go. Throw him in for 1-2mins and see how he responds.

 

[Folster]

The Suns are imploding.

Here is my take.

The Suns were playing their hearts out all year long. They were overachieving with their sights set on Amare coming back to take a shot at a title. Amare not coming back coupled with KT going down let the wind out of their sails.

With the championship out of reach the Suns are going to have to find something to play for. Pride?

 

[jibikao]

Hopefully this embarrasing loss can light up the team and D'Antoni better makes adjustment. This is not working.

 

[cly2tw]

They played tighter defense which you should expect in the playoff all the time. But we also missed many open shots. Maybe fatigue and lack of motivation?

Brand carried them on offense. He is closing in on Barkley and Malone in their prime, the way he plays. Grant wouldn't have helped much even if healthy.

 

[justAndy]

hahahahaha
the preppies have priced the REAL Suns fans out of the Arena.
Now i sit and watch the 3rd and 4th quarters after band practice and don't have an opportunity to ride these millionaires at the game.
If my bands played this bad we wouldn't get paid OR invited back for another gig.
Fan since '75

 

[jibikao]

They played tighter defense which you should expect in the playoff all the time. But we also missed many open shots. Maybe fatigue and lack of motivation?

Brand carried them on offense. He is closing in on Barkley and Malone in their prime, the way he plays. Grant wouldn't have helped much even if healthy.

The way I see it is if we don't try, we don't know. Tim Thomas sure didn't stop a thing and we didn't give Brand any hard fouls at all.

 

[jibikao]

Well, last post before I sleep....

I am not sure how many of you have noticed but how many times did Nash do pick&roll with Diaw/Marion? I can count... NONE. Once Nash passed to Marion inside but he missed. Did the opponent suddenly knows how to defend that killer p&r or we did not run it right?

I know this may sound very negative but I think Diaw's becoming of a play-maker is pulling down the team. I can see why Nash wants to point out in the interview because it is showing it. Nash IS the play-maker on this team. I can count at least 3-4 times when Nash did the pick&roll with Diaw, Diaw actuallyed popped OUT instead of going in. There was no passing angle to begin with and it is clear that Diaw wants to be the play maker. While this is good (when we hit our shots), we draw almost NO FOULS. Besides Diaw/Marion, who else can draw fouls? Diaw CAN go inside if he wants to. We've seen it in him. I know it's probably too late to ask him to adjust but right now we have two play makers and the roles are a bit blur.

Nash's most assists come from outside shots..mainly from Bell but he is not consistent enough. Bell can hit 3/3 and miss 11 in a row for no reasons. I don't believe it's fatigue but one thing we have to know is that Bell was enver known as an offense machine: we are turning him into one and it may take time. I know Bell being an offense machine was never the plan (Amare should be) but I can't see any other solutions. We need to find a way to draw fouls and Diaw is the best answer.

I'll watch on Friday against the Lakers. We can't lose that one. I'll see if what I said is correct. Hopefully we can see more adjustments by that time both defensively and offensively.

 

[CaptainInsano]

Long post incoming:

Looks like the playoffs are going to be an ugly thing. Our team really is imploding. With all the injurys and inconsistent play from most of our crew, along with our horrible rebounding we are in serious trouble. Then tack on that Amare is out period, and then our players are also playing underpar..

This is the exact opposite way to be playing heading into the playoffs. We were unable to get any real consistancy from people because of the injuries, and then Amare came in and went out in a flash. Everything is messed up right now..

We have BIG weaknesses, and in the playoffs that hurts. No team should consistantly lose games when they have 15+ point leads, no team looking to make a mark in the playoffs should be last in the league in rebounds, no team should have players that constantly go one game of 15+ points and/or 6-9 boards and then next game of 3-4 points and/or 2-3 boards, no team should be near incapable of winning close games. These are really going to hurt us..

If I could make some decisions for the team right now it would be ugly; Jones, House, Tim, Grant, and Kurt would all be out for maybe a good pick or two if we could get some things so we can get a great shooter from the draft and/or maybe a good big to develop. No more old injury prone centers at the end of their careers please... That is costing us and obviously not working.

Grant is doing horrible in my opinion, Kurt is old and got injured at a horrible time, and his injury sounds like something that will get worse which will really bite us in the ass next year. Jones/House/Tim are horribly inconsistent and have varying shortfalls (one big one is bad rebouding for height from lack of aggressiveness) that are costing the team. I would keep Bell only because he has good defense.

I mean look at what we need: Better consistent shooters if they get all these open looks why the hell can't they hit at a great percentage, a better agressive slasher, rebouding, an inside offensive presence that DUNKS, some other guys that can play consistent defense so that we are not the worst defensive team in the league. Yes I just did say that. We are the WORST. Teams at the caliber of the bucks are constantly shooting the lights out on us, the bucks shot a RECORD threes, and other teams shot 50-60%+. I mean @#$%! tony parker shot the lights out against us from outside!! After this outside shooting disaster happend about the 15th time it wasn't just teams randomly starting on fire against us anymore. Just imagine what Big Shot Bob Robert Horry is going to do to us this playoffs, he lives for that wide-open pressure 3 point shot in the playoffs.

I would trade all of those players for 2 consistent or promising upcoming players so that when amare came back we would be 8 players deep with consistency or possibilities instead of 11 players with most of them injured or on/off on different nights.

Amare now is not going to be able to come back and solve all our problems like we thought after what we have seen of him this year. We need to start building towards the possibiltiy that Amare WON'T bring a bunch of our weaknesses off the table. He will definately help but if we just sit back, watch these disasters constantly happen, and expect Amare to fix all of this going into next year then we are screwed. Especially if he comes back and is 80% of his old self.

 

[boisesuns]

 

[elindholm]

Grant is doing horrible in my opinion, Kurt is old and got injured at a horrible time, and his injury sounds like something that will get worse which will really bite us in the ass next year. Jones/House/Tim are horribly inconsistent and have varying shortfalls (one big one is bad rebouding for height from lack of aggressiveness) that are costing the team. I would keep Bell only because he has good defense.

I don't think you're giving Kurt Thomas enough credit. Why does his injury figure to get worse? Stress fractures aren't all that uncommon. Thomas helped the Suns' defense a lot and I think he'll be just as effective for the next year or two. He'll be 34 at the start of next season, which isn't all that old for someone who is historically healthy and fit and doesn't rely on a lot of jumping.

The Suns need a backup PG. Not having one has forced House into the rotation, which is a mistake. Grant was never going to contribute anything anyway, except for a good locker-room presence and the proverbial six fouls. Tim Thomas will sign somewhere else this summer. Jones may be wearing down, having not played anywhere near this many minutes in a season before. I think there's still hope for him.

The Suns don't have many tradeable assets. They won't get a better center than Kurt Thomas for his price. They can't afford to trade Nash or, most likely, Marion. Even if they felt like trading Stoudemire (which they surely don't), no one would give equal value for him.

Bell is having a career year (in spite of his struggles last night). If the Suns wanted to trade him, they could, but I'd rather see him stay. No one will give up much of value for Diaw, because his success is seen as a product of the Suns' system. That leaves Barbosa. Trading him has been suggested on and off on this board for years, and it remains a possibility, but he's not the kind of player who's going to fetch major help.

If the Suns want to make a significant trade, it pretty much has to be Bell and the higher Atlanta pick. It would be a shame to see either of them go, and my guess is that D'Antoni will try to get a better handle on Stoudemire's situation -- which will take most of next season, if not longer -- before doing something major.

 

[golfcardfan]

WOW some people can't get off board with this team fast enough!! Well good riddance you bunch of babys! Maybe just maybe this team will still be pretty good come playoff time. Maybe Dantoni is smarter than a few message board posters and has a plan or is resting some of the rotation for the playoffs for the final week. Or maybe don't want any of the few bigger guys we have to get hurt in the final meaningless week of regular season? I mean we have no idea what is going on? Last nights game kinda sucked buy we had to expect they were gonna bring it after we drilled them last time, right? Not to mention everytime they scored they got phantom fouls also seemed like every shot was a +1, and the refs sure let them bang us around with no calls all night. Oh well just a loss move on and get ready for the playoffs this last week does not mean that much to us, just need to win a few to lock up the 2 seed and then sit all the starters don't even risk an injury.

 

[elindholm]

Last nights game kinda sucked buy we had to expect they were gonna bring it after we drilled them last time, right?

Every team is going to turn up its intensity in the playoffs.

Not to mention everytime they scored they got phantom fouls also seemed like every shot was a +1, and the refs sure let them bang us around with no calls all night.

Get used to it. This board sounds the same complaint after every loss.

My post was just explaning why a "throw the bums out" trade is unlikely.