Come on, you all knew this was coming

[devilalum]

• The Suns were 10-10 over their last 20 games.
• They have no inside presence.
• The Suns only weapons are negated by the "Playoff Rules."
• The Suns don't have anybody that can run the 2 man game with Nash which was our bread and butter half court offence last year.

You can't win in the playoffs without a physical presence. We're all basing our expectations on the Suns team that won 54 games and earned the #2 seed. The truth is that without KT we're more like a 7 or 8 seed.

The Suns are not getting beat by an inferior team, they're fighting for their life against a bigger more physical team that is playing their best ball of the year.

Of course none of this explains why the Suns can't hit the same wide open looks they've been hitting all year?!?!

 

[Mike Olbinski]

• The Suns were 10-10 over their last 20 games.
• They have no inside presence.
• The Suns only weapons are negated by the "Playoff Rules."
• The Suns don't have anybody that can run the 2 man game with Nash which was our bread and butter half court offence last year.

You can't win in the playoffs without a physical presence. We're all basing our expectations on the Suns team that won 54 games and earned the #2 seed. The truth is that without KT we're more like a 7 or 8 seed.

The Suns are not getting beat by an inferior team, they're fighting for their life against a bigger more physical team that is playing their best ball of the year.

Of course none of this explains why the Suns can't hit the same wide open looks they've been hitting all year?!?!

Well, I agree with you here...

But if we made half the shots this game that we usually make, we'd have won it easily...

The last game maybe too...we just miss wide open looks. Why? Who knows...

But all of what you said is true...

 

[devilalum]

I was most dissapointed by Nash's shooting today. MVP's have to make wide open clutch shots. 9-22 and 3-8 from three just won't get it done.

 

[Sunshooter]

did D'Antoni know the problem? House is not a PURE 3 pointer and he has many scoring skills, he just only worth for 10 min?

 

[Chris_Sanders]

• The Suns were 10-10 over their last 20 games.
• They have no inside presence.
• The Suns only weapons are negated by the "Playoff Rules."
• The Suns don't have anybody that can run the 2 man game with Nash which was our bread and butter half court offence last year.

You can't win in the playoffs without a physical presence. We're all basing our expectations on the Suns team that won 54 games and earned the #2 seed. The truth is that without KT we're more like a 7 or 8 seed.

The Suns are not getting beat by an inferior team, they're fighting for their life against a bigger more physical team that is playing their best ball of the year.

Of course none of this explains why the Suns can't hit the same wide open looks they've been hitting all year?!?!

One thing that does help sooth the wounds of a bitter loss is the knowledge that without Amare or Kurt Thomas, we weren't in a position to win it all this year anyway.

Even by a miracle if we made it to the finals, the Pistons would have done this to us, but worse.

Hopefully Amare gets better over the summer.

 

[hsandhu]

I was most dissapointed by Nash's shooting today. MVP's have to make wide open clutch shots. 9-22 and 3-8 from three just won't get it done.

Read marc stein, nash's back was bothering him. It's been bothering him for a while, the reason for his dip in play.
He's not gonna come out and make excuses, but he's hurting.
If it's over soon, let's get ready for nov, get our guys healthy, and make a real run.

 

[Chaplin]

What's most disappointing is that the strides that the Suns have made to improve the quality of the game will probably be erased by a first round exit. People will begin to doubt D'Antoni's penchant for running, and we will return to the type of basketball that has been winning championships for so long--boring. It will be quite a shame that the product won't improve in that case.

 

[Mike Olbinski]

What's most disappointing is that the strides that the Suns have made to improve the quality of the game will probably be erased by a first round exit. People will begin to doubt D'Antoni's penchant for running, and we will return to the type of basketball that has been winning championships for so long--boring. It will be quite a shame that the product won't improve in that case.

Let them all return to the old style...we'll wipe them all again next season

 

[elindholm]

Well obviously we didn't "all" know this was coming, since some on this board were crowing about a Suns sweep and the vast majority predicted at least a series victory.

Almost all of us were wrong. Time to face the music.

 

[devilalum]

What's most disappointing is that the strides that the Suns have made to improve the quality of the game will probably be erased by a first round exit. People will begin to doubt D'Antoni's penchant for running, and we will return to the type of basketball that has been winning championships for so long--boring. It will be quite a shame that the product won't improve in that case.

That all depends on Amare.

When Amare was healthy last year the Suns had it both ways. Teams had to choose their poison, run with the Suns or deal with the unstoppable Nash/Amare 2 man game.

 

[devilalum]

Well obviously we didn't "all" know this was coming, since some on this board were crowing about a Suns sweep and the vast majority predicted at least a series victory.

Almost all of us were wrong. Time to face the music.

I meant it more like "We SHOULD HAVE all seen this coming."
I for one had the homer blinders on in spite of watching every game, seeing the Suns slide, talking about the defensive slide on a daily basis and being totally figured out by bad teams.

 

[elindholm]

Well I guess I still have the homer blinders on, because I believe the Suns are the superior team. They'll lose the series, but I think they are the better team. They should have won today and would have been able to take two of the next three.

Mind you, I have no illusions about the championship potential of the current (healthy) squad -- it's zero, and it has been zero all along. But the Suns are down 3-1 in this series because

* Marion didn't show up until halfway through Game 4
* The Laker role players have all gotten hot at the same time
* The Suns can't get a critical call when they most need it

None of those take away from the Laker victory (not even the last one), but I will always consider this an upset. And an "upset" doesn't mean that the winner is the lower seed or the team different from what the media pundits predicted. An upset means the weaker team won. Restart this series 0-0, and the Suns would win -- even Laker fans know that.

 

[jibikao]

No, I don't know this is coming. I expected Suns to pass 1st round.

I tell you why I don't see this coming even though we didn't play well after Kurt Thomas got injured. If we truly think we are not ready to compete without Amare and KT, then why did we even bother to get Tim Thomas? We can easily tank a few more games and end up being a lottery team.

When we made the committment to compete, we have to show it. So far, Laker shows more hunger than us and I am disappointed in that.

It's not a coincidence that all Laker role players step up. Our competitiveness is just not there. Our bench players look like last year's bench players. Besides game 1, the production is very inconsistent. Just watch those Laker bench players come in and make 3pt shots like they knew they were going in. How come we haven't seen that in our bench players, mainly House, Barbosa and James Jones. Are they not getting open shots at all or they are not confident in their shots?

 

[jibikao]

Now it's more than an upset. It's embarrasement that Suns fans need to go through. I just went to other popular forums. Oh baby. You do not want to go there. We are Kobe's bitch now. lol

 

[devilalum]

Well I guess I still have the homer blinders on, because I believe the Suns are the superior team. They'll lose the series, but I think they are the better team. They should have won today and would have been able to take two of the next three.

Mind you, I have no illusions about the championship potential of the current (healthy) squad -- it's zero, and it has been zero all along. But the Suns are down 3-1 in this series because

* Marion didn't show up until halfway through Game 4
* The Laker role players have all gotten hot at the same time
* The Suns can't get a critical call when they most need it

None of those take away from the Laker victory (not even the last one), but I will always consider this an upset. And an "upset" doesn't mean that the winner is the lower seed or the team different from what the media pundits predicted. An upset means the weaker team won. Restart this series 0-0, and the Suns would win -- even Laker fans know that.

No way, there are too many things wrong with this team right now.

So your point is that if we played better and they played worse then we would be the better team?

 

[devilalum]

When was the last time the Suns were down in a playoff series to the Lakers and needed to win 3 in a row?

We need Paul Westphal!

 

[elindholm]

So your point is that if we played better and they played worse then we would be the better team?

No, my point is that sometimes the better team chokes and doesn't win games they should.

 

[nash4mvp]

• The Suns were 10-10 over their last 20 games.
• They have no inside presence.
• The Suns only weapons are negated by the "Playoff Rules."
• The Suns don't have anybody that can run the 2 man game with Nash which was our bread and butter half court offence last year.

You can't win in the playoffs without a physical presence. We're all basing our expectations on the Suns team that won 54 games and earned the #2 seed. The truth is that without KT we're more like a 7 or 8 seed.

The Suns are not getting beat by an inferior team, they're fighting for their life against a bigger more physical team that is playing their best ball of the year.

Of course none of this explains why the Suns can't hit the same wide open looks they've been hitting all year?!?!

give me a greak. We run and gun. No one can beat that.

 

[justAndy]

why would i bother going to "popular" boards to read posts by smug preppy Laker fans?
"Hey - I got a wing thingee for my Honda. Racing pedals and a leather steering wheel. BTW - I love Star Wars."

 

[Djaughe]

I think the most surprising stat. from the game was the one in which the sun's are like 0-9 in games under 2 minutes with the margin being 3 points or less (or something like that)...that is unreal.