Magic at Suns 9:00ET FSN AZ

[cly2tw]

I'm as excited about him as the next guy, but let's be real, our defense is so bad that even getting our step back on offense isn't going to be enough to get us where we want to be.

The funny thing is, despite JRich having a rep for not being a good defender, his defense was much better tonight even with a couple lapses than what we've seen from Bell just because Raja has declined so much. He and especially Hill were all over Turkoglu tonight.

In the fourth quarter, Magic had a winning formula to come back into the game: attacking Nash. This will remain our big problem and dilemma. With a big lead, we should have played valuing possessions and strengthened defense by giving Nash a longer rest.

 

[AceP]

I'm as excited about him as the next guy, but let's be real, our defense is so bad that even getting our step back on offense isn't going to be enough to get us where we want to be.

The funny thing is, despite JRich having a rep for not being a good defender, his defense was much better tonight even with a couple lapses than what we've seen from Bell just because Raja has declined so much. He and especially Hill were all over Turkoglu tonight.

It takes time and hardworking from everyone in the team to get an overall good team defence. Be patient. Kerr and Porter knows it clearly and they will drive the team to that direction. There is no way we r going backward. NO WAY.

 

[Sovereignz]

It takes time and hardworking from everyone in the team to get an overall good team defence. Be patient. Kerr and Porter knows it clearly and they will drive the team to that direction. There is no way we r going backward. NO WAY.

I would expect improvement if we had good defensive players, but all of our stars have glaring weaknesses defensively. And we can't cover it with our zone because our zone is horrrrrrrrrrrrible.

 

[D-Dogg]

OT:

Donald, what happened to this all-conquering Laker defense from earlier in the year?

Do you think it's obtainable again, or was it just guys playing at a level well above themselves?

It's easily obtainable, but they are a bunch of soft ******* who think the trophy will be handed to them for showing up. I've been on record with this for a couple of weeks now.

They are team dimmerswitch right now. It's atrocious to watch. I've never been so mad at a Laker team that is this good. They are paper tigers.

 

[SirStefan32]

And he didn't play nearly as well as he can play and he scored 21 points. Also I really like how he can penetrate. IMO, the Suns will soon be putting him at the top of the key to take the last shot of quarters and games. He will become lethal there because the defenses will not know what to do with him.

And that is the difference between a one-dimensional player and a great scorer. All Bell can do is stand at the 3 point line and wait for the basketball. If he is not getting them or if he is having a bad shooting night- he is useless.

A great scorer like Richardson cuts to the hoop, takes some mid-range jumpers, and posts up when he is having an off night, and still gets his points. He can score any way he wants from anywhere he wants.

If suns can get a back-up point who is semi-serviceable, this team can be dangerous. You have Shaq and Amare on the inside, then you have Hill, Nash and Richardson on the outside, and you have Barbosa and Barnes off the bench. Suns just may have one of the best rotations on SG/SF positions in the league, and definitely have the best starting front court in the league.
Still no back-up for Nash, and a bit thin up front in the 2nd unit, but still- a damn good team.

 

[95pro]

In the fourth quarter, Magic had a winning formula to come back into the game: attacking Nash. This will remain our big problem and dilemma. With a big lead, we should have played valuing possessions and strengthened defense by giving Nash a longer rest.

sadly i agree. i noticed that too. nash is kind of the odd man out, where he's the only one that'll get beat almost every time on the defensive end.

 

[Sovereignz]

sadly i agree. i noticed that too. nash is kind of the odd man out, where he's the only one that'll get beat almost every time on the defensive end.

Nash is a horrid one on one defender, but it's not fair to single him out as the biggest detractor of our defense. I remember last year Leandro's defense was so bad that we actually gave up 5 more points per 100 possessions with him in the game than Nash, which is mind boggling since a lot of his minutes get logged against other team's second units.

And when Nash gets beat we need to have better help. I really can't count how many times over the last few years that Amare has been unable to give the proper help defense because of foul trouble. If he would get better at establishing defensive position EARLY in the possession he wouldn't get caught in so many bad positions and pick up stupid fouls, then have to watch other guys do a layup drill because he can't afford to pick up another foul.

Amare's 1 on 1 D is really underrated when he's in good position, but he's out of position so much it just doesn't matter. Between that, his poor help D, Shaq's completely abusable pick and roll D, and Nash.. that's just a terrible combination to have from your stars when defense is MORE than half the game in playoff basketball.

I wish we could just have 5 Grant Hill's of varying height on defense.

 

[Chaplin]

I would expect improvement if we had good defensive players, but all of our stars have glaring weaknesses defensively. And we can't cover it with our zone because our zone is horrrrrrrrrrrrible.

It worked pretty well in the 2nd quarter.

 

[nashman]

Be patient this team is going to learn to play D before the playoffs we have a long time and lots of games to win. So excited to have a 2 gaurd that can go off! This team is going to be able to score in bunches on ANY team!

 

[Sovereignz]

It worked pretty well in the 2nd quarter.

Well, you can get away with it against some teams for a little while, but it's not a solution to our defensive problems. Against the Lakers, they struggled against it with Gasol out, but as soon he was back in they just shredded it to pieces.

 

[Chaplin]

Well, you can get away with it against some teams for a little while, but it's not a solution to our defensive problems. Against the Lakers, they struggled against it with Gasol out, but as soon he was back in they just shredded it to pieces.

No team's defense is going to be absolutely perfect. Even Detroit's defense wasn't 100% effective, and nobody is asking the Suns to become the Pistons. Some teams might be able to shoot themselves through the zone, but some, like the Magic tonight, are not able to solve it. It depends on the situation. But to totally discount it is certainly not going to help anyone.

 

[mojorizen7]

Bummed i missed this one.

 

[Sovereignz]

No team's defense is going to be absolutely perfect. Even Detroit's defense wasn't 100% effective, and nobody is asking the Suns to become the Pistons. Some teams might be able to shoot themselves through the zone, but some, like the Magic tonight, are not able to solve it. It depends on the situation. But to totally discount it is certainly not going to help anyone.

The Magic had a really bad 3rd quarter, lost their superstar who is maybe the 2nd or 3rd most impacting guy in the league at this point, and they still scored 112 points and buried 13 threes. And our zone has been easily picked apart the entire year, save a couple of good stretches here and there. There's not much reason at all to be optimstic about our defense in my opinion.

 

[slinslin]

Howard had a +/- of -15, seems like they were much better off without him.

 

[YouJustGotSUNSD]

Thoughts on the game:

• I love how Lopez's defense went from embarrassing to "wow not bad" in front of my eyes. He was giving Howard fits for the greater part of the 2nd quarter. I hope to see much more.
• Amare looked and played like the third option on offense tonight. And this is with Shaq not even playing. I see storm clouds ahead.
• Not too shabby for your first game JRich. He showed us a little bit of everything which made me forget the ugly start very quickly.
• I love watching Barnes play. He will definitely get paid next season (prob not from us).
• Nash had a spark in his step and his shot was landing great in the first half.
• Barbosa continues to show he is getting back into the swing of things. I am optimistic that he will be playing tip top this postseason.
• I love watching Amudson play. His hustle and focus on defense is very entertaining. His offense is spotty but he is getting more confident.
• I wish wish wish we had Dwight Howard on our team.
• Totally ready to watch the New York game.

 

[cly2tw]

Thoughts on the game:

• Amare looked and played like the third option on offense tonight. And this
• Barbosa continues to show he is getting back into the swing of things. I am optimistic that he will be playing tip top this postseason.
  

Amare has been passing around very well to start successful scoring sequences. The only problem I saw in this game was that the team again ignored him for long stretches late in the 4th, everybody trying to create something yet most of them futile that led to Magic's coming back to take the lead till last seconds.

With that comfortable lead of 7-10pts, we should learn to value the possessions carefully, at least not giving them easy fastbreak chances to get back into the game. Yet, under DA, we always used to want to run even faster in hope to KO the opponents, which is an unnecessary risk we shall learn not to take.

LB seems to be a good learner given a true teacher. His trademark boneheaded dribble-drives were reduced a great deal in the last couple of games. And he finally manage to be able to stay in front of his man most of the time, not buying the trivial head fakes anymore. Very encouraging.

 

[DeAnna]

Nash is a horrid one on one defender, but it's not fair to single him out as the biggest detractor of our defense. I remember last year Leandro's defense was so bad that we actually gave up 5 more points per 100 possessions with him in the game than Nash, which is mind boggling since a lot of his minutes get logged against other team's second units.

And when Nash gets beat we need to have better help. I really can't count how many times over the last few years that Amare has been unable to give the proper help defense because of foul trouble. If he would get better at establishing defensive position EARLY in the possession he wouldn't get caught in so many bad positions and pick up stupid fouls, then have to watch other guys do a layup drill because he can't afford to pick up another foul.

Amare's 1 on 1 D is really underrated when he's in good position, but he's out of position so much it just doesn't matter. Between that, his poor help D, Shaq's completely abusable pick and roll D, and Nash.. that's just a terrible combination to have from your stars when defense is MORE than half the game in playoff basketball.

I wish we could just have 5 Grant Hill's of varying height on defense.

And Nash admits it. Post game interview he said "well, we will never be a great defensive team but we make up for it with energy and smarts."

 

[DeAnna]

Robin - 1 rebound in 20 minutes?? At least he took down DHoward so that he wouldn't come back.

Amare didn't get very many touches in the 4th qtr - what was up with that? His high post passing was reminiscent of Boris'

JRich took 16 shots in only 20 minutes. When Shaq returns it will be interesting to see the touches everyone gets.

Grant Hill worked his butt off on defense all night. He deserved to take the winning shot.

 

[Chaplin]

Robin - 1 rebound in 20 minutes?? At least he took down DHoward so that he wouldn't come back.

Amare didn't get very many touches in the 4th qtr - what was up with that? His high post passing was reminiscent of Boris'

JRich took 16 shots in only 20 minutes. When Shaq returns it will be interesting to see the touches everyone gets.

Grant Hill worked his butt off on defense all night. He deserved to take the winning shot.

You have to be fair to Robin. He did a great job staying on Dwight Howard the whole time--I don't remember a single time when he left him. As for the rebounds--he's not going to get many with Dwight Howard around, so 1 rebound isn't really that surprising. What was surprising to me was that he pretty much stayed out of foul trouble against him.

 

[cly2tw]

Amare didn't get very many touches in the 4th qtr - what was up with that? His high post passing was reminiscent of Boris'

.

Glad you noticed that too. It's typical DA's type of trying to "gain with chaos", even though it's late in the 4th with a comfy lead of 7-10pts. A lot of individual dribbles and sidewards passes without true space gain, and forgetting Amare in the process. Porter woudn't want to call timeout sooner after repeated failures this way, probably because he got burned earlier in the season with his "micro management" that turned Bell and Nash against him. Well, this one was close this time!

 

[Mainstreet]

I thought the Suns played some good defense in the second and third quarters. They clearly ran out of gas in the 4th quarter. I thought the Suns could have benefited by playing Lopez later in the game when Orlando started coming back. I'm with Chaplin, I think Lopez did well to stay out of foul trouble playing against Howard.

 

[LV-Suns]

JRich took 16 shots in only 20 minutes. When Shaq returns it will be interesting to see the touches everyone gets.

He played 33 mins.

 

[Andrew]

Is this the correct lineup with these guys out there?

1 Nash
2 Barbosa
3 Richardson
4 Barnes
5 Stoudemire

?

 

[YouJustGotSUNSD]

An odd lineup, but yes.

 

[Errntknght]

I have to admit it turned my stomach to see that Lopez only got 1 rebound but he wasn't a total loss as he kept Howard off the offensive boards fairly well and defended him better than I expected him to.

I have to agree that Barbs offensive play has picked up - he's actually pulling up for mid range shots with increasing frequency. Once it even looked like thats what he planned to do!