Pacers at Suns Game Thread 9:00ET FSN AZ

[JS22]

To bad Porter can't draw up a play to score at the other end and it may have been a different result. He has shown so far his defense is just as bad as Dantonis' AND his offense is no where nere as good. Gotta stop losing games like this especially after we fought back from being way down to take the lead, we used to win games like this. Just not real happy with what Porter has been able to do with this team so far seems like we are regressing.

You do realize Porter has drawn up 2 successful plays with under 5 seconds, right? Once against SA, and I can't remember the other opponent.

Does anyone ever consider the fact that maybe the PLAYERS screw up their assignments from time to time? It's always the coaches fault. But I guess the Suns should just fire Porter and move on, right? Let's keep firing coaches 30 games into the season. Who cares about consistency?

 

[nowagimp]

You do realize Porter has drawn up 2 successful plays with under 5 seconds, right? Once against SA, and I can't remember the other opponent.

Yeap, the other was against the magic, and they were the exact same play with hill inbounding and flashing to the hoop. I suspect that the pacers were aware of that play if they studied any film at all.

 

[Suns_fan69]

Yeah but still just assign nash to rasho or some other big who cant shoot from 3 and all is well. The pacers wanted granger and thats exactly what they got in 0.9 sec. That is not about nash, granger should have been swarmed and let someone else shoot. Granger and murphy were the only guys on the floor who were real threats from 3.

I agree that Granger should have been swarmed, no question. But who would you rather have with that responsibility, Nash or Barnes?

Also, the other threat with .9 is a lob at the hoop and again, who would you rather have, Nash or Barnes?

I just don't see any reason to have your worst defender out on the floor with that amount of time left, no matter what the defensive gameplan is.

 

[Bayless2Budinger]

Yeah but still just assign nash to rasho or some other big who cant shoot from 3 and all is well. The pacers wanted granger and thats exactly what they got in 0.9 sec. That is not about nash, granger should have been swarmed and let someone else shoot. Granger and murphy were the only guys on the floor who were real threats from 3.

You can not assign Nash to a 7 footer.

All they would have to do is lob him the ball and he would be getting a wide open look at the basket. There is no excuse for him being in the game. With .9 seconds left we dont have to worry about our team being too slow to defend a drive. All we have to do is use length to bother the shooter.

 

[mojorizen7]

Porter blew it, he knows it. Watching his postgame press conference i kept thinking about all those Southwest Airline commercials for some reason.
He's a relitively inexperienced HC, so we'll see if he can grow from these mistakes.
I am however losing some confidence in him in terms of team preparation & his ability to put his players in position to execute consistently. It's still early but the excuses for this teams defensive lapses are running out IMO. Still too much confusion going on out there at times....on both ends.

 

[Andrew]

I had to watch the Kings game from Nov. 14th to kinda make me feel better. You know the one where Amare hits the game winner and his defense wins the game?

How come they couldn't do that this time? Sure that was before the trade, but I think we are better now and the Pacers are certainly better than the Kings. But if you can get 2 defensive stops in 4 seconds, surely you could get one in .9 seconds.

 

[SirStefan32]

You do realize Porter has drawn up 2 successful plays with under 5 seconds, right? Once against SA, and I can't remember the other opponent.

Does anyone ever consider the fact that maybe the PLAYERS screw up their assignments from time to time? It's always the coaches fault. But I guess the Suns should just fire Porter and move on, right? Let's keep firing coaches 30 games into the season. Who cares about consistency?

Additionally, Porter was screaming for a timeout once JRich got the rebound. I think it's fair to blame Porter for what happened on the other end, as there was no reason for Nash to be out there. However, blaming him for a terrible Amare shot and JRich not calling a timeout is not fair.

 

[Andrew]

If we miss the playoffs by one game then I will bump this thread and curse out the stupid mistake we did to cost us this game.

But I doubt it will come down to it. Do like the players do, mentally move ahead to the next game. Dwelling on what could have been is only going to dredge up hatred and disappointment.

Sad thing is, I feel obligated to rewatch this game because I missed bits and pieces when it was live and I won't even flinch when we lose in a heart breaking fashion, because I will accept it. I will calmly look to dissect that last play.

 

[Mainstreet]

But I doubt it will come down to it. Do like the players do, mentally move ahead to the next game. Dwelling on what could have been is only going to dredge up hatred and disappointment.

I'm not so sure players always move ahead mentally. I believe last year's Suns carried baggage into the playoffs with SA last season. I think that first game they lost to SA brought back a history of failures with that team. Also the Suns were aware they were not able to make critical stops in games throughout the season.

I fear the Suns are learning how to lose close games again this season and this can mess with your psyche especially since the Suns defense appears even worse this season than last season, except for some Shaq moments.

Once a team starts to believe they are going to lose close games it often becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. I wonder if the Suns will carry a hangover when they play Dallas. I would have to think so.

 

[Andrew]

Keep in mind a loss like this hurts for the players, but then again you know they are just thinking it's one loss and won't be thinking about it a few games from now at least.

 

[Bayless2Budinger]

Additionally, Porter was screaming for a timeout once JRich got the rebound. I think it's fair to blame Porter for what happened on the other end, as there was no reason for Nash to be out there. However, blaming him for a terrible Amare shot and JRich not calling a timeout is not fair.

Tell me what else Amare could have done in that situation. He gets the ball with 2-3 seconds left in the shot clock thanks to Nash running around and slipping like he does in the last minutes of every game. He cant drive it with all the Pacers crowding the lane. He cant pass it that late in the shot clock. He had to shoot.

 

[mojorizen7]

I'm not so sure players always move ahead mentally. I believe last year's Suns carried baggage into the playoffs with SA last season. I think that first game they lost to SA brought back a history of failures with that team. Also the Suns were aware they were not able to make critical stops in games throughout the season.

I fear the Suns are learning how to lose close games again this season and this can mess with your psyche especially since the Suns defense appears even worse this season than last season, except for some Shaq moments.

Once a team starts to believe they are going to lose close games it often becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. I wonder if the Suns will carry a hangover when they play Dallas. I would have to think so.

Bingo!