SEASON OPENER- Suns @ Lakers Offical Game Thread

[Evil Ash]

Our problem is that we didn't look so hot in preseason either. I know the games don't count, but sometimes it seems to be an indicator.

Sometimes but its a tad early to say so one way or the other, don't you think?

There is also the possibility that the team didn't take the preseason seriously.

 

[Big D]

Pretty damn embarassing loss. Ridiculous. Beat by a pick up team.

 

[Phxchris1989]

Wow man, that was one hell of a letdown. What really sucks is that we looked so promising early on. I guess we can only hope that this is a one game thing.
I hate to say it and give those damn Laker fans fodder, but the Lakers just played better tonight in three quarters than our one.

Now, Hopefully they can come back and beat the Clippers.


​

 

[Chaplin]

I love this team, but its clear we still have the exact same difficiencies that cost them last year in the postseason. No interior defense, and no rebounding what so ever. No to mention the team literally relied on the 3 point shot for almost the entire 4th quarter. I know they live and die by the 3, but it was getting a bit ridiculous in the 4th quarter. Dantoni didnt even attempt to get Thomas or Diaw involved in the paint from what I saw, and the team after putting on a good defensive effort in the 1st quarter, reverted.

We lost to the Mavs last year because we didn't have the legs. And Raja Bell. And a healthy Kurt Thomas.

Tonight, I think D'Antoni strangely relied on 3-guard lineups way too much. What was Marcus Banks doing in there with Barbosa and Nash? That didn't make a whole lot of sense.

Amare was playing well, but hardly sniffed the floor in the 2nd half. I wonder if his knees were bothering him.

 

[Evil Ash]

Pretty damn embarassing loss. Ridiculous. Beat by a pick up team.

For us this is normal for the opener.

Did everyone forget about us losing to the likes of the pre-Iverson Sixers, the pre-Carmello Nuggets, and the Golden State Warriors?

Are people already hitting the panic button? You've got to be kidding me

 

[az1965]

I guess tomorrow night's game might have to do with some strange substitutions or play times.

 

[Evil Ash]

We lost to the Mavs last year because we didn't have the legs. And Raja Bell. And a healthy Kurt Thomas.

Tonight, I think D'Antoni strangely relied on 3-guard lineups way too much. What was Marcus Banks doing in there with Barbosa and Nash? That didn't make a whole lot of sense.

Amare was playing well, but hardly sniffed the floor in the 2nd half. I wonder if his knees were bothering him.

They're trying to limit his minutes

 

[JCSunsfan]

Sometimes but its a tad early to say so one way or the other, don't you think?

There is also the possibility that the team didn't take the preseason seriously.

Ash, I agree. I'm not jumping off a bridge or anything. Its just that this team hasn't seemed to click at all yet. Their conditioning seems horrible and that is essential to our team's success.

It looks almost as if they expected to show up and have it all handed to them this year. It might be a little rough going here to begin with.

Oh, and the Lakers are looking better--alot better, younger and hungry.

We'll see how they all adjust.

 

[Suns_fan69]

Ouch, i just took a look at the box score and as a team we got beat in every single category tonight except for Blocks (Marion out blocked LA by himself) and FT%.

Tough one to swallow but they better get out of the funk in time for the Clips. I'd hate to have an 0-2 start in LA.

 

[Chaplin]

They're trying to limit his minutes

They said they wanted to give him around 20 minutes to see how he does. He played 12. 12 pretty good minutes. There was no reason to believe that Bynum would do as well as he did, but in that third quarter it would have been nice to have Amare there to prevent layup after layup, don't you think?

 

[hawaiiansun]

What hurts most is to lose to the Lakers am I right? haha..
I thought the game showed some good signs. I thought Banks got out and played hard, just gotta work on knocking down that outside J with consistency. Barbosa, career high game pretty good. Marion aka Mr. Consistent played hard as usual although that missed layup that could have cut the lead to 7 hurt. Amare with a dunk, block, and was aggressive. Couple bad plays on D but that will come back, I have faith in the big guy. KT needs to do some jumping exercises, old man can't jump. One play where he had position on Mo Evans and Mo Evans came right over and snatched away the rebound. Come on big Kurt.

One thing I noticed was that without House, Tim Thomas, we don't shoot as much 3's. Banks isn't much of a shooter and Barbosa (sometimes James Jones) is basically the only one off the bench that can hit them consistently. I hope to see a bit of Jumaine in action tomorrow, but other than that, tough loss, especially when guys like Andrew Bynum and Maurcie Evans had to beat us..ugghh lol.

 

[Nashfan]

Yeah, I was wondering why Amare did not play more. I know Marion is hurting with his tailbone but what is Kurt's excuse on rebounding? JR reminds me a lot of Joe Johnson in that he lacks confidence and is very erratic on his play. Are Boris and Raja both hurt? Boris seemed timid on offense and Raja did not seem to play much in the second half. I need to look again at the boxscore to see how much he played. I know Raja has a sore hip and I'm wondering if he injured it again. Hopefully tonight is just a mirage!

 

[BuddyFranklin]

The thing that gets to me and always has... sure we can score... but we play NO defense, thus we can never hold leads. When we were up early i knew to myself they'll come right back at us. I really would like to see them run plays in succession for Amare. Boris is WAY to passive (sure he got into foul trouble) he's been passive all preseason.

As dumb as this sounds, we will regret dumping Eddie House. He was great for this team's spirit and could bust open a game. He was the ideal regular season gunner.

 

[Chaplin]

Eddie House was a good regular season player, but an AWFUL playoff player. Just awful.

It's only been one game. Sheesh, chill out guys...

 

[Evil Ash]

They said they wanted to give him around 20 minutes to see how he does. He played 12. 12 pretty good minutes. There was no reason to believe that Bynum would do as well as he did, but in that third quarter it would have been nice to have Amare there to prevent layup after layup, don't you think?

It seemed like he played longer then that

That is weird

 

[BuddyFranklin]

I'm with you AmareQ that TT and House were bigtime gunners. Confidence wasn't an issue with those guys, unlike our current bench are seem to be all about confidence to get the job done.

We need a 3 point shooter. Kyle Korver would be ideal. Make it happen someone.

 

[Chaplin]

It seemed like he played longer then that

That is weird

It did? It didn't seem longer to me at all. 10 minutes or so in the first half, and 2 minutes in the middle of the third quarter.

 

[hawaiiansun]

The thing that gets to me and always has... sure we can score... but we play NO defense, thus we can never hold leads. When we were up early i knew to myself they'll come right back at us. I really would like to see them run plays in succession for Amare. Boris is WAY to passive (sure he got into foul trouble) he's been passive all preseason.

As dumb as this sounds, we will regret dumping Eddie House. He was great for this team's spirit and could bust open a game. He was the ideal regular season gunner.

The only thing I miss about Eddie is the swagger he had, and that he was a crowd favorite. Oh, and his pregame dances
But when Eddie was hot, Eddie was hot!

 

[BuddyFranklin]

The only thing I miss about Eddie is the swagger he had, and that he was a crowd favorite. Oh, and his pregame dances
But when Eddie was hot, Eddie was hot!

Thats what i'm talking about. We have no swagger guys anymore. Amare has been told he's not even needed. TT has swagger. Gone. As with Ed. Gone.

 

[az1965]

It's only been one game. Sheesh, chill out guys...

Well, you don't know how much we have been suffering for the last two months with Cardinals football. I was hoping to alleviate some of that pain with a big season openner by the Suns...

 

[hawaiiansun]

Thats what i'm talking about. We have no swagger guys anymore. Amare has been told he's not even needed. TT has swagger. Gone. As with Ed. Gone.

Just like my old boy Q had, sigh how I miss him haha. Yeah someone with some swagger would be nice!

 

[green machine]

Thats what i'm talking about. We have no swagger guys anymore. Amare has been told he's not even needed. TT has swagger. Gone. As with Ed. Gone.

Oh for sure, no swagger at all. The team that won 62 games two years ago had plenty of swagger in the form of House and Tim Thomas...oh wait.

Guys, it's one game. The Suns played poorly, the Lakers came up big, and we lost on the road. It happens.

 

[Romp]

when Amare got onto the court in the 2nd half he committed 2 straight turnovers so that's probably why he didn't see much more time.

 

[ArizonaSportsFan]

The Suns will be just fine. This opening schedule is brutal - especially with the Clippers twice on the second game of back-to-backs - but it will be an opportunity for the team to fight through something together.

 

[hawaiiansun]

Oh for sure, no swagger at all. The team that won 62 games two years ago had plenty of swagger in the form of House and Tim Thomas...oh wait.

Guys, it's one game. The Suns played poorly, the Lakers came up big, and we lost on the road. It happens.

Not sure you understand what we are talking about. They just have a certain "swagger" to them. Nothing to do with how good they are lol.