Sterns at Suns 8:30 TNT

[cly2tw]

The SPURS still own us & will continue to until we can win a series. We looked a little closer tonight but IMO we're still one big, & one coaching philosophy away from getting over it.

They own us for the simple fact that they have our weapons all figured out and always makes it a game of measuring performance and fundamentals, instead of competing on flashes for spotlight.

Down the stretch, it simply became the measuring of the two best on Suns, Nash+Amare, vs. the two best on Spurs, TD+Manu. And theirs duo were better. They have one more alternative in Parker who they can use, while TD is the most dominant at those straightup comparisons. As long as we don't have viable alternatives like Amare, Hill, Diaw exploiting mismatches to mix it up a little, the odds are slightly against us in close game situations, IMO.

 

[ebow]

So I just got back from seeing the game in person. Overall, the game seemed to be similar to watching a match up between the Pistons and the Spurs. The game was a little ugly and slow, but also fun. I'm someone who likes to find some form of positive aspect from something. I see some good things we can take from this. The main thing would be the increase in our intensity on defense. The Suns *almost* beat the Sterns at their own game tonight. I hope we can find some sort of solution to our backup PG situation. LB needs to be moved up to the 2 guard soon!!! Kerr get a backup, or suggest to DA to invest more time into Banks or Strawberry. Or we can have G.Hill run the offense. DA needs to invest more time in our bench overall, especially games like these. Look at Vaughn, he's killing us now. Vaughn struggled all of last year, and now he has confidence. OUR BENCH NEEDS EXPERIENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Get your head out of your stubborn a** DA.

 

[mojorizen7]

Hey HOOVER, how were the fans in the lower bowl tonight? Were they attentive and passionate?......or passive sitting on their hands?
Just curious.

 

[HooverDam]

Hey HOOVER, how were the fans in the lower bowl tonight? Were they attentive and passionate?......or passive sitting on their hands?
Just curious.

My section was pretty good. There were a fair shot of hot women just texting on their cell phones (why pay so much money for the ticket). The atmosphere overall was much better than at a normal regular season game.

I was directly in front of a camera, and it sucked, because at the end of the game the usher kept telling me to sit down because I was blocking its view

Also, I had an idea to improve the environment at the games, someone tell me if this is against some sort of rule:

The seats behind the opposing teams bench, perhaps 5 rows deep become a special student type section. With a student ID and a signed pledge, you can get tickets there for $10. As long as you stand the entire game, and just go ape, and make noise. Like a mini section of Cameron Crazies.

EDIT: VV Diaw did a really good job on TD and is better offensively than Skinner, so that was part of it. But Skinner should've played more. Against S.A., I'd like to see either Skinner or Diaw on the court at all times.

 

[dodie53]

Brian Skinner layed only 5:57 minutes.
why?

 

[cly2tw]

So I just got back from seeing the game in person. Overall, the game seemed to be similar to watching a match up between the Pistons and the Spurs. The game was a little ugly and slow, but also fun. I'm someone who likes to find some form of positive aspect from something. I see some good things we can take from this. The main thing would be the increase in our intensity on defense. The Suns *almost* beat the Sterns at their own game tonight. I hope we can find some sort of solution to our backup PG situation. LB needs to be moved up to the 2 guard soon!!! Kerr get a backup, or suggest to DA to invest more time into Banks or Strawberry. Or we can have G.Hill run the offense. DA needs to invest more time in our bench overall, especially games like these. Look at Vaughn, he's killing us now. Vaughn struggled all of last year, and now he has confidence. OUR BENCH NEEDS EXPERIENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Get your head out of your stubborn a** DA.

Agree on all points. Take the ball out of LB's hands, we'd gain at least 5 more meaningful possessions a game. The reasons of playing LB the way DA does are probably, 1) LB might explode into being unstoppable with more trials, 2) we don't have other "very good" alternatives prepared.

The attitude for 1) is that it easily becomes a route if that happens. That's where the philosophy of Suns/DA and of the normal teams differ. Spurs wouldn't even want to rely on explosion of any single player, for them it's always the same business as usual. For us, by hoping LB's explosion our offense often gets stagnated and we lose valuable possessions to work on other "fundamental" sets of plays and skills with other and more players involved while Nash sits.

 

[mojorizen7]

The seats behind the opposing teams bench, perhaps 5 rows deep become a special student type section. With a student ID and a signed pledge, you can get tickets there for $10. As long as you stand the entire game, and just go ape, and make noise. Like a mini section of Cameron Crazies.

Good idea. I'd love it but they'd probably have to prohibit the sale of alcohol in that section for obvious reasons....

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....too much beer has been known to give the average man the belief that he can take on 8 security guards and a 6'10" 250lb profesional athlete if provoked.

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=

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[jandaman]

Wow, looking back over this thread is really disheartening. The lack of basketball knowledge is disappointing. The Suns missed open shot and free throws tonight, how many nights do they have when they're all that cold? Sure, some of it was SA's good D, but the Suns missed A LOT of open looks and free throws. Most nights those go in, and the Suns win.

and thats not an excuse come play off time...

you just cant say... well "the suns had open looks but missed"

The missed FT are bad enough. But when the mid range isnt falling, its the coach's job to actually coach. and again... suns will beat any team in this world when they shoot 50% from the field, 80% from the FT and hit 10+ 3s in the game, but the thing is...

championship teams find ways to win when they cannot shoot... the defense of the Suns almost got them the win... but on a team missing their all-star caliber guard.. who is known for torching us.. well simply suns dont scare teams anymor and have plans on beating them any night....

 

[Proteus]

The Suns have now lost 6 games to the Spurs in which they led going into the 4th quarter since the start of the 2004-2005 season. In contrast, the Spurs have only lost once leading going into the 4th quarter.

For the sake of comparison, the Suns have lost 5 such games vs the Mavs and the Mavs have lost 6 such games with the Suns.

 

[CaptainInsano]

Very disappointing game.

This was our chance to go 2-0 against a spurs team without parker...

If the third time these 2 teams meet, and the spurs have parker and beat us I will be about ready to throw in the towel on this team officially.

I thought the spurs were old and over the hill? Then what just happend? We barely scored 80 points? 81 Freakin points.

Seems you all are happy that we are going to start focusing on defense and half-court vs the spurs. Oh man I am sure that will work out just wonderful.

Even if we shot better we would score around a hundred. If the spurs have parker back then do we beat them? Well looks like we have to wait for the 3rd game. So disappointing to lose this one though, one more and we could be giving the spurs a 3rd or 4th seed instead of a 5th, as well as possibly losing our 1st seed since it is that close in the west.

 

[jandaman]

well pretty Much... Popovic+Duncan = Kryptonite of D'Antoni/Nash system..

 

[nashman]

^ Well your kinda assuming Parker is gonna just be able to drive into the lane, the Suns are blocking alot of shots down low now. I don't think the lane is as empty so to speak as the past few years. We lost a regular season game due to totally inept shooting tonight and still if we make our FT's alone this game may have been over. Amare has got to make those crunch time free throws period. And just for discussion sake how big a lead could we have had if the refs didn't have Amare with 2 fouls in the first freakin 2 minutes, both questionable. This game could have easily been a blow out if we even shoot decent, we shot very very poorly and we lost it happens. I for one beleive losses like this can help a team buckle down and let them know they still have work to do. Its all about the playoffs so just keep getting ready together as a team and it can pay off big come playoff time.

 

[Covert Rain]

I thought the substitutions were horrid. Skinner should have had more playing time. Marion was taken out during an odd time. Hill hit a couple shots then went to the bench. This team has some serious issues to work out if they have any shot at getting to the finals.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

I for one beleive losses like this can help a team buckle down and let them know they still have work to do. Its all about the playoffs so just keep getting ready together as a team and it can pay off big come playoff time.

i just don't believe that championship teams have to be reminded or learn lessons. and that's the crux of what you're suggesting. "[L]et them know they still have work to do." falls into that category. i don't think the spurs need such reminders.

 

[DeAnna]

Seems you all are happy that we are going to start focusing on defense and half-court vs the spurs. Oh man I am sure that will work out just wonderful.

The way I see it, this was just an 'experiment' game by the coaches. Without Parker to worry about, they double teamed TD most of the night (except when it counted - in the last few possesions).

What I learned from this 'experiment' is that we are not the Spurs - Suns need to run-n-gun to be effective and let their superior athleticism show.

And yes, most of the time the Spurs defense had something to do with how badly we've shot in the past. But, honestly, they did miss a lot of shots where they had good looks (and a few clutch free throws).

 

[nowagimp]

I thought the substitutions were horrid. Skinner should have had more playing time. Marion was taken out during an odd time. Hill hit a couple shots then went to the bench. This team has some serious issues to work out if they have any shot at getting to the finals.

foul trouble(amare/bell) often changes the substitution patterns. The amare foul problem might have been avoided if Diaw had started the game on TD. Clearly Diaw plays much better fundamental defense than amare(or any other sun) on TD. Hill is still trying to come back from his inactivity, dont think he can play anything but short spurts yet. The suns only gave up 6 offensive rebounds to the spurs, that was different than in the past.

 

[Hat]

It was a foul. Duncan puts his arms up and that draws everyone's attention away from what he is doing with his hip. He throws it into his opponent while he is going into the air. There was the one shot that Amare dunked that Duncan almost knocked Amare down with that move. No foul was called. Then there was the one where Duncan and PappaBitch kept arguing that Duncan had his arms in the air. Well before he put them in the air he used two hands to push Amare in the back. Duncan gets away with alot of crap. He doesn't need someone to stand up for him when he gets caught.

I was talking about the Duncan's 5th foul, where Amare got "and 1" but missed the free throw. This was before the hip check on Amare's next dunk.

 

[nowagimp]

The way I see it, this was just an 'experiment' game by the coaches. Without Parker to worry about, they double teamed TD most of the night (except when it counted - in the last few possesions).

What I learned from this 'experiment' is that we are not the Spurs - Suns need to run-n-gun to be effective and let their superior athleticism show.

And yes, most of the time the Spurs defense had something to do with how badly we've shot in the past. But, honestly, they did miss a lot of shots where they had good looks (and a few clutch free throws).

When I saw how the suns, including Nash, missing open perimeter shots, I knew trouble was brewing. This just gave the spurs the opportunity to adjust the defense and take away the lane even more. When you do move the ball well enough to get an open shot against a defense like the spurs, you've got to take advantage of the open opportunities. The suns have proven that they cant beat the clippers when they dont hit a decent percentage of open perimeter shots. Adjustments are often made within the game when it is noticed that the outside shots arent falling, and that was the case last night.

 

[mojorizen7]

I suppose there has to be a balance of opinion on this team's championship outlook.

 

[DeAnna]

I posted this somewhere else, but should've gone in this thread:

This is why I hate Bruce Bowen - that dirty player.

In the final 46 secons (Suns up 79-78), Bowen is trying to defend the pass from going into Amare and deliberately trips him, which sends Stat to the floor. Of course, they get the ball and TD goes on to score the winning bucket.

If you have the gave on Tivo, watch it. They did this all last year as well - IIRC, even the coaches complained about it.