Suns at Heat 3/4

[Bufalay]

Where is the Shaq-bashing? 8 rebounds for the only big guy on the team. How very Amare-like of him. Please avoid the claims that Shaq is old and playing on a back-to-back. If he can't perform in such situations due to his age, he should retire or take a pay cut.

 

[cly2tw]

We can't overrun other teams now. Almost all teams are younger and more athletic than us. We should pick our spots to run and know when to use our strength downlow with Shaq. And when Nash sits, we need to focus on defense! Yet, everybody seems want to go back to DA's time of no defense and all run. That's not gonna work.

 

[Covert Rain]

This teams defense is so bad tonight the freaking Heat out run and gunned the Suns tonight. Really bad.

Also, the Heat bigs pushed everybody but Shaq around. This team needs Swift in the lineup. We will get pushed around and have no shot at the playoffs if we keep playing shrimp ball.

 

[Andrew]

Well, this was quite the negative thing to come from class to read.

Do I even want to watch this torrent when its online?

It read BAD from this thread and I have no idea why they let a team just go off like that.

Surely, all of them know aspects of defense...show it.

Another L in the column, are we even going to make the playoffs? Dimmer ever game...

And I thought this team turned the page with the Lakers win.

Damn, I am just disappointed.

 

[Proteus]

The normally 45% shooting Heat shot 57% tonight. The heat also shot 57% from the 3 compared to their average of 35%.

What's up with our free throw shooting? We shot our free throws poorly against the Lakers and tonight hit only 65% of their free throws (19/29). That's really annoying given that we lost by 6.

 

[Proteus]

All the the choke jobs this team has pulled this season and all the losses to sub .500 teams really loom large right now. Sigh.

 

[Yuma]

How was that NOT a foul on wade at hill? they had body contact !!

Same thing I thought at the time. Heck, most of Shaq's fouls are body contact fouls.

 

[mjb21aztd]

well that was a pretty disgusting game on the defensive end of the side no effort at all , I like fact were scoring a lot of points now but we are just a horrible defensive team and can't get any stops at all real pathatic. I don't think having Amare would make that much of a difference since he is not that good of a defensive player anways. I just hope the suns can somehow squeeze in the playoffs but I don't see that happening which sucks....... It all went downhill when we lost Amare imo

 

[Blackification]

well that was a pretty disgusting game on the defensive end of the side no effort at all , I like fact were scoring a lot of points now but we are just a horrible defensive team and can't get any stops at all real pathatic. I don't think having Amare would make that much of a difference since he is not that good of a defensive player anways. I just hope the suns can somehow squeeze in the playoffs but I don't see that happening which sucks....... It all went downhill when we lost Amare imo

on the defensive end you might be right but having him boosts the teams confidence. It must feel good to know you have someone on your team that can score 20 on a bad night when playing in a system he doesn't want to be in. Throw him into a run and gun system while motivated and you can combine the offensive impact of barnes, hill, and a bad game from j-rich or barbosa and it still wouldn't be as effective as he is.

 

[nowagimp]

That was wades 28th 30 pt game this year and the second time he had 16 asst. Kobe just doesnt do that. Yeah he fouled hill on that play, right across the head going for the block, pretty disgusting blown call at a key point in the game. Wade is playing very well against everyone, right now I'd put him #1; kobe #2, and lebron #3 for MVP. Surely wade has the weakest supporting cast, by far. Wade might be a tougher defensive assignment than kobe, no one on the suns can stay with him off the dribble and he makes shots in your face. 35 points on 21 shots, 16 asst 5 boards, those are incredible numbers. I guess when you lose your all star PF it hurts, especially when you are outrebounded 40-30. The heat perimeter shooters were incredible, the suns had very similar shots, and missed when it counted. LB got benchitis apparently, seems like he just disappeared coming off the bench. So LB, barnes, and hill all stink when they come off the bench? WTF do they have, Diaw syndrome?

 

[Proteus]

on the defensive end you might be right but having him boosts the teams confidence. It must feel good to know you have someone on your team that can score 20 on a bad night when playing in a system he doesn't want to be in. Throw him into a run and gun system while motivated and you can combine the offensive impact of barnes, hill, and a bad game from j-rich or barbosa and it still wouldn't be as effective as he is.

Is confidence really this team's problem? They seem pretty confident offensively as they generally score a lot of points and shoot a high field goal %. They just can't be bothered to give a crap about defense.

 

[Blackification]

Is confidence really this team's problem? They seem pretty confident offensively as they generally score a lot of points and shoot a high field goal %. They just can't be bothered to give a crap about defense.

That defensive problem starts with nash. Not only does the team not want to play it but it is hard to play defense when the other teams point guard is either driving at you full speed or wide open looking to pass.

Stupid decisions at wrong times also hurt the team like bad turnovers and fouls when they finally get close or when they are ahead. They lose passion for brief periods of time and thats when they get hurt the most and don't start playing until they realize it.

edit - I can't blame just nash and say it starts with him it starts with pretty much all of our guards. J-rich somehow finds a way to make a mistake all the time on defense so its either their shooting guard setting up a play or their sg driving to get a foul or an easy lay up or a combo of both. It hurts our bigs and our forwards. It doesn't matter how big your castle is if your walls let everything go by.

 

[95pro]

we were doing well without nash.

 

[lou_skywalker]

its fatigue plus lack of determination down the stretch.

 

[leclerc]

Too bad Dragic is out of the rotation. He needs playing time and experience.

 

[nowagimp]

we were doing well without nash.

The +/- says nash was +4, and richardson and hill were -11, -12 respectively. Stats arent perfect, but combined with nashs 29 pts on 17 shots(12-17) and 10 dimes/3 To's its hard to make that case. JRich stats look OK(except the +/-) 22pts on 8-16, but zero fouls, friggin zero fouls says he wasnt playing much D. Hill shot 5-13 and looked tired, while barbosa looked lost as a bench player, 3-10. Shaq led the team in steals, 2, that says alot about the D, and the suns were outrebounded by 10 against a smallish team, they miss amare. After wade shredded our SG defense for 20 pts in the first quarter, the suns packed it in and the heat made them pay on the perimeter. This game was all about DWade being unguardable, IMO.

 

[Covert Rain]

DWade is going to get his points. That is not where this game was lost. Letting Cook/Beasley go off for 50+ points combined is why we lost. That team had so many easy buckets. The Suns couldn't guard anybody.

They kept shooting over the top of Grant, Barnes etc. just under the FT line all night long. Amare may not be a good defender but his size probably would have prevented some of those easy buckets. That's why we can't keep playing shrimp ball.

 

[Mainstreet]

I noticed the Suns are best when they they get their hands up and play the passing lanes. They haven't done it for the past two games.

 

[cly2tw]

I noticed the Suns are best when they they get their hands up and play the passing lanes. They haven't done it for the past two games.

Which coincides with Nash's return.

The +/- says nash was +4, and richardson and hill were -11, -12 respectively. Stats arent perfect, but combined with nashs 29 pts on 17 shots(12-17) and 10 dimes/3 To's its hard to make that case. JRich stats look OK(except the +/-) 22pts on 8-16, but zero fouls, friggin zero fouls says he wasnt playing much D. Hill shot 5-13 and looked tired, while barbosa looked lost as a bench player, 3-10. Shaq led the team in steals, 2, that says alot about the D, and the suns were outrebounded by 10 against a smallish team, they miss amare. After wade shredded our SG defense for 20 pts in the first quarter, the suns packed it in and the heat made them pay on the perimeter. This game was all about DWade being unguardable, IMO.

LB returing to his pre-Porter bonehead manner was a huge reason that the players +/- suffer with him instead of Nash. It's kind like, looking at how Nash driving the speed up the team tries to do the same even with him on the bench, which results in disaster in two ways. Offense suffers because of that. Defense suffers too, because they carry over that habits when Nash is on the court. They get their mindset messed up so that as net results we only win against bad teams under Nash's leadership, which are incapable of exploiting our weakness associated with the phenomenon called Nash.

Hill commented like we shouldn't have allowed Cook and Beasley go off on us, we'd rather let Wade have his 80pts. That's critic on Nash leaving the HOT 3pt-shooters open too often, and Barnes not paying enough attention to Beasley or coaching not coming up with a game plan to stop the bleeding at the scrubs' hands!

 

[DeAnna]

If this game so far is not a perfect illustration why you CAN'T play small at the Power Forward position....I don't know what is.

Didn't Barnes play PF in Golden State? He had a pretty good year, IIRC, especially against Dirk.