Suns at Nuggets 1/15/09

[Bayless2Budinger]

Nash, Hill, and Richardson carry the other dead weight just fine. Stoudemire is no higher than the fourth best player on the team now. Once the Nuggets took the high pick-and-roll away, he was completely useless, on both ends of the floor. The Suns would have been better off with Amundson, who could at least fight for loose balls.

I'm gonna explain this to the confused. Because the Nuggets focused so much on Amare, the other players that were getting wide open shots, needed to hit there shots. Hill did a good job of that but the others were just bad.

You replace Amundson and those easy offensive possessions go away because the Nuggets dont have to leave others open because they are worried about Amare.

He made a few bad defensive plays 2nite but so did Hill and everyone else. His rebounding was fine. When he was guarding Nene, he kept him off the boards, and when he was guarding Kmart, he kept him off the boards. It's not his fault that because Porter refused to play both Amundson and Amare at the same time, we were very weak on the boards.

 

[mojorizen7]

well that was a foul on hill to end regulation. i think that much is obvious. either way, the suns didn't do anything when overtime rolled around so they didn't deserve the win. simple as that in my mind.

No they didn't. It's Denver and they were tired, making the non-call that much more relevant. Look, i don't complain about officiating as much as i could because it becomes a crutch.....but that was nothing but a home court non-call that the refs knew would pretty much put the dagger into the SUNS going into an extra period in the mile high city.
Sterns refs claim they call a foul when there is a foul regardless of the players involved and the situation, we all know thats not the case & i can live with that.....but Hill had his man beat, and was clearly going to draw contact there against Nene....it wasn't like Hill was driving out of control either.
It cost them the game tonight. It's a regular season game so its not the end all be all but it reeks of hidden agenda's.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

I would take Horacio Llamas over Lopez right now.

 

[mojorizen7]

I would take Horacio Llamas over Lopez right now.

OMG so would i.

 

[Andrew]

thank you

No they didn't. It's Denver and they were tired, making the non-call that much more relevant. Look, i don't complain about officiating as much as i could because it becomes a crutch.....but that was nothing but a home court non-call that the refs knew would pretty much put the dagger into the SUNS going into an extra period in the mile high city.
Sterns refs claim they call a foul when there is a foul regardless of the players involved and the situation, we all know thats not the case & i can live with that.....but Hill had his man beat, and was clearly going to draw contact there against Nene....it wasn't like Hill was driving out of control either.
It cost them the game tonight. It's a regular season game so its not the end all be all but it reeks of hidden agenda's.

 

[mojorizen7]

Makes no sense at all. Terry Porter just is not a good coach.

Well it's nearly February now & i'm inclined to agree with you Chap.
I'm not saying the he can't grow into becoming a good coach, but there seems to be some flaws seeping out thru the cracks at this point.
The rotations have gone from experimental to erratic as of late....and the awareness to call TO's at critical times seem to have dissolved as the season has worn on. There are other things i could mention but not here.

 

[cly2tw]

He's not being "phased out." He's not making himself available to receive the ball. Watch him and ask yourself whether you'd pass it to him. Why would anyone bother, when he's either 25 feet from the basket or standing wistfully on the block with his legs in concrete and making no attempt to secure position?

See my earlier comments.
Denver killed Nash-Amare by sending 3 men to force it stay in Nash's hands with 2 guys on him. Yet, we never went away from that same play and got ourselves in a hole. Amare was obeying Nash's order by stepping into screen setting. How could he have behaved differently!
That's why I had been demanding to work in more plays away from Nash dribbling. Every good team has a plan to suffocate it now.

 

[LV-Suns]

I would take Horacio Llamas over Lopez right now.

lol, me too.


Like a poor mans Sabonis (hehe), who cares if he is playing in possibly the worst league in the world.

 

[cly2tw]

I'm gonna explain this to the confused. Because the Nuggets focused so much on Amare, the other players that were getting wide open shots, needed to hit there shots. Hill did a good job of that but the others were just bad.

You replace Amundson and those easy offensive possessions go away because the Nuggets dont have to leave others open because they are worried about Amare.

He made a few bad defensive plays 2nite but so did Hill and everyone else. His rebounding was fine. When he was guarding Nene, he kept him off the boards, and when he was guarding Kmart, he kept him off the boards. It's not his fault that because Porter refused to play both Amundson and Amare at the same time, we were very weak on the boards.

Agree on all accounts. They gave special attention to Amare, Nash, and Amare/Nash screen-n-roll, with aggressive pressures in the second half and OT. We lacked means to count that defensive plan of the Nugs. And with 5 fouls on Amare, Porter refused to put in Lou on Nene which made Denver offense a lot easier, while LB was not hitting anyhthing to justify the bigman disadvantage on defense.

 

[Bufalay]

lol, me too.


Like a poor mans Sabonis (hehe), who cares if he is playing in possibly the worst league in the world.

wow.

 

[Sovereignz]

He's not being "phased out." He's not making himself available to receive the ball. Watch him and ask yourself whether you'd pass it to him. Why would anyone bother, when he's either 25 feet from the basket or standing wistfully on the block with his legs in concrete and making no attempt to secure position?

a) Denver is a defensive juggernaught that just showed the rest of the NBA how to defend the most devestating play over the last five years in basketball (Nash and Amare pick and roll).

b) Denver is a terrible defensive team with a terrible coach who employed a terrible strategy that just happened to work because our 3 point shooters went 7-27 despite getting great looks (aside from an attempt or two from J-Rich and Barbosa) all night long.

I agree that Amare could have done a bit better job of making himself available, but come on dude.. if people want to guard the pick and roll like that against us every night I'm fine with it. We'd probably win 70 games and break every record for three point shooting ever set.

 

[elindholm]

I'm gonna explain this to the confused. Because the Nuggets focused so much on Amare, the other players that were getting wide open shots, needed to hit there shots. Hill did a good job of that but the others were just bad.

Oh please. Stoudemire wasn't moving or looking for the ball. He'd set a screen, the play wouldn't work, and he'd go sulk.

You replace Amundson and those easy offensive possessions go away

They can't have gone away too far, because Amundson was +6 in 14 minutes, while Stoudemire was only +2 in 35. If the effect you're talking about was so obvious, the Suns would have struggled when Amundson was on the floor. It doesn't seem that they did.

a) Denver is a defensive juggernaught that just showed the rest of the NBA how to defend the most devestating play over the last five years in basketball (Nash and Amare pick and roll).

This must be a joke. Next you'll tell me that these Nugget geniuses have perfected cold-temperature fusion, right?

if people want to guard the pick and roll like that against us every night I'm fine with it. We'd probably win 70 games and break every record for three point shooting ever set.

It's very similar to how strong defensive teams have defended the Suns' pick and roll in the last few playoff runs. I haven't yet see it work to the Suns' advantage.

 

[Cheesebeef]

man, if the Cardinals weren't one game away from the Super Bowl, I'd probably still be mad about last night's game... but they are and I'm not.

BRING ON SUNDAY!

This team can't afford to rest Shaq... and they can't afford to play him every night for fear that he breaks down. Sucks they put themselves in a position to rely on a rookie C who was a reach at 15. Lesson learned? Man, I'd like to think so, but this team has yet to provide Nash with a backup PG for years and went cheap getting a back up C last year... so, probably not.

oh well.

SUNDAY'S COMING!!!!!!!!!

 

[nashman]

Same ole Suns! Still can't get a call all night long!

 

[msdundee]

It appears that the Suns management is content in forfeiting games against quality opponents and is willing to settle just for a split of a back-to-back set. Why bother trying to win both games if you can just put all your effort into winning the easier one? With a two-day rest, that should enable Shaq to have another one of those games that makes Kerr look like a "genius" for trading for him, but at what cost?

Well, that's a reiief--now I know I'm not the only one with such thinking. It will be interesting to see how they handle the next B2B. Meanwhile, they're running Nash into the ground already and it's only January--is that no longer considered a problem? In all fairness, I think he should get one of those "routine" nights off tonight.

 

[SactownSunsFan]

Originally Posted by mojorizen7

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No they didn't. It's Denver and they were tired, making the non-call that much more relevant. Look, i don't complain about officiating as much as i could because it becomes a crutch.....but that was nothing but a home court non-call that the refs knew would pretty much put the dagger into the SUNS going into an extra period in the mile high city.
Sterns refs claim they call a foul when there is a foul regardless of the players involved and the situation, we all know thats not the case & i can live with that.....but Hill had his man beat, and was clearly going to draw contact there against Nene....it wasn't like Hill was driving out of control either.
It cost them the game tonight. It's a regular season game so its not the end all be all but it reeks of hidden agenda's.
_________________


Hidden agenda? The Nuggets? Haha, no. It was just a badly blown non-call.

 

[NugzFan]

Oh well.

We were down our best player, our second best player got in foul trouble and pulled a huge disappearing act, Richardson sucked other than one important shot, Barbosa sucked, we got absolutely hornswaggled by zebras..

And still could have won. I'm pissed about the no call with Grant, but whatever. We're a lot better than this Nuggets team, and I honestly pray to God we match up with them in the playoffs.

um, we were missing a pretty good player too.

but anyways, good game. good luck the rest of the year.

 

[NugzFan]

Despite the addition of Billups the NUGZ are still the most immature team in the league. No wonder they haven't won anything with all that talent.

how so? getting excited over big baskets? every team does that.

 

[Andrew]

Dahntay (Jones) stuck his leg out and tripped me and I lost my balance. I ran into Nene at the same time. It was pretty obvious there was something there, but I guess the officials were scared to make that call.

nba.com

On a side note, does the league review all questionable calls? Could a ref be held accountable?

 

[Suns_fan69]

I'm curious, what did you think of the last play in regulation, Nugzfan?

As for me I'm with a few peeps here in that I usually hate complaining about officiating but that was a pretty bad no call.

Regardless the Suns seemed to be utterly deflated after that. They need more mental fortitude than that.

 

[elindholm]

I'd say the offensive player would get a call there about half the time, given how committed the officials are to swallowing their whistles on game-ending plays. It was bad luck that Hill didn't get a call, but not much more than that. The "best" players learn how to commit subtle offensive fouls in situations like that in order to level the playing field.

The most critical play, in my opinion, was when the Suns were up three with 45 seconds or so (?) left in regulation, got a big stop, and then had two players get in each other's way for the rebound. The ball fell into Smith's hands and he tied the game. From that point on, the Suns had a doomed air to them.