I was worried when I saw how many minutes the Suns player put in during the Cleveland game. Tonight it seemed like they ran out of gas. The Suns seemed to slow down and just couldn't or didn't play defense. The Sixers shot 48.5% from the field.
The officiating did not help much. The Sixers got 36 foul shots to only 24 for the Suns in spite of the Sixers man handling the Suns in the paint (the replays showed continued them repeatedly hacking without it being called). I'm not sure the Suns can ever win if the refs refuse to call fouls on their opponents.
Overall, I thought Dice played a pretty good game: 3 of 7 and 10 rebounds. He had a very impressive shot block and induced a charge on one play. I thought he wore out near the end, but was not bad.
Except for some mental errors, JJ played very well - 27 points, 8 assists, 4 rebounds, and a steal. He still has too many turnovers including a disasterous one near the end of the game, but it seems like he is out of his slump.
Marion had another strong game and got to the foul line 7 times which is an improvement.
Amare struggled against Dalembert who looked a lot taller than his listed 6'11". The Suns (Amare in particular) kept trying to finese the ball in and let Dalembert get blocks - rather than forcing him to move and create contact for fouls. He had 5 fouls, but was vulnerable to more if the Suns had continued to attack him.
Leandro is going to have to learn to play defense without putting his hands on his guy all the time. The refs called him for some really ticky tacky fouls, but there was little doubt he was touching his man.
I was disappointed that D'Antoni took White out and never returned him. The Suns were vulnerable to guys driving the basket and Jahidi might have discouraged guys like Snow who like to create contact. When White fouls a guy, he stays fouled.
