Suns at Timberwolves 8:00ET MY45

[Proteus]

Suns win 110-102. Nice to actually win a back to back game and it's nice not to lose to the Wolves again in Minnesota.

 

[Griffin]

Getting Shaq back in the lineup did not fix our rebounding woes. We were outrebounded 49-36 and 21-3 in offensive rebounds. Amare had 3 total in 39 minutes. Singletary had 5 in 20 minutes.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Amare had 3 total in 39 minutes.

that is PATHETIC. And the fact that he's had only 4 double digit rebound games out of 16 is even more pathetic.

 

[Andrew]

He is certainly capable of 10+ a night.

 

[LavaLamp2]

Were Suns just lucky to win this game or did the offensive/defensive changes "fix" Suns' matchup problem with the Wolves?

 

[Mainstreet]

It seems like Nash has played like the Nash of old during the last quarter of the Thunder game and again tonight against Minnesota. It's not about about his stats but more about him finding his rhythm in the offense. He looked fluid and confident.

 

[DeAnna]

Suns need to learn how to play without Shaq. I say rest him on back to back games, especially if you are playing scrubs like Wolves, Grizzlies, Thunder, etc.
I am sick of Steve Nash and his excuses for everything. When Shaq is playing, it's "well, we are not running like we did before." When Shaq rests, it's "Oh, it's hard to play without Shaq because we are used to Shaq playing." I am really really really sick and tired of Nash's whining, moaning, bitching and crying. Shut up Steve, and do your job.

Now, if they are playing Hornets and Lakers on back to back, it's a different story. Then it's time for the big fellow to step up and play good 30-40 minutes in each game.

Maybe you need to start a thread similar to this one, but call it SHUT UP, STEVE! lol
http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb/f4/shut-up-kurt-123952.html

 

[DeAnna]

Hmmm... another mediocre night for Amare. Glad that Porter benched him after he got the tech foul. He was more interested in arguing with the refs than the game itself.

I loved the hard pick from Barnes on that scrappy guy that had run over Singletary. Payback!

 

[Mainstreet]

I loved the hard pick from Barnes on that scrappy guy that had run over Singletary. Payback!

Barnes made a statement on that pick and I loved it. I wish more Suns would take the game personal and watch out for their teammates.

 

[dodie53]

a win is a win.

 

[YouJustGotSUNSD]

boooorrrrrriiiinnnnnngggg


and porter should have absorbed amare's tech. they were both furious with the lack of a call on the other end, and a coach shouldnt let a player be mad that long without intervening. instead he left amare hanging and porter knew amare wasnt going to let it go. if you know its inevitable, take the tech from your player when you agree with him... especially if you were just as mad 8 seconds ago.

 

[AceP]

Give Amare a break, every super star has a night off once a while. It's a long season.

Winning back to back away games is always good. 11-5 and #2 in the powerful west, a healthy and productive Shaq, Nash finding his rhythm, we r just fine. Keep going.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

Porter's rotations are as erratic as D'Antoni's. Lopez earned more minutes after last night.

 

[msdundee]

Nicely balanced effort from all the starters carried them over the bumps last night, so Brown's EVT "Shaq propels Suns over T-Wolves" sounds more like a sigh of relief ........... hey, The Plan worked!

Grant Hill's comment cracked me up:
“He’d better be fresh, he hasn’t done a damn thing since Saturday,” Suns forward Grant Hill said, loud enough for others to hear in the walk-in closet that doubles as the visitors dressing room here. “This game reminded me a lot of the two we lost here last year, when we were on back-to-backs at the end of a long trip and couldn’t dial it up. It was nice to have Neon Bodeaux (Shaq’s character in the movie “Blue Chips”) decide to make a cameo for us tonight. His presence and his energy gave us a lift.”

And Shaq followed that by saying sometimes you just have to "gut it out."

Jokes are always funnier when they contain an element of truth.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Give Amare a break, every super star has a night off once a while. It's a long season.

Winning back to back away games is always good. 11-5 and #2 in the powerful west, a healthy and productive Shaq, Nash finding his rhythm, we r just fine. Keep going.

just because the West used to be powerful doesn't mean it is anymore. So far, the West, sans the Lakers, looks extremely pedestrian.

 

[az1965]

that is PATHETIC. And the fact that he's had only 4 double digit rebound games out of 16 is even more pathetic.

From AZ Republic...

Stoudemire had only three rebounds and has reached double figures just once in the past 11 games. "There are times he gets a little tired and it becomes difficult," Porter said. "Especially when we don't have Shaq in there, we need him to get more rebounds, and we need gang rebounds."

WTF??? This is just laziness... there is no excuse for Amare to not have rebounds in double figures.

 

[TheHopToad]

Maybe we need to rest Amare on back-to-backs also, so he can stay big and strong and fresh and get those rebounds.

And he needs to eat his vegetables too!

 

[cly2tw]

I just downloaded and reviewed the game.

Amare is not nearly as bad as the rebounding stats suggested. On many, he boxed out so that Barnes grabbed the opportunist rbs away from him. Rather, he played like what the +/- number indicated, very essential to the success last night.

Nobody can guard Al, not Amare, not Diaw, not Shaq. And we lost tons of def. rebounds mostly because everybody seemed to be out of position helping out on perimeter. And particularly Amare is still unable to recover position for rebounds after that.

On offense, however, he is the constant threat involved in many successful plays with his screening, moving, outlet passing, and one-on-one scoring. He needed more touches with this efficiency he played. Against better oppositions, we wouldn't get away winning by primarily using Amare as decoy.

 

[shazaam6]

Give Amare some slack stat watchers. I see them trying to get the ball into Shaq most of the time and Amare stays away from the lane so it isn't clogged. They don't seem to have an option for him when Shaq gets the ball. They run that or the guards pass it around and then shoot. Many times in a row Amare doesn't even touch the ball. WTF is that. Amare is not being utilized on offense effectively.

His defense is better this year, still improving is how I see it. His defensive rebounding needs more coaching. However he doesn't get many offensive rebounds because he is out of the lane when Shaq holds the ball. Since the defender is denying the pass from Shaq to Amare, he is already in good position to box Amare off the boards when the shot goes up. At least he is not getting two quick fouls in the first 6 minutes of the games anymore.

 

[elindholm]

Amare is not nearly as bad as the rebounding stats suggested. On many, he boxed out so that Barnes grabbed the opportunist rbs away from him.

The Suns gave up 21 offensive rebounds and Stoudemire's cover, Jefferson, had 12 of those. He may have successfully boxed out on a few occasions, but mainly his rebounding was an utter disaster. And yes, I watched the game.

 

[DeAnna]

He gets tired sometimes? what is that all about? At this point in the season, he shouldn't be getting tired. Maybe they are trying to cover up something else. Remember when I said that I saw him and he looks frail thin - I know the lower body weight puts less stress on his knees, but he looked awfully skinny.

 

[cly2tw]

The Suns gave up 21 offensive rebounds and Stoudemire's cover, Jefferson, had 12 of those. He may have successfully boxed out on a few occasions, but mainly his rebounding was an utter disaster. And yes, I watched the game.

He could have been less disasterous at rebounding, had he not tried to rotate out to defend the guards on picks and screens, which exposes his weakness at recovering the rebounding position inside against Jefferson. But we might have lost the game with this mindset.

He was a Marion-kind of athletic rebounder in his rookie year. In DA's system, he didn't need to better his fundametal skills, and now he seems to be trying to learn the fundamentals, there's gotta be some painful experience.

 

[cly2tw]

He gets tired sometimes? what is that all about? At this point in the season, he shouldn't be getting tired. Maybe they are trying to cover up something else. Remember when I said that I saw him and he looks frail thin - I know the lower body weight puts less stress on his knees, but he looked awfully skinny.

I think Porter might be playing too many minutes on Amare indeed. Lately, his close-range shots/layups have not been going in as frequently, which might be due to the accumulated fatique. With his past knee problems, this might be a huge concern.

 

[nowagimp]

I think Porter might be playing too many minutes on Amare indeed. Lately, his close-range shots/layups have not been going in as frequently, which might be due to the accumulated fatique. With his past knee problems, this might be a huge concern.

You know cly you asked for it, more physical play of the grind it out half court game. What did you think would happen to the old guys, and the guys with injury issues?