Suns - Celtics 2/22 Drop 140 again!

[Shzm13]

Not me!

 

[ReddBird]

Nor me.

I think the Suns will make the playoffs but I don't see a championship in sight. A shame, as I wanted it to happen during Nash's tenure with the team.

 

[elindholm]

so how many fans sadly jumped ship again after this loss?

Depends which ship you mean. I think they still have a decent shot at the #8 seed, but I haven't seen them as championship contenders for more than a year.

 

[Andrew]

Who has class on a Sunday?

Didnt catch the game as I had class. Right after my test, I sprinted to my car to catch the tail end. Didn't hear anything except for Al McCoy bitching about late calls and the officiating. Judging by the box score, 63% FG allowed and it looks like Rondo owned us too. Suns should have had a plan in place to secure him, because he is going to be a focal point of the offense in KG's absence. The guy is dynamic like no other. I expect to allow more points in the Gentry era than the Porter era, but 63% allowed is unacceptable, at any level.

I wish we would have given them more of a game to demonstrate a true turnaround from the Porter era, but it just wasn't the case today.

 

[TBaslim]

Rough game - sloppy play and no defense by the Suns, bad calls at bad times by the refs, and plenty of timely shooting by the Celtics.

Ah well - at this point the Suns need to just try and make the playoffs and have some fun doing it. Teams like the Celtics (ugh), Lakers (double ugh) and the Cavs (shrug) are just too deep this year.

I mostly want to see the team play hard, smart and fun. Entertaining and losing is better than boring and losing.

 

[FArting]

not me

 

[DeAnna]

Suns should have had a plan in place to secure him, because he is going to be a focal point of the offense in KG's absence. The guy is dynamic like no other. I expect to allow more points in the Gentry era than the Porter era, but 63% allowed is unacceptable, at any level.

IMO, Rondo is nothing to write home about. Only reason he went off is because Nash was mostly guarding him. Barnes was on him for a while, and he cooled off.

 

[dodie53]

tough loss.

goodluck to the suns on their next game

 

[CaptainInsano]

so how many fans sadly jumped ship again after this loss?

Well, considering probably about 99.9% of us never got back on in the first place...

 

[TJ]

Who has class on a Sunday?

Me. Nights/weekends masters program

 

[TJ]

IMO, Rondo is nothing to write home about. Only reason he went off is because Nash was mostly guarding him. Barnes was on him for a while, and he cooled off.

Disagree. Rondo has developed into a special player. Its easy to overlook him with the Big 3 playing on the same side, but someone has to feed them the rock. His ball handling skills are tremendous. His APG have increased to over 8 per game, RPG to 5 and points to 11. And he's 23! His only flaw is that he only shoots 63% from the FT line. He is easily a top 8 PG in this league right now.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

that was a reality check. in many ways.

we are obviously not as good as our 140/game production lead some of you to believe. we can't play the depleted clips and thunder every night.

we are not as bad (or at least i hope not as bad) defensively as we looked today. but against a smart team we're in big trouble. our defense is atrocious.

we are no longer a smart team. jrich and barnes take care of that. and though barbs is a scoring dynamo once again, he's not a cerebral pg. and though hill is smart, i think we're watching him age before our eyes.

i'm happy to see a return to running b/c it's more entertaining. but i don't think we're a good team. i think if we squeek into the playoffs as the 8 seed it'll mean embarrassment against the lakers (whereas i thought with amare we could at least put a scare into the lakers).

with such an aged roster, this season is largely meaningless.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

btw, anyone pay attention to jvg and marc jackson's commentary? they just shredded the suns. and i think they were largely accurate.

 

[Bufalay]

btw, anyone pay attention to jvg and marc jackson's commentary? they just shredded the suns. and i think they were largely accurate.

Especially in the beginning when Van Gundy criticized Nash, Amare and Hill for "forcing" Porter out.

 

[AceP]

Especially in the beginning when Van Gundy criticized Nash, Amare and Hill for "forcing" Porter out.

A lot of fans loves to see Porter out. But time will tell ...

 

[nashman]

The commentary sucked as bad as the refs this game sorry totally disagree. The Celtics so called rep as being a defensive team bought them over 40 FT's today it was total crap lots of terrible calls against the Suns but yet they are allowed to mug our guys with very few calls.

The NBA refs are terribly bias for teams such as C's, Lakers, Spurs, Cleveland you know all the teams they WANT to win! What a joke I hope a bunch of the bandwagon fans leave who needs you, this team will be fun to watch and could still make plenty of noise, and considering we wouldn't have to play the C's unless we got to the finals I like our chances.

Oh and one more thing why don't we give this team a couple of weeks to get their conditioning used to the run and gun and then see how we are playing. One loss against the Celtics who brought their own refs to town is not going to change what I have liked seeing the past 4 games.....FUN, ENTERTAINING BASKETBALL, after all thats what its supposed to be entertainment!

 

[TJ]

The commentary sucked as bad as the refs this game sorry totally disagree. The Celtics so called rep as being a defensive team bought them over 40 FT's today it was total crap lots of terrible calls against the Suns but yet they are allowed to mug our guys with very few calls.

The NBA refs are terribly bias for teams such as C's, Lakers, Spurs, Cleveland you know all the teams they WANT to win! What a joke I hope a bunch of the bandwagon fans leave who needs you, this team will be fun to watch and could still make plenty of noise, and considering we wouldn't have to play the C's unless we got to the finals I like our chances.

Oh and one more thing why don't we give this team a couple of weeks to get their conditioning used to the run and gun and then see how we are playing. One loss against the Celtics who brought their own refs to town is not going to change what I have liked seeing the past 4 games.....FUN, ENTERTAINING BASKETBALL, after all thats what its supposed to be entertainment!

Its always bad when ESPN/ABC does it. Actually, I hate all nationally televised Suns games. All they do is make you depressed about the team. Even though the local broadcast isn't as talented, at least they don't make you want to hang yourself after the game.

 

[nashman]

All they do is regurgitate each others opinions on the Suns, half of them don't even watch or know much about them just regurgitate the same crap guys have said for years.

 

[lou_skywalker]

JVG was very angry at our defense towards the end of the game, when rondo just drived without resistance, just what a real good coach would say, should have hired someone like him in the first place.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

some of you are just ridiculous homers to not recognize how bad our defense was yesterday. jvg and marc jackson were spot on with their criticisms. and though i don't like to hear it (it's easier to beat up your own brother than to allow someone else to do it), i had to nod in agreement most of the time.

as for the fouling . . . HERE COME THE KINGS FANS AGAIN! get over it. the games are called as they are called. teams sometimes have to overcome bad calls. there is no conspiracy. the refs don't "like" certain teams more than others. and yes, teams with defensive reputations get to get away with more. but you know what? they earned that right by putting in the consistent effort to earn their reputation in the first place. the suns haven't done that. and imo, they never have. so yeah, when we bump a guy it's a foul and the C's can usually get away with a little more bumping. and that annoys during the course of the game. but is it so much that it changes the course of a game entirely? not usually. and after the game i have to remind myself, they're a better defensive team and they'll get away with things defensively. same as we're a better offensive team and thus we'll get away with things offensively - see shaq in the post - he gets away with murder on a regular basis.

 

[Bufalay]

Van Gundy and Jackson are the best national announcers today. I love how Van Gundy pointed out all the guys that Sarver has sold.

 

[jagu]

I've been saying for two years JVG would be a good coach for the Suns, but who knows who the right fit is. The Suns are fun to watch though, against scrubby teams.

 

[mojorizen7]

some of you are just ridiculous homers to not recognize how bad our defense was yesterday. jvg and marc jackson were spot on with their criticisms. and though i don't like to hear it (it's easier to beat up your own brother than to allow someone else to do it), i had to nod in agreement most of the time.

as for the fouling . . . HERE COME THE KINGS FANS AGAIN! get over it. the games are called as they are called. teams sometimes have to overcome bad calls. there is no conspiracy. the refs don't "like" certain teams more than others. and yes, teams with defensive reputations get to get away with more. but you know what? they earned that right by putting in the consistent effort to earn their reputation in the first place. the suns haven't done that. and imo, they never have. so yeah, when we bump a guy it's a foul and the C's can usually get away with a little more bumping. and that annoys during the course of the game. but is it so much that it changes the course of a game entirely? not usually. and after the game i have to remind myself, they're a better defensive team and they'll get away with things defensively. same as we're a better offensive team and thus we'll get away with things offensively - see shaq in the post - he gets away with murder on a regular basis.

I completely agree Ouchie, except for your last point because it goes both ways with Shaq. Guys are allowed to bludgeon him with fouls underneath because of his sheer size...fouls that should be as defined by the rules a flagrant 1 most of the time.
Obviously the zebras can't call a flagrant 1 everytime 2 guys blatantly maul Shaq when he's simply trying to go up and dunk it from a foot away from the basket,but the fact is that nobody in this league is fouled harder on a regular basis than Shaq.
On the flip side i'm guessing that you mean Shaq gets away with knocking guys around without getting called when he goes to his offense? I dunno,maybe. IMO he doesn't get away with much these days unlike earlier in his career when he was regularly leaving elbow marks on oppposing bigs' chins and getting alot of "and one's.

 

[YouJustGotSUNSD]

I've been saying for two years JVG would be a good coach for the Suns, but who knows who the right fit is. The Suns are fun to watch though, against scrubby teams.

I am willing to bet he has ZERO interest in coaching here. You can tell by his attitude toward us during games that he thinks we have been hopeless the past 5-6 seasons.

 

[ActingWild]

some of you are just ridiculous homers to not recognize how bad our defense was yesterday. jvg and marc jackson were spot on with their criticisms. and though i don't like to hear it (it's easier to beat up your own brother than to allow someone else to do it), i had to nod in agreement most of the time.

as for the fouling . . . HERE COME THE KINGS FANS AGAIN! get over it. the games are called as they are called. teams sometimes have to overcome bad calls. there is no conspiracy. the refs don't "like" certain teams more than others. and yes, teams with defensive reputations get to get away with more. but you know what? they earned that right by putting in the consistent effort to earn their reputation in the first place. the suns haven't done that. and imo, they never have. so yeah, when we bump a guy it's a foul and the C's can usually get away with a little more bumping. and that annoys during the course of the game. but is it so much that it changes the course of a game entirely? not usually. and after the game i have to remind myself, they're a better defensive team and they'll get away with things defensively. same as we're a better offensive team and thus we'll get away with things offensively - see shaq in the post - he gets away with murder on a regular basis.

With Tim Donaghy's exposure for fixing games, and the implications made about some other refs, this is still debatable in my opinion.

While we SHOULD rise above it and overcome the calls, this game was terribly called in favor of the C's. With as good a team as they are, it's next to impossible to beat that team and the calls (especially if the first half is called in their favor, as it totally takes you out of your game).

This isn't just coming from me, I was at the game with a friend of mine from Orlando who is an avid Magic fan and he was saying it was ridiculous with how the refs called the game.