Suns@Nuggets

[Joe Mama]

Originally posted by Dr. Dumas
Overall, I thought that the Suns played a pretty good game. It sure looked better then the last time we played Denver.

Heres my opinion of why the Suns lost.
1. Marion can not create shots for himself.
2. The FT edge was huge for Denver. The Suns really missed Amare in this game. Amare is about the only person on this team that gets to the line with some consistancy. He also can create double teams.
3. Jake made a stupid foul which was a 4 point swing late in the game. The next time down the court, Earl completly reaches around Eisley to strip the ball, which should of been called as a foul, but it was not.
4. Camby makes a very lucky shot with the clock expiring to take a 5 point lead.

I'll take the lose and pretty much be happy with it, because our boys showed hustle and matched Denver's intensity. Denver is a great home team, and if we can compete in Denver then I like the direction this team is heading.

For the most part I didn't think Shawn Marion had any trouble creating his own shot. In fact almost all of his shots were good ones. They just did not go in the basket. That's the way it's been most of the season. It really is like he has caught a case of that JJ inconsistency. The looks are there, but they don't go in the basket.

Over all I thought the officiating was pretty good last night. There were some stretches when I thought the Phoenix Suns got screwed, but overall it was pretty even. Actually, I thought the worst no call of the evening came in the first quarter when Casey Jacobsen had an inside shot "blocked" by Marcus Camby and somebody else. He was actually hammered by both of them. It resulted in a fast break for the Nuggets.

Joe Mama

 

[elindholm]

Appharently Marion threw up during the Nuggets game...all over D'Antoni's shoes.

You sure it wasn't the other way around? Watching Marion miss every shot last night sure made me nauseated, I can tell you that much.

 

[cly2tw]

Originally posted by Joe Mama
For the most part I didn't think Shawn Marion had any trouble creating his own shot. In fact almost all of his shots were good ones. They just did not go in the basket. That's the way it's been most of the season. It really is like he has caught a case of that JJ inconsistency. The looks are there, but they don't go in the basket.

Joe Mama

This means essentially that "he can't create for himself". What he does is trying a couple quick steps and then making a quick release after a quick jump. He is a moderately good ball handler in that he shields his dribbling rather well from his defender. His problem is only that he is unable to use his body to do fakes, direction changes, protecting the ball or getting more space via contact initiated by himself, all the things a moderately good one-on-one scorer does. His window for shooting is so small that he has to rush it everytime, what makes his shot a very low percentage one.

The only fix for this problem is that he learns how to glide trhough, instead of hop around, on the court. Apparently, he is not gonna to learn it anymore.

 

[B-Dogg]

Marions problem is that he takes way to many outside shots. He should be taking the ball to the hole on a much more consistent basis and maybe we wouldnt have a 20 FTA discrepency. The guy is money from the line yet he hardly ever gets there. With his quickness, especially playing agaisnt power forwards, he should be taking it to the rack every time. If Marion were to start doing that he would be worth every penny of his contract, but until then........

 

[George O'Brien]

It did seem like there was a lid on the basket for Shawn on the short stuff that he usually does well on. I suspect he was reacting to Camby and changing the shot, but it was still frustrating.

Mostly Shawn's defense looked pretty good. He still suffers from "jumper's disease" (a desire to block every shot and thus jump too early), but he looked a lot better than in some other games. Carmelo hit some very tough shots.

My biggest concern is his unwillingness to work to generate contact from defenders and get to the line. The fact that he avoids contact means that shot blockers are encouraged to try to block his shot because they know he won't force a foul. D'Antoni has to push him to go directly to the basket.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

y'all are right on. the fact that we took only 9 fts compared to 29 for the nuggets says it all. we just aren't aggressive enough. and marion is the main culprit. w/ a marbury or amare on the floor we get to the line 'cuz they draw contact, but marion kind of floats and avoids all contact. he'll never be a complete player until he learns to attract and create contact and go aggressively to the hole. it's the surest way in the league to score.