SUNS SEASON OPENER---Phoenix at San Antonio - October 29, 2008,

[AfroSuns]

With Ginobili being out, we should beat the Spurs and beat them handily.

I am very suprised to see people saying we played good defense when Amare got torched by Duncan in the post and we allowed the Spurs to shoot 50% overall. I guess people will see what they want to see.

Barbosa led us in shot attempts again. Barnes was awful. Dragic horrid.

We were lucky to escape with a win against an undermanned team.

I guess the Suns playing a new style under a new coach and a new system don't get any credit because the "great" Ginobili and Oberto did not play.

 

[Cheesewater]

FT:
Suns 19-27
Spurs 13-19

 

[nowagimp]

i'll give credit where credit is due. and yes, barbs was a key ingredient last night. i think his number of shots was a combo of two items:


2. spurs defense is designed to guide the suns to this end. who do the spurs want shooting the most?
.

It looked like they wanted barnes to shoot to me, 10 shots in 19 minutes and used his man to pack the lane and help freakin BONNER guard amare. Barnes was so lonely at the 3 pt line I thought he was gonna call a dating service.

Lets face it, amare should have eaten Bonner for 40 pts, but with that terrible spacing, it didnt happen. If Barnes doesnt start making shots, I dont see why anyone would guard him out there, he looked just like marion, the first option dictated by the defense. Difference is that he is a lesser shooter from 3 than marion even.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I guess the Suns playing a new style under a new coach and a new system don't get any credit because the "great" Ginobili and Oberto did not play.

i'm stoked any time we can get a win at SA, but if you're gonna even try and say that missing an All-Star in Ginobli and a starter in Oberto didn't hurt the Spurs and didn't play a hand in us being able to "bottle up" the rest of the Spurs, well, I think that's a pretty foolish argument to make.

 

[AfroSuns]

i'm stoked any time we can get a win at SA, but if you're gonna even try and say that missing an All-Star in Ginobli and a starter in Oberto didn't hurt the Spurs and didn't play a hand in us being able to "bottle up" the rest of the Spurs, well, I think that's a pretty foolish argument to make.

I am sure it hurts them, but it is equally a foolish argument to think we couldn't have beaten them with Ginobili in the lineup, its not like the Spurs are going to play 6 against the Suns 5.
The magnitude to prove they are still relevant, on the road, under a different regime, on the court of their "nemesis" who eliminated them from the last playoffs almost balances Ginobili's absence, saying we should beat the Spurs handily is saying little of popovitch as a coach who will all know is very good, maybe you should go back to last season when they played without one of the big 3 against elite teams and still won.
Like i said give some credits to the Suns.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

I guess the Suns playing a new style under a new coach and a new system don't get any credit because the "great" Ginobili and Oberto did not play.

I don't believe that remotely equates to being down Ginobili. I didn't even count them being down their starting Center as well.

So yeah, we beat the Spurs without 2 of their starters. Lowered expectations....

 

[dreamcastrocks]

How many games in a row have the Spurs played us at less than 100% during the regular season? I'd have to say it has been 2 or 3 years, and that half of the time, they do it on purpose.

 

[Mulli]

How many games in a row have the Spurs played us at less than 100% during the regular season? I'd have to say it has been 2 or 3 years, and that half of the time, they do it on purpose.

How many Suns/Spurs games come down to the Suns seeming, to me, to lack a reliable halfcourt offense in the final minute?

/Mulli ducks for cover.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

What really stood out to me last night was the difference in the game was Grant Hill made a crazy last second three and Tim Duncan didn't. That's razor thin.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

It looked like they wanted barnes to shoot to me, 10 shots in 19 minutes and used his man to pack the lane and help freakin BONNER guard amare. Barnes was so lonely at the 3 pt line I thought he was gonna call a dating service.

Lets face it, amare should have eaten Bonner for 40 pts, but with that terrible spacing, it didnt happen. If Barnes doesnt start making shots, I dont see why anyone would guard him out there, he looked just like marion, the first option dictated by the defense. Difference is that he is a lesser shooter from 3 than marion even.

agree. you would hope that porter and staff would recognize this and somehow try to gameplan around it. don't allow the defense to dictate to you. that's what happened to us too many times in the past against the spurs.

 

[shazaam6]

No Nose so no one knows.

However we looked tougher on defense even though Duncan seemed to be making everything, his shots weren't easy.

Parker should be fouled hard if he is just going to jump into our guys and get fouls. He falls down anyway. Hammertime. Can't touch this.

 

[mojorizen7]

With Ginobili being out, we should beat the Spurs and beat them handily.

I am very suprised to see people saying we played good defense when Amare got torched by Duncan in the post and we allowed the Spurs to shoot 50% overall. I guess people will see what they want to see.

Barbosa led us in shot attempts again. Barnes was awful. Dragic horrid.

We were lucky to escape with a win against an undermanned team.

This is very true in many cases. It also pertains to the fans that felt like as long as we scored over 110 pts and put on a good show that we were playing well before this season.

 

[Chaplin]

A win is a freaking win as far as I'm concerned. If you're not going to give credit where credit is due, then you're going to be disappointed for a long time. In today's NBA, regular season games where every player is in perfect health hardly exists.

You think the Spurs and their fans would be lamenting a victory if Shaq and Nash were out? At the end of the year are they only going to count last night as half a win because the Spurs didn't have Ginobili?

 

[Proteus]

How many games in a row have the Spurs played us at less than 100% during the regular season? I'd have to say it has been 2 or 3 years, and that half of the time, they do it on purpose.

If you're counting the Spurs big 3, it was 0. Parker, Ginobli, and Duncan have all played in 11 out of 15 regular season games against the Suns since the start of the 2004-2005 season (includes yesterday's game).

When they didn't played agains the Suns., they also didn't play the next game after.

 

[Phade]

A win is a freaking win as far as I'm concerned. If you're not going to give credit where credit is due, then you're going to be disappointed for a long time. In today's NBA, regular season games where every player is in perfect health hardly exists.

You think the Spurs and their fans would be lamenting a victory if Shaq and Nash were out? At the end of the year are they only going to count last night as half a win because the Spurs didn't have Ginobili?

indeed

 

[Andrew]

AMAZING victory.

 

[arwillan]

AMAZING victory.

amazing that shaq was pretty productive against a good team or amazing that we beat the spurs without their starting center and biggest offensive threat?

 

[LV-Suns]

AMAZING victory.

Andrew, are you the "Beware" guy in RealGM?

He cries a lot about no getting to watching games too.

 

[Andrew]

What's RealGM?

And amazing we beat the Spurs period.