Suns Versus The Magic

[Errntknght]

With TT's reported history I'm concerned whether he'll continue to play hard but he did that tonight. I suspect most of the complainents only read the box score - for one thing a couple of people asked who he guarded and no one answered. He guarded Milicic most of his first stint and Howard in his second. He switched off on Hedo a few times and stymied him better than Bell or Shawn were doing. The refs bailed out Hedo on one play where he flailed into TT - that was the play when he kissed the ref on the head.

1) he boxed them both out consistently - Darko got no rebounds against him and Howard only one or two. He defended them both fairly well - at least as well as anyone else did. Still he was overmatched against Howard but Orlando didn't press the advantage.

2) He did get one rebound but they called a loose ball foul on Orlando on the play. Early in the game he spectated when the Suns put up shots but by the end he was crashing the boards quite well.

3) His cutting off the driving by the Magic guards wasn't sharp but he delivered two nice hard fouls in such situations. No Suns interior defender looked sharp against their drives - I'd say he did slightly the best of the bunch.

4) On one play where Howard was bumping Nash on a pick TT gave Howard a solid hip and elbow. He got called for a foul but Nash came over and thanked him.

5) He successfully defended a 3 on 1 break - nothing spectacular but he was there and contesting the two shots they took and missed.

6) Howard didn't want to come out and defense him at the arc, and he nailed 3 treys. He also drove on Howard twice - getting blocked once and fouled once. (1/2 FT)

7) He posted up shorter guys, Stevenson, Garrity & Hedo and hit 2 of 3. Midpost, shooting 12-15 ft turnarounds.

8) His team D was good for his first game - I only spotted one bad switch onto a guard.

I expected much worse defense and no boxing out from all that's been said about him the last couple days so I think he's a very pleasant surprise.


Jones didn't look quite normal on his shots but what I noticed was that he didn't kick his leg out like he was doing before - it could be that the leg starts to hurt when it gets banged into a few times. If his wrist was bothering him, I couldn't tell it. My recollection is that he shot a decent percentage tonight.

 

[George O'Brien]

It is very frustrating how much trouble the Suns have when opponents get hot from the outside. They can't really stretch their defense because they lack the kind of big shot blocker to back them up.

However, if I was a Magic player I'd be pretty frustrated. How many teams can score 118 points, shoot 55.6% from the field, 40% for three, out rebound their opponent by 4, block 4 shots -- and still lose.

The Suns are very vulnerable when the opponent shoots well, but the Suns have enough firepower to respond even when two of their best three point shooters have off nights.

Besides TT coming from nowhere to remind people why he was considered such a great offensive player, the most pleasant surprise had to be the great game by Barbosa: 7 of 7 shooting (including 3 of 3 for three), 3 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals with only 1 turnover. We've been waiting for Leandro to have a breakout game and perhaps this was it.

It was a lot more difficult game than it should have been, but 34 assists suggests they are still doing some things right.

 

[boisesuns]

Yeah, he did.

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/articles/0302sunsside0302.html

The reserve center's frustration isn't a secret in Suns camp. Burke wants to play more. To be effective, he says he needs to play more. It's a must.

"If you play with Steve (Nash) every game, you know what he's capable of doing," Burke said at his locker. "If I go out there for three minutes once every four games, I don't really know what's going to happen. And when I get hit in the head or I lose the ball, it pisses me off. And I don't get the opportunity again."

Burke knew added minutes were a possibility following Kurt Thomas' foot injury. But he played just 11 minutes Monday against Houston and only five last week against Charlotte.

To make matters worse, practice hasn't helped. Not with all the injuries. The Suns are so hobbled, they haven't played much full-court five-on-five in recent weeks.

"I'm playing two-on-two with Amaré (Stoudemire), and two-on-two is not five-on-five in the NBA," Burke said. "You know, that's some (expletive) you do in the driveway."

Come on, Pat.

 

[Wally]

He's 20, 2nd year out of high school, and is leading the league in rebounding. He is 6'11" with an amazing physique and athleticism, and has a great work ethic. Big men take a long time to develop, and Howard is very raw offensively, but he has the desire and talent to be dominating. Imagine in 4 more years, he will be 24 with 6 years of nba experience. He will certainly be a 20+ppg, 14+rpg center if he stays healthy.

Just want to add that he has very long arms for his height giving him the length of a guy about 7' 5" AND he can actually jump higher than 2" unlike some other 7' + centers.

My dream would be to have Nash, Barbosa, Marion, Amare & Howard starting with Diaw, Bell, K-Thomas, & Jones off the bench. If T-Thomas ever shows ANY defenseive effort, I'd give him some PT too, but in looking at the past couple of games, Burke might get more PT.

Exciting game - Magic played like a playoff team - If not for Marion, we would have lost this game.

 

[sunsfn]

With TT's reported history I'm concerned whether he'll continue to play hard but he did that tonight. I suspect most of the complainents only read the box score - for one thing a couple of people asked who he guarded and no one answered. He guarded Milicic most of his first stint and Howard in his second. He switched off on Hedo a few times and stymied him better than Bell or Shawn were doing. The refs bailed out Hedo on one play where he flailed into TT - that was the play when he kissed the ref on the head.

1) he boxed them both out consistently - Darko got no rebounds against him and Howard only one or two. He defended them both fairly well - at least as well as anyone else did. Still he was overmatched against Howard but Orlando didn't press the advantage.

2) He did get one rebound but they called a loose ball foul on Orlando on the play. Early in the game he spectated when the Suns put up shots but by the end he was crashing the boards quite well.

3) His cutting off the driving by the Magic guards wasn't sharp but he delivered two nice hard fouls in such situations. No Suns interior defender looked sharp against their drives - I'd say he did slightly the best of the bunch.

4) On one play where Howard was bumping Nash on a pick TT gave Howard a solid hip and elbow. He got called for a foul but Nash came over and thanked him.

5) He successfully defended a 3 on 1 break - nothing spectacular but he was there and contesting the two shots they took and missed.

6) Howard didn't want to come out and defense him at the arc, and he nailed 3 treys. He also drove on Howard twice - getting blocked once and fouled once. (1/2 FT)

7) He posted up shorter guys, Stevenson, Garrity & Hedo and hit 2 of 3. Midpost, shooting 12-15 ft turnarounds.

8) His team D was good for his first game - I only spotted one bad switch onto a guard.

I expected much worse defense and no boxing out from all that's been said about him the last couple days so I think he's a very pleasant surprise.

.

I thought he played very good basketball for the first game.

I liked the foul on Howard. Nash is getting hammered at times and it is good to have someone bang back to try to slow that down. This team does not foul on purpose, but there are times that it is important and we do not have an enforcer that helps out there.

 

[F-Dog]

Well, the Suns are finally back to where they were last year--play no defense until the fourth quarter, then try to pull things out in the last five minutes. At least they didn't choke things away at the end, like they did earlier in the year.


Boris Diaw was fantastique--$50m/6yrs is starting to look like a bargain. The kid plays center like Brad Miller, but he provides more interior presence and shot-blocking than Miller does.


I didn't chart him, but I thought TT looked pretty bad on defense, especially on the P&R. He's huge (Webber-esque?), but he didn't use his bulk very well--James Jones does a better job guarding the paint than TT did.

Still, you can't argue with his shooting. The Suns should probably put him in for Eddie House instead of one of the "bigs", though.