Suns vs. Blazers

[Chaz]

Well I am excited to hear Amare is coming back tonight (again). Lets hope he doesn't try a replay of the block on Patterson that knocked him back out last time.

Blazers have changed a bit since the Suns faced them last. I haven't seen them play but no McGinnis and they added Miles.
Now if they would get rid of Patterson.

Hopefully someone can keep Patterson off the boards.

I am looking for another strong defensive effort tonight. I expect quite a bit of rust for Amare however. Hopefully he gets involved in the offense and passes the ball when swarmed.


GO SUNS!

Should be a fun game to watch / listen to.

 

[George O'Brien]

The latest is that Randolph will play center and Wallace will be at PF. Whatever they do, it will be a challenge to keep them from scoring.

Miles production in Portland has been much greater than in Cleveland: 11.3 ppg on 52.7% shooting; 4.5 rpg in 22.5 minutes. He is making a big contribution to the Blazers. This may have been one of those rare trades that actually benefited both teams in the short run.

 

[slinslin]

www.kxl.com - guess it is not working

For the Blazers stream.
Amare will not start btw.

 

[Chaz]

The Blazers are shooting the lights out right now.


Patterson on the bench in street clothes.

 

[Chaplin]

Howard Eisley is keeping us in the game!

EDIT: Oh, man, ESPN is WAAAAAY behind on their scores.

 

[sly fly]

WTF, Why in the hell is Marion still shooting 3's???????

Is this guy brain dead or what?

Hit a shot or two before you start launching.

Charles Oakley-syndrome at it's finest.

 

[sly fly]

And, I don't want to hear diddly from the Shawn Marion jock-strap club, either. Yeah, he had a good last game.

But, he needs to kick his head into high gear a little more often. Stupid play like this is something mediocre franchises put up with.

 

[arthurracoon]

Two Words:


JOE JOHNSON

 

[sly fly]

Originally posted by arthurracoon
Two Words:


JOE JOHNSON

It's JJ's universe. We're just here for the ride!

 

[sly fly]

That's a HS call on Amare. What the heck is he supposed to do with that arm?

Randolph let him go baseline, yet he gets rewarded. Nice.

 

[slinslin]

Originally posted by sly fly
And, I don't want to hear diddly from the Shawn Marion jock-strap club, either. Yeah, he had a good last game.

But, he needs to kick his head into high gear a little more often. Stupid play like this is something mediocre franchises put up with.

I agree.

Marion is frustrating me. Even more than his shooting percentage that he takes more shots than JJ when JJ is 10-11 since going 0-4.

I wouldn't be totally opposed to get rid off him and draft Warrick, what you think?

 

[sly fly]

R U Kidding me!

 

[sly fly]

Originally posted by slinslin
I agree.

Marion is frustrating me. Even more than his shooting percentage that he takes more shots than JJ when JJ is 10-11 since going 0-4.

I wouldn't be totally opposed to get rid off him and draft Warrick, what you think?

Only trade Marion if it gets PHX Kobe or a top-5 Center.

Marion is salvageable, even as helter-skelter as he's been.

 

[sly fly]

Marion had a GOOD look. Looked good, too.

Too bad, he needed it.

 

[slinslin]

Man this is like a deja-vu. Marion struggles all night and gets the shot at the end of the game.

 

[Chaz]

Bad start.

Second half was encouraging at least.


JJ is un-stop-able.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

All week long D'Antoni has been talking up how he is wearing down Marion by making him play over 40 minutes every night. He said it was necessary though to wear him down with Amare being gone...

So Amare comes back and Marion still plays 45 minutes. His shot is flat horrible, but he still plays too many minutes.

Meanwhile Casey plays the most unproductive 31 minutes ever. 0 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists.

The problem is, I don't see where else you could put those minutes outside of letting Harvey play the 3 until Zarko comes back.

 

[George O'Brien]

Missed the game (I caught some on the radio and is sounded ugly), but the stat that stands out is that the Blazers had 27 assists to only 13 by the Suns. Want to know why the Blazers shot 51.3% from the field - they passed the ball.

In some ways it is amazing that the Suns shot 45.7% from the field inspite of 4 of 18 by Marion (and 0 of 7 for three). Since I did not watch the game, I don't know how many of the other shots were jumpers. I fear Shawn has this belief that he can just shoot his way out of a slump - which rarely happens.

By contrast, Eisley went 5 of 10 for one of his strongest offensive games this season although he did make 3 turnovers. Barbosa shot well, but had 4 turnovers.

Stoudemire scored 21 points on 6-11 shooting and grabbed 6 rebounds. Unfortunately, he had 3 turnovers. None of the Suns inside guys were effective on defense as the Blazers big guys just killed them:

Randolph 9 of 17
Wallace 3 of 5 (in 12 minutes)
Dale Davis 4 of 6
Miles 6 of 11

Considering all, it was impressive that the Suns came back from the hold they dug.

 

[Joe Mama]

It was another night of a scrambling, double teaming defense because even with Amare Stoudemire the Suns were undersized tonight. Unfortunately the Blazers were knocking down their outside shots. They were also moving the ball around very quickly and to the right guys. I thought the real killer was Damon Stoudamire's outside shooting and penetration. He broke down the Phoenix Suns defense time after time creating easy baskets for his teammates.

No one should expect a young team to shoot 95% from the free-throw line, but Shawn Marion, Joe Johnson, and Amare Stoudemire all missed key free throws down the stretch. I also couldn't believe how many layups and slamdunks the Phoenix Suns missed last night.

I'm not sure what can be done about Shawn Marion. I mean his shooting is almost exactly like JJ's before the Marbury trade. Most of his shots look good and go halfway in the basket before they come out. If he just got 1 pt. for every shot that went halfway down last night he would have scored 20 + points. It was nice to see him go to the line 9 times last night. Well, I guess that isn't too impressive considering half of those attempts were from technical free throws. I'm just looking for some positive.

I'm hoping that by the end of the season the Phoenix Suns are much better at getting Amare Stoudemire the ball down low, and he is better at establishing himself closer to the basket. As fast and powerful as he is he should be one of the league leaders in free-throw attempts per game.

Joe Mama