Chaplin said:
PLEASE stop with the record comparisons! When we played Sacramento, and Cleveland, it was early in the season--a .640 record means nothing on December 28th in comparison to a game played in mid-November.
Secondly, Sacramento was playing like total crap when we played them. The game against us was their wake-up call, and the Kings played their best game of the season that game, and one of the best all-around games played by any team this year.
Winning percentages? Our biggest loss until tonight was 5 points! 5!! What the hell does winning percentage have to do with that? Nothing. What it shows that no matter how good the team, except tonight's Spurs team, we can beat em all.
Is San Antonio a better team? They are definitely a better defensive team, but no matter what happened tonight, we are absolutely a better offensive team. In my opinion, that makes the teams a wash. So you can cry in your corn flakes tomorrow morning about how we're such a bad team and how the Spurs are such a great team. News flash, BOTH teams are very good--tonight happened to be SA's night, or at least, it certainly just wasn't OUR night. Leave it at that and move on. Give me another game against San Antonio tomorrow night, and I will still say that it is impossible to predict the outcome.
I've really think some of you are looking for a fight that just isn't there tonight. If you go back and read the posts you are getting so worked up about you will see that they think the Suns are a good team. They just aren't sure about how their success so far against a weak schedule (I'm not sure how you can argue that) will translate into playoff success against the best teams in the NBA. If you want to talk about margin of victory what about the Denver Nuggets (without Anthony or Camby) or the LA Lakers? Are those teams just as good as the Phoenix Suns?
Now unfortunately I have some bad news for some of you guys who act like this was a one-game aberration. San Antonio did not win tonight because of the referees. That helped a little, but it certainly wasn't the difference of the game. They didn't win tonight because they'd knocked down a bunch of difficult shots. Spurs shot so well because for the most part they were taking wide-open jump shots and layups. In fact it's really a miracle that they didn't shoot much better. If both teams were to go in with the same philosophies tomorrow the outcome would almost certainly be similar.
I do think at this point that San Antonio isn't bad, bad match up for the Phoenix Suns. They have the size, experience, and perimeter speed to give the Suns fits on both ends of the court. Their defense was great tonight, but their offense and Phoenix's lack of defense was the real killer. it's very difficult to run the ball with your opponent is making so many easy baskets. Steve Nash was destroyed last night by Tony Parker. Many of us saw that one coming, but what I didn't see coming was the complete lack of help from the other defenders. they never stopped the ball last night. Q, Shawn Marion , JJ, and Amare allowed Parker to go all the way to the basket more times that I could count last night.
Really the one bright spot of last night's game was Amare Stoudemire's offense. I thought San Antonio employed the defensive philosophy I wish Phoenix would have taken with Duncan. That is to allow several guys to guard him one-on-one throughout the game with
occasional double-team help and use up those fouls. again, it isn't as if all of the other Phoenix Suns players just had bad games and couldn't shoot. They had almost no open shots and were really harassed every time they had the ball.
I posted a quote yesterday from D'Antoni's radio chat where he said that if their style of play clearly did not work they would make adjustments. I don't think they have to revamp their entire philosophy, but clearly they need to make some changes when they face San Antonio again. I think they can be competitive and victorious against the Minnesota's and Sacramento's with only some minor adjustments (a little more Stephen Hunter). San Antonio is just a bad matchup for the Suns.
Just for the record... unless the Suns can nab a good, long-term player I'm against trading any key pieces and/or the Chicago draft pick. The only exception would be if they could get a player or players who would make them a certain championship favorite.
I just wanted to add a few thoughts to an already lengthy post. I just read an article about the game on AZCentral. There was some live in that article about how the Suns' perimeter players shot poorly just like they did against Minnesota. Against Minnesota they were also well defended, but it was nothing like last night. In that game they didn't miss a lot of wide-open shots. Last night I don't think those same players had more than a handful of open shots all night long. Their poor shooting cannot be dismissed as just "a bad shooting tonight".
I have not watched the game again, and perhaps somebody can correct me here if I'm wrong. I thought Hunter did about as well as anyone could do one-on-one against Tim Duncan just like he did against Kevin Garnett. It was when he was substituted for Amare Stoudemire I believe that the Phoenix lead swelled at the beginning of the second quarter. I hope that Coach Mike will see that it views a more traditional lineup at times against some of these élite frontcourt teams.
Joe Mama
