Western Conference First Round Game 1- Grizzles @ Suns Game Thread

[lancelet's cousin]

If you're referring to the TNT announcers, Mike Dunleavy was the color man, not Tolbert. I think Kevin Harlan and Doug Collins are the best team.

Dunleavy, couldn't think of his name. But man he is drab. He talked right through every highlight in the game with pure gibberish. And the other guy was even worse (name escapes me as well) I don't think he has kept up with the NBA since about the merger. I think he was serious when he asked Dunleavy if he named all his players with just one initial and not just "Q".

But seriously, you didn't pick up Tom Tolbert in the final minute (maybe two minutes)? It was a higher quality feed, and they cut right in on them mid-word. Did anybody else get a different feed in the last minute or so?

 

[ActingWild]

Great win!

Any word on Marion's wrist?

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

But seriously, you didn't pick up Tom Tolbert in the final minute (maybe two minutes)? It was a higher quality feed, and they cut right in on them mid-word. Did anybody else get a different feed in the last minute or so?

Not me. It shouldn't even be possible because Tolbert wasn't at AWA. TNT only sends 1 color guy and 1 play by play to each arena, especially when they are hosting 4 games a day.

Ernie, Chuck and Kenny talked for a while during the Nuggets game while they had technical difficulties.

 

[lancelet's cousin]

Not me. It shouldn't even be possible because Tolbert wasn't at AWA. TNT only sends 1 color guy and 1 play by play to each arena, especially when they are hosting 4 games a day.

Ernie, Chuck and Kenny talked for a while during the Nuggets game while they had technical difficulties.

Were they talking at the end of the game? Because I did have quite a few people over, but it wasn't that loud. I guess it was just Ernie talking highly about the Suns- he sure sounded like Tolbert from what I heard. But you're obviously right. I was probably in shock someone was praising the Suns and my brain could only think of Tolbert. And come to think of if they were doing a bunch of close ups of the players at the same time. Probably just assumed it was a different feed because of the different audio. I didn't pay much attention once the Grizz started fouling. Thanks for figuring that out for me.

 

[carey]

Amare Stoudemire, facing a crowd of defenders in the lane, sputtered in his playoff debut with nine points, 17 off his season average.

That quote is from the ESPN game recap.

We went to the playoffs his rookie season and almost upset the Spurs. *sigh*

 

[carey]

Any word on Marion's wrist?

According to ESPN: The injury was diagnosed as a sprained right wrist, and Marion wore a brace after the game.

 

[Mike Olbinski]

According to ESPN: The injury was diagnosed as a sprained right wrist, and Marion wore a brace after the game.

I'm a geek, but after getting home from the game, I watched the TNT broadcast just to see what they say about the team...

Anyways, very disappointed in the announcers with that flagrant...Battier clearly grabbed Marion's wrists and flung him on the ground...he wasn't going for ball at all...

He could have done that without GRABBING Shawn's wrist and it might have been okay, but he basically threw him to the floor...

And finally, they acted completely oblivious to the fact that he looked at first like he had a broken wrist, and all the fans were dying...if Marion goes down, I'm not sure we go far...

We were ticked, and boo-ed Battier everytime he touched the ball after...

Mike

 

[Cheesebeef]

solid Game 1 win - especially with Amare having a piss poor offesnive game. Hunter stepped up big time tonight. A little worried about Shawn's wrist but it could have been worse. Now I'm glad we have the extra day off so he gets a little more time to heal up.

1 down - 15 to go!

 

[Cheesebeef]

Marion's the basketball equivalent of a soccer player. I can remember him going down on more than one occassion during the season where it looked really bad and he ended up being fine.

For once, though, I'll agree with jbeecham - the officiating tonight REALLY sucked. They didn't let us play defense at all - seemed like we got a lot of ticky tack fouls called on us. Oh well - pretty dominating win - game was never really in doubt and Amare played like crap, I'll take that for our first win on the way to 16!

DB

 

[jibikao]

Hunter had an A+ game. He stepped up big time. I think he took Gasol out of his game.


The officiating was weird. I won't say it's unfair but looks like every time we try to play some tough defense, we get calls against us, especially on Amare. But they did call a few crucial charge calls against the Griz in the end (Q) so I thought that was alright.

Overall, I think the refs did let us play the way we want it.

 

[jbeecham]

Marion's the basketball equivalent of a soccer player. I can remember him going down on more than one occassion during the season where it looked really bad and he ended up being fine.

For once, though, I'll agree with jbeecham - the officiating tonight REALLY sucked. They didn't let us play defense at all - seemed like we got a lot of ticky tack fouls called on us. Oh well - pretty dominating win - game was never really in doubt and Amare played like crap, I'll take that for our first win on the way to 16!

DB

At least wait for me to complain about the ticky tack fouls first and it seemed like the refs really tried to even up the number of foul calls in the 4th qtr and there were foul calls on almost every offensive possesion for the Grizz.

We still got the win and Shawn's wrist isn't broken, hopefully he'll be ok to play on Wednesday.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

DB!!!

 

[Chaz]

Great win to start the playoffs. Not a great game but a W is what it is all about.

I was a little worried Marion stayed down so long. He sure was aggressive trying to dunk past two defenders.

The crowd was awesome from the noise on the TV.

GO SUNS!!

 

[thirty-two]

The crowd was awesome from the noise on the TV.

Definitely!! I heard them chanting "M-V-P" when Nash was shooting free throws. That was awesome!

 

[Mike Olbinski]

Definitely!! I heard them chanting "M-V-P" when Nash was shooting free throws. That was awesome!

Thanks, we tried

Mike

 

[jibikao]

Thanks, we tried

Mike

You were at the game? AWESOME.

I am glad Suns fans recognize Nash as the MVP of this season. hehe.

I was a bit worried that those MVP screams may make Nash nervous when he takes the FT. lol I am glad Nash wasn't too high.

 

[Cheesebeef]

no one's mentioned Q's big game. Pretty nice for a guy who has been struggling down the stretch and in his first playoff games has 22 points, 5 boards a HUGE 3 and some key defensive stops.

Again - if you can't see the value of Q on this team, I really think you don't have a good grasp of what this team really is.

 

[elindholm]

no one's mentioned Q's big game.

Richardson looked very good in his first career playoff game, except for below-average shooting...

Cheesebeef called me a "no one." I'm telling Mommy.

 

[Chaplin]

Cheesebeef called me a "no one." I'm telling Mommy.

He must have you on ignore.

 

[elindholm]

He must have you on ignore.

LOL, that possibility did occur to me.

 

[se7en]

I agree. I thought Q was clutch down the stretch. Took a charge or 2. He disrupted that 2 on 1 break where Williams blew the lay up. Then there was the big 3. But I thought there was an even bigger play towards the end when the Grizz started to make a run. There was a possession where the shot clock was winding down, Q got the ball for a 3, dribbled around the defender and drove to the basket for a floater. And of course there were plays in the post where he was backing down a defender in the paint before tossing it out to JJ or Marion for a 3.

With Q, there are a lot of intangibles that don’t show up in the stat sheet.

Marion’s performance was huge as well. Seeing how well he played makes his injury that much more significant. My guess is that Marion won’t have as good a game as this one for the rest of this series. I think his injury is really going to have an effect on this team’s play. More than likely his shooting will be way off on Wednesday. And typically Marion is fairly timid right after an injury. So chances are he’ll be ineffective from 3 and he’ll be too timid to drive. Hopefully someone will step up until Marion is healed and gets his confidence back. On the other hand, maybe I’m being overly concerned. But I doubt it. I think the reality is that Marion will be less of a factor in the next few games.

That just means Amare and Nash will have to play a bigger role until Marion is back at full strength.

 

[Chaplin]

That just means Amare and Nash will have to play a bigger role until Marion is back at full strength.

LOL I don't know why, but this statement brings a smile to my face, since statistically, Amare and Nash were almost non-factors last night, yet we still won pretty easily.

 

[Chaz]

Somehow I don't see 13 assists as a non factor.

Amare was a huge factor. Drawing attention inside to free shooters and grabbing 10 boards.


Sure we want them to score more but the team scored 114. Can't ask for much more than that.

 

[se7en]

That's eactly why I mentioned it. And I should have specified scoring, because that will be needed if Marion can't score.

I've only had time to lurk lately. How's it going these days, Chaplin? Still living in Burbank?

 

[Chaplin]

I've only had time to lurk lately. How's it going these days, Chaplin? Still living in Burbank?

Yep, livin' in good ole Burbank... Trying to talk to cheesebeef about getting a Suns group together for the playoffs, but nothing concrete as of yet.