Wolves @ Suns Game Thread

[Amare32]

The home stand contines tonight


The Phoenix Suns carried the momentum from consecutive wins to close a six-game road trip into a home victory in their last outing. The Suns try to make it four straight wins when they take on a slumping Minnesota Timberwolves team.

After routing Philadelphia and defeating Boston earlier in the week to wrap up their trip at 4-2, Phoenix cruised past Chicago 118-101 at America West Arena on Saturday. Shawn Marion had 26 points and 11 rebounds, and Steve Nash added 21 points and seven assists as the Suns opened a four-game homestand with an easy victory.

Phoenix led by two points at halftime, but outscored the Bulls 38-20 in the third quarter to push its advantage to 90-70.
"Being up by 20 after three periods is better than being up by 20 at halftime," Nash said. "After halftime, it gives them more time to get back into it. Being up by 20 after three periods demoralizes them."

The Suns have reached double digits in 10 consecutive games and lead the league with 106.8 points per game. They have won eight of their last nine at home.


Minnesota has lost three in a row, all on the road, and is 3-8 in its last 11 overall. The Timberwolves were pounded 109-77 by Golden State on Saturday, the Wolves' worst defeat of the season.

Minnesota shot 37.6 percent from the floor and 0-of-6 from 3-point range. Kevin Garnett had 15 points and 11 rebounds, and Ricky Davis had 20 points and five boards, but the Wolves fell to 2-4 since acquiring Davis from Boston for Wally Szczerbiak in a seven-player deal Jan. 26.

"We just couldn't regroup and then they got on a roll," Wolves coach Dwane Casey said. "The more we tried, the more they got on a roll and got going, so there's no answer. If you don't come out with a focus and effort for 48 minutes in this league, you're in trouble."
S
zczerbiak was Minnesota's leading scorer in the last three meetings with Phoenix, including 27 points in the last matchup.
The Suns have beaten the Wolves four straight times.

 

[Errntknght]

It's happening again... a struggling team gets the Suns and plays like a contender. They're taking the lead from us with Garnett off the floor, too. Interesting... I watched about half of their game against Portland and the team did better without Garnett then, too. In that game he shot 12/13 from the floor so you'd think they'd have died out there without him.

 

[jibikao]

I swear those losing teams that play against us always play like this is a MUST win or something.

Hopefully we can blow them out after the half. We can't lose to the wolves!

 

[Louis]

Can Marion pull off the triple double? 7 steals and the 3rd Q isn't over yet.

 

[az1965]

This is not looking good. We must not lose to Wolves at home... Wolves are a very poor road team.

 

[devilalum]

Diaw for 3?!?!?!?

 

[boisesuns]

Without Kurt Thomas's Scoring the Wolves woud have won by a lot more

 

[arthurracoon]

argh.

what a disastrous final possestion.

even with that, we got a nice shot.

argh.

 

[hsandhu]

As much as the suns will cry about that last play, it never should have gotten there. Another disgusting effort against a team they should have taken care of.

The way the Clippers are playing, there is a damn good chance the suns don't win the pacific. Which means they likely get the #5 seed and would have sa and dallas. Damn...., losing these games could ruin the whole season, why cant the team understand that.

 

[Sundance]

Remeber that 9 game win streak when the Suns were steam-rolling over sorry competition? What has happened since then? At this point, I'm more worried about the sorry teams than I am about the good ones.

 

[Treesquid PhD]

As much as the suns will cry about that last play, it never should have gotten there. Another disgusting effort against a team they should have taken care of.

The way the Clippers are playing, there is a damn good chance the suns don't win the pacific. Which means they likely get the #5 seed and would have sa and dallas. Damn...., losing these games could ruin the whole season, why cant the team understand that.

The Clippers will tank it's inevitable.

 

[boisesuns]

The Clippers will tank it's inevitable.

The fact that they've been around this long, and have some talent makes me think otherwise. The suns should be able to win the pacific, but the Clipps probably won't fade.

 

[az1965]

The Clippers will tank it's inevitable.

Keep dreaming... we need to get out of this ediotic funk against lesser teams... we played most of today's game sleep walking.

 

[green machine]

Suns won one like that last year against Sac Town when Amare came from the weak side for a similar block on Brad Miller. Close call, I guess I'd rather see the ref not call it goaltending if it's that close.

Anyways, not a great effort, but Garnett was hitting his shot down the stretch along with their entire team it seemed.

 

[Sundance]

These guys need to work on hitting wide-open layups.

 

[arthurracoon]

The Clippers arent going away. They are here to stay.

 

[jibikao]

Well, Wolves shot freaking 56%. lol What happened? Can somebody explain?

It doesn't help that House was 1/6. I guess he couldn't give us the offense we need.

How did Wolves shoot 56%???

 

[jibikao]

The Clippers arent going away. They are here to stay.

It doesn't matter if Clippers stay or not but we need to keep our #1 spot and WE WILL.

 

[jibikao]

Suns won one like that last year against Sac Town when Amare came from the weak side for a similar block on Brad Miller. Close call, I guess I'd rather see the ref not call it goaltending if it's that close.

Anyways, not a great effort, but Garnett was hitting his shot down the stretch along with their entire team it seemed.

What happened with the last shot?? We got blocked or something like that or we blocked somebody and the ref called goal tending?

Well, either way, we SHOULD not even let the game get that close. Good punishment for us taking so lightly on losing teams. I swear this is something in our blood. Losing teams KNOW how to beat us; whereas winning teams can't figure out how we work. This sucks.

 

[jibikao]

Oh...what happened to Kurt Thomas?

 

[jibikao]

You watch, Wolves is going to be on some kind of winning streak after this win. I swear this happens to almost EVERY losing team that beat us, Magic, Sonics and even Kings.

 

[boisesuns]

Oh...what happened to Kurt Thomas?

He made a free throw

 

[jbeecham]

I just got home from the game. The Wolves played a smart gameplan. The put full court pressure on Nash and gave Nash open jumpshots. They basically tried to make Nash a scorer and guard the rest of our guys closely. We didn't get many open shots all night and almost no open 3's. House had a bad game and continued to shoot (he came in with us up 6 and left 3 minutes later with us down 3 in the beginning of the 4th). KT was invisible on offense and fumbled passes that would've given him layups.

We missed probably 10 layups tonight and had a bunch of shots go "in and out". Defensively, we had to double team Garnett because he was just throwing Marion & Diaw around in the post, which gave Bank, McCants, Carter, Hassel and Ricky Davis wide open shots all night and they were making them.

There were some bad call on both ends and both teams got some technicals. For example, Marion jumps up and grabs a rebound in traffic and then jumps again immediately and the ball was either knocked out of his hands or he fumbled it and dribbled it on the way down and they called him for travelling. It was a weird play, but it looked like he dribbled the ball before he came down with it. Another one was James Jones going strong to the basket and a Minnesota guy pushes him from behind when he jumped so he twisted in the air and another Minnesota player slid in front of the twisting James Jones and drew a charge (no call on the initial push). The final play could've gone either way, but what bugged me is that one ref called it a goal tend and stood there at half court while the other 2 refs ran off the court.

 

[HooverDam]

. House had a bad game and continued to shoot (he came in with us up 6 and left 3 minutes later with us down 3 in the beginning of the 4th).

I didnt get to watch the game since it wasnt on national tv but..

I dont like House coming into the game in these situations. I'd rather see JR or LB come in. House seems to be more of an ignitor, but him in when we are down or are struggling offensively, he may start a fire. But I dont want him in the game when its time to sustain a lead.

Like I said, I didnt see the game, so Im not sure what the situation was

 

[elindholm]

I watched the second half, and I have to say that I'm impressed that this board isn't complaining more about the officiating. I thought it was pretty poor and favored Minnesota. I also felt the last play was goaltending, but I guess the reality is that the Suns probably would have lost in overtime anyway.

The defense has been bad all year (by which I mean 2006, not all season). The Suns need to kick their intensity back up in that department. And Thomas is another funk, which is troubling, but I expect him to break out of it soon.

The Wolves have a core of young, hungry players who play with a lot of energy and have some pretty decent skills. Garnett really isn't a good fit with them; even while on the sideline, cheering them on, he appeared to be disengaged from their efforts. I really expect him to be traded before the start of next season, and possibly even in the next few weeks.