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Wow. It will be weird if the Suns don't make the playoffs this season
NOT!!!!
Suns crumble late, dumped by Spurs
by Paul Coro - Mar. 8, 2009 09:04 PM
The Arizona Republic
SAN ANTONIO - Look around AT&T Center, and signs of Suns devastation are everywhere.
There is the sideline where Robert Horry hip-checked Steve Nash, which led to Amaré Stoudemire and Boris Diaw being suspended during the 2007 playoffs.
There is Spurs guard Roger Mason, the Grinch who stole the Suns' Christmas. There is the floor on which the past two Suns postseasons ended.
Now, after Sunday's 103-98 victory over the Suns, the Spurs are just piling on.
Spurs point guard Tony Parker wrecked the Suns' playoff hopes last season, and he might be doing the same this season. He scored 12 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter Sunday.
The Spurs defense took care of the rest, and the Suns lost their fourth consecutive game.
A winless four-game trip, the Suns' first since 2004, has put them in a four-game hole behind eighth-place Dallas, which visits Phoenix on Tuesday for what even Steve Nash calls "a big game."
"We're in desperate position," Nash said.
His 23 points made him the Suns' top scorer for a third consecutive game. That's not a good sign for the playmaker, whose 49 shots Friday and Sunday were his largest two-game total since his 2005 playoff heroics vs. Dallas.
The Suns can always blame defense for their woes, and Sunday was no exception. They pulled within three points at three late junctures but gave up scores on the Spurs' last six trips.
But like in Tuesday's loss in Orlando, the offense let down the Suns.
Phoenix took an 88-85 lead at Orlando with 7:49 to go and went six minutes without a basket. On Sunday, the Suns took an 82-81 lead with 7:42 to go on Grant Hill's 3-poitner and didn't score for the next four minutes.
Parker and Michael Finley scored during an 11-0 Spurs run as Spurs star Tim Duncan rested on the bench. During that run, the Suns' Nash and Shaquille O'Neal struggling to work together.
"We're still adjusting," said Nash, whose sprained right ankle remained sore. "We've had so many changes this year that now we're getting used to playing uptempo again, and now we're also getting used to play threes at the four spot, which is difficult for those guys. We came against four good teams and lost all four in games we were in. Very disappointing."
The Spurs also shut out the Suns during the final five minutes of the first half, using a 13-0 run to take a 58-45 lead. Nash missed five of the first seven shots during that span.
"It's been this way on the whole trip; we play well and have nothing to show for it, because we're not into moral victories," said Suns coach Alvin Gentry, who is 6-6 since taking over for the fired Terry Porter. "We have a little stretch where things don't go quite well, and it's hard for us to recover. We don't have a large margin of error when we have (injured forward) Amaré (Stoudemire) sitting at home."
Gentry put Hill on Parker, which was successful early, although it was offset by six early Spurs 3-pointers. Parker shot 5 for 12 from the field in the first 2 1/2 quarters but went 8 for his last 10 off a stream of high screens. The Spurs have won seven of their past nine games against the Suns, including the 2008 playoffs, and Parker has averaged 29.2 points.
"It' s amazing a week ago today we were kind of on top of the world," Hill said, referring to a win over the Los Angeles Lakers. "This type of game hurts, because you play well enough to win but you don't get it done."
Suns report
Key player
Spurs point guard Tony Parker scored 30 points and had nine assists. It was his fourth 30-point effort in the past eight games.
Key moments
The Suns did not score in the last five minutes of the first half or for four minutes after they took the lead in the fourth quarter.
Key number
2: Number of Suns four-game losing streaks this season. Last season, they did not lose more than two in a row.
View from press row
A loss can feel more devastating when the Suns come up with big defensive plays. In Houston, they had Ron Artest stuck, but a timeout set up Aaron Brooks' winning shot. In Sunday's third quarter, Matt Barnes blocked a Tim Duncan shot, but San Antonio kept possession and scored.
To end the third, Louis Amundson swatted a Roger Mason driving shot, but the Spurs got two second chances, the last setting up a Mason 3-pointer.
By the numbers
The Spurs are 7-2 in their past nine games against the Suns, thanks in large part to point guard Tony Parker. A look some of his statistics during that span:
Scoring average: 29.2
Shooting percentage: 52.8
Assists per game: 6.9
Pop comments on Porter
Popovich, on the firing of his former player, Terry Porter, as coach of the Suns last month after 51 games: "Each of us in the league knows how volatile it is and feel badly whenever a colleague is let go. It's not very often someone
Wow. It will be weird if the Suns don't make the playoffs this season
You left out the end there.
i got aroused reading that haha
yeah, its basically a bye-series each year...without them, it will be harder for us!
That's because it will not end well for the Suns
NOT!!!!
Nice
Poor Suns... The playoffs won't be the same without them.
They'll get over it.
Weird that phoenix fan has disappeared how nice! Well let me just say R.I.P. 2008-2009 phoenix suns back to the ashes hahahahahahahahahaha
Where's Sporkiller? I hope he won't be suicidal because of this.
Shut your mouth, newbie.Weird that phoenix fan has disappeared how nice! hahahahahahahahahaha
How weird that one franchise can be destroyed and crushed because of another franchise...how sad. I kinda feel sorry for them.............................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................NOT! Screw the Sunsthey brought it on themselves. They were never gonna win playing that Run-N-Gun style and playing no D whatsoever.
Yeah, he hasn't been around since game night...Go figure... He wasn't ready to take his medicine.
(I apologize in advance. I've been dying for someone to start a thread like this, so I could post this. It's not pretty.)Weird that phoenix fan has disappeared how nice! Well let me just say R.I.P. 2008-2009 phoenix suns back to the ashes hahahahahahahahahaha
The Suns' season has gone from great expectations to disturbing reality. To help illustrate, I would like to offer the following visual aid that graphically depicts the progression of their 2008-2009 campaign. Perhaps most importantly, it raises the questions, "Where can they possibly go from here?" and "What are their chances of getting back to where they were?"
As you can see, some things are difficult to recover from.
For your consideration: The 08-09 Phoenix Suns' Season, From A Fan's Perspective:
That's funny. It's doesn't take much does it!!
I like the suns, for my own personal reasons. I'd really love to see them make it to the playoffs.
After being on here for a while, and dealing with Spork Killer, you will probably learn to hate them...lol
Yeah...it's not gonna be the same in the playoffs without the Suns to pummel again...
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