Request: For those who watched Portland/Phoenix series...

[GSH]

Brandon Roy went down for about a month in late January, and the Blazers went 6-9 without him and averaged about 96.5 ppg. After he came back they went 16-4 and averaged about 101 ppg. He missed the first 3 games of the playoffs, and he was still hurting in the second 3 games, where he went 4-10, 2-7, and 4-16.

Anybody who watched the Spurs in last year's playoffs, without Manu Ginobili, should understand that no complicated explanations are necessary. It's hard to lose a player of that caliber and win in the playoffs. The Suns could afford to let one Blazer player go off on them a night, and focus on keeping everyone else honest.

It's worth noting that Portland got Nicolas Batum through the draft two years ago, while we got George Hill. If Batum had stepped his game up in the playoffs the way Hill has, the series would have gone to 7 games, at the very least.

[dreamcastrocks]

Brandon Roy went down for about a month in late January, and the Blazers went 6-9 without him and averaged about 96.5 ppg. After he came back they went 16-4 and averaged about 101 ppg. He missed the first 3 games of the playoffs, and he was still hurting in the second 3 games, where he went 4-10, 2-7, and 4-16.

Anybody who watched the Spurs in last year's playoffs, without Manu Ginobili, should understand that no complicated explanations are necessary. It's hard to lose a player of that caliber and win in the playoffs. The Suns could afford to let one Blazer player go off on them a night, and focus on keeping everyone else honest.

It's worth noting that Portland got Nicolas Batum through the draft two years ago, while we got George Hill. If Batum had stepped his game up in the playoffs the way Hill has, the series would have gone to 7 games, at the very least.

Batum was injured as well.

[Brazil]

Main differences I noted, compared to last years:
- Amare is quietly becoming a vet and a leader, his bb IQ improved a lot lately, he is not forcing things and let the hot hand play.
- I think Nash lost a step maybe due to his injury, his strenght is still distributing the ball, spurs have to cut the lines and let him shoot JS.
- Richardson is deadly lately, he showed he can deliver in PO. When he is the primary scorer, Suns win.
- The bench is much deeper: the suns can play an entire lineup of bench players without suffering a lot, this is a big difference. If this serie goes to 7, I think the suns will win.
- The coach is much more clever than Dantoni, we can't count on bad coaching decisions this time.