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Close AI with 44 but Nuggets by 24
Hard to justify a position of the Suns being one of the best teams and ready for a deep playoff run when, after one game of playoff intensity, they are getting trounced by two teams they really shouldn't be getting trounced by. No disrespect to Detroit, but hey should have played much closer, with the game being at home and all and no disrespect to Denver, but they really aren't as good as team as Phoenix.
For whatever reason, Phoenix doesn't mind one bit right now that teams are just waxing them. Maybe it's fatigue, maybe complacency... whatever it is, D'Antoni playing the starters for the fourth quarter in a 30-point blowout on the second night of a home-to-road back-to-back won't fix it.
That was just lame brained...
Close AI with 44 but Nuggets by 24
nuggets put up 37 points in the first
40 in another quarter
and who in the tried to guard ai?
ai had 15 assist and 44 points
So am I. don't rub it in, it can't get any worse.
Agree with everything you just wrote.
and i thought we beat them down
my my...what a turn out the game was.
Wait a second! Phoenix is the best team in the history of basketball. How does Steve Nash end up getting owned by Flip Murray and AI? Somebody put out an alert for the national media, I guess we won't be treated to the handwringing and kneejerking that accompanies every Dallas loss.
It's called fatigue. Dallas took them to double overtime so they were spent the last 2 games. They'll need some time off to regroup. I guess that shot to get to a second overtime helped Dallas in the long run as they had an easier opponent than Phoenix had the following game plus they didn't have a back to back.
So am I. don't rub it in, it can't get any worse.
wtf, you should want it to get worse...
ODEN! ODEN! ODEN!
Yeah, that's a good take.
I'm still pissed though - at the very least, I wanted the Houston, Dallas, Detroit 3-0 week... then they could have laid this egg against Denver.
well yeah, we were going on a 4-game losing streak but they ruined it last night. so much for Oden or Durant.
Well this bodes well for a potential meeting in the playoffs. Our hangover lasted until halftime against Boston. Theirs is still ongoing.
In the playoffs, the teams within the series get the same amount of rest and travel the same distances.
As Mavsfan mentioned, yes, both the Suns and Mavs played Friday, Phoenix flew from Dallas to Phoenix to face the Pistons, Dallas from Dallas to Boston to play the Celtics. I believe the opponant should factor in to why one lost and the other won. Then, Phoenix had to fly to Denver to play the Nuggets, a tough game for most anyone, let alone for a team that still suffering from exhaustion because not only are they going to play at a blistering pace, they will do so in much thinner air.
It's certainly logical to see why the Suns have collapsed the way they have since Wednesday, I just hate to give them an out.
I'm aware of that. When people talk about depth and fatigue in regards to Phoenix, it's that D'Antoni has never bothered to use an 8 man rotation, a true 8 man rotation and he goes all out trying to win regular season games. Now, obviously, it's important to finish as best as you can because the higher the seed, the easier you make it for yourselves. But he burns the midnight oil in order to do it.
Nash is getting a career-high 35 minutes a night at the age of 33, with a history of being prone to fatigue the deeper into the playoffs his teams go. There are only 8 guys that get significant minutes for the Suns, as opposed to 10 for Dallas. That's an advantage for us in a potential playoff meeting as far as injuries, fatigue and foul trouble goes. Avery simply has a more versatile roster and more weapons at his disposal. D'Antoni has 6 guys who can score. He only has two guys that can defend.
And while it's a little unfair to say that Phoenix's style "doesn't work in the playoffs," considering they've been to the conference finals two years in a row and as an elite team they're not terrible on defense, just merely mediocre, it's also true that they haven't been able to run as much as they would like in the playoffs, because teams like Dallas and San Antonio are both capable of running with you and are also adept at forcing you to play at a slower, more physical, half-court pace. And as a lot of Suns partisans like to point out, it's not running the floor all night that wears you out, it's other teams turning it into a tough, grind it out kind of game that induces fatigue. Dallas, San Antonio and Detroit are three teams capable of doing that to Phoenix. You beat the Suns by milking the shot clock when you have the ball and pounding them inside and getting their bigs into foul trouble, getting back in transition and forcing them to operate out of the halfcourt so they have to work for their shot opportunities instead of scoring endlessly off a fast-break layup line, and hope that their shots aren't falling like they normally do. For most teams, that's easier said than done, but the three elite teams I mentioned can force the issue with the Suns and are the only teams capable of beating them in a seven game series.
Last edited by Findog; 03-18-2007 at 01:27 PM.
I'll agree. I hate to think that a contending team can reach a season low the first few games after their season's high.
I think the team around Nash is young, raw and immature, although extremely talented. Marion is a guy whose ego needs to constantly be massaged and is extremely sensitive to being overlooked and not hyped up. Amare dogged it in rehab last year and only plays on one end of the court. He's a freakish talent and his ceiling is through the roof, and he DOES seem to have learned how to play basketball and create for himself better when Nash is out. But I think he's still learning about the kind of day to day commitment it takes to be consistently great in this league like a Duncan, or a Kobe. Bell is a guy who can let his compe ive instincts get the best of him. On the positive side, I think Diaw and Barbosa are really coming into their own, LB especially. I wonder if Phoenix is going to make the salary commitment to keeping the team together after this year when Diaw and Barbosa's extensions kick in. They've already maxed out Nash, Marion and Amare. I wouldn't be surprised if they jettisoned Marion in a cost-cutting measure if they win it all this year.
Diaw has stunk this entire season. He entered fat and lazy, got into shape, but remained lazy, became energetic, got injured, became out of shape and is now lazy again.
If he doesn't prove his worth this summer, he'll be traded before next year is over.
just out of curiosity, he wasn't that great with the hawks, why do you think the suns picked him up in the trade for johnson? i know johnson wanted out but was the trade on the suns' end more about diaw or the first round draft picks and the exception? he just doesn't seem to have evolved much and this year he's been stagnant in his growth
I wonder if Diaw feels left out because a lot of Amare's touches are coming from out of his pocket. Marion's only 29 as of May, so he's definitely got 3-4 years of his prime left. If the Suns can get a guy like Noah in the draft, then they should be clamoring to get rid of Diaw. They can use his salary on something else and get Noah to fulfill his role at the rookie rate for the next three years. Suns have made some questionable personnel decisions, like the Banks signing, and so forth. They don't have a lot of financial flexibility and Nash isn't getting younger. They're going to have to start planning for a post-Nash team, or at least a post-Nash max deal team.
He shouldn't be playing alongside Amare. He should be coming off the bench to be the replacement Amare when Amare's out for rest or foul trouble. Their games are too similar: Decent, but iffy jumper, good off the dribble in a "roll" action. Solid finisher around the basket. Only difference is Amare looks for the contact, Diaw, if he sees it coming, makes the extra pass.
Still, they don't seem to play well alongside each other.
Of course Amare's return has had an impact on his production, but going several games with fewer than two rebounds (has happened over a half dozen times), coming into camp fat and out of shape, remaining a bit lazy early on and then returning from injury with similar at ude, being passive to a fault when in the game and unemotional, in not apathetic when out, that's all on Diaw.
As for why Phoenix wanted him, I believe they wanted some inexpensive potential. He supplied it last season and this. He had some skills they deemed acceptable for their style and had the size they coveted.
I still wish they had JJ.
I wouldn't worry about it too much. Not sure what you were thinking but I don't think there was a chance in that the Suns were going to catch the Mavs for the #1 seed (even after getting within 3 games in loss column after beating Mavs). The Suns will regroup and be fine come playoff time. As long as Amare is playing well they have a decent chance. I was up every close at the Suns/Mavs game and was very impressed with Amare.
Wasn't thinking they'd overtake, no, but I would have liked to see them respond with stronger showings following their "statement" game. I've talked of it in this thread, that in the playoffs the schedule and travel is balanced, but still, this recent play really shows how thin they are, and how unable to bounce back with an spring in their step from an exhaustive effort.
That worries me. I just saw a complete collapse from my favorite college team, Arizona, because early in the season they ran a six-man rotation with the starters playing 35+ minutes each. Eventually, they had nothing left, so asking for fight or gumption became rather pointless.
JMark, I certainly hope the Suns don't smoke as much weed as a team that includes Chase Budinger, Marcus Williams, Mustafa Shakur, Jawann McClellan, Daniel Dillon (Australian), and Miles Simon as an assistant coach. With such easy access to the Mexican border, it's no wonder they started losing steam and energy by the end of the year.
Although, I might have worries about Jalen Rose (why not? he's never gonna play), Steve Nash (Canadian), and Shawn Marion (looks like he's perma-high, especially in interviews), and Kurt Thomas (how else can he be so mellow?)...
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