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No more hack a shaq???
National game, on TNT.
San Antonio (30-14) at Phoenix (25-18) Preview
Game info: 10:30 pm EST Thu Jan 29, 2009
TV: TNT
By Dan Pieringer
The San Antonio Spurs have dealt the Phoenix Suns some tough losses in recent years, eliminating them from the playoffs three of the last four seasons.
The Suns hoped their acquisition of Shaquille O’Neal midway through last season would be the solution, and while it didn’t work last spring, the rejuvenated star is playing some of his best basketball in years as the Suns and Spurs head into Thursday night’s meeting in Phoenix.
San Antonio ousted Phoenix from the playoffs in the conference finals in 2005 and the conference semifinals in 2007.
The Suns traded for O’Neal at last season’s deadline to help prevent another early exit from the postseason with a new commitment to defense. But the fast-paced team struggled to adjust to the 7-foot-1, 325-pounder’s presence in the middle and won just once in their best-of-seven, first-round series against the Spurs.
O’Neal, though, appears to have settled into his current role with the Suns (25-18) under first-year coach Terry Porter. After averaging 12.9 points with the team last season, he’s scoring 18.2 per game in 2008-09, including 22.1 over his last 18 games.
O’Neal had 29 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots while going 10-for-14 from the field in a 103-87 win over Washington on Monday night.
The Suns outscored the Wizards by 25 points when O’Neal was in the game to finish their road trip with back-to-back wins after dropping five of their previous six overall.
“I feel like I can play three or four more years,” said O’Neal, who was whistled for a technical foul for hanging on the rim on a dunk in the first half.
“I’ve got a new medical staff that does stuff that I haven’t really had before. I’m moving left, I’m moving right, I’m running, I’m jumping, I’m dunking, I’m getting up and hanging on the rim and getting techs, and I haven’t felt this good in about two years.”
That doesn’t bode well for the Spurs (30-14), who have given up 19.0 points and 12.5 rebounds per game to O’Neal in the teams’ first two meetings this season.
San Antonio fell at home to Phoenix 103-98 in its season opener Oct. 29 before taking a 91-90 road victory over the Suns on Roger Mason’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer on Christmas.
The Southwest Division-leading Spurs have won five of their last six overall. Manu Ginobili scored 10 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter and made all eight of his foul shots in the period to help San Antonio hold off Utah 106-100 on Tuesday night.
“Manu is an important part of us winning basketball games,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “He was aggressive and got to go to the line.”
Despite his clutch play Tuesday, Ginobili has been held to 10.0 points per game and 8-for-24 shooting from the field over his last three contests.
O’Neal, meanwhile, has pulled within five points of catching Hakeem Olajuwon for seventh place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.
“For me as a young, former juvenile delinquent who can’t shoot free throws, who can’t shoot jumpers, it’s a pretty big accomplishment,” O’Neal said.
O’Neal, a career 52.7 percent free-throw shooter, may poke fun at himself for his shortcomings at the line, but he made nine of his 10 attempts Monday and is shooting a career-high 62.8 percent.
That could might make Popovich reconsider his strategy of fouling O’Neal away from the ball to send the big man to the line, a tactic he used extensively in last year’s playoffs. During the preseason, O’Neal called it “a coward move.”
O’Neal has made 14 of his 24 free-throw attempts (58.3 percent) against San Antonio this season.
Notes
Spurs:
The Spurs are now 14-0 when scoring 100 points. San Antonio has the second-lowest turnover average in the league (12.1) and had 13 tonight. The Spurs outassisted the Jazz, 24-23, despite Utah owning one of the best assist averages in the league. F Matt Bonner bested his previous season best for 3-pointers in a game with six. His previous best was four. He has now scored in double digits 13 times in his last 28 games. G Manu Ginoboli's first and only field goal came in the fourth quarter. He scored his last 10 points with less than two minutes to go in the game. Despite Ginobili's free-throw performance, the rest of the Spurs shot just 10-for-20 from the line. Duncan went just 4-for-11 in the win.
Suns:
F Amare Stoudemire had 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting and 15 rebounds in the Phoenix Suns' 103-87 victory over the Washington Wizards on Monday. He also blocked three shots. ... C Shaquille O'Neal led the Suns with 29 points on 10-of-14 shooting and 9-of-10 free throws with eight rebounds and three blocks. ... G Steve Nash had 14 points and 15 assists. ... Reserve guard Leandro Barbosa had 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting in 27 minutes off the bench. ... The Suns concluded their season-long six-game road trip with a 3-3 record. On Thursday the Suns will play host to the San Antonio Spurs, who Phoenix has defeated in three of their last four meetings. ... The Suns are 8-3 in their last 11 home games. ... The Suns have won four in a row at Washington's Verizon Center.
Team Stat Leaders
Points
Tim Duncan SA 20.6
Amar'e Stoudemire Pho 21.1
Rebounds
Tim Duncan SA 10.3
Shaquille O'Neal Pho 9.1
Assists
Tony Parker SA 6.6
Steve Nash Pho 9.4
Team Comparison
Team Record Standings PF PA Road/Home Streak L10
San Antonio 30-14 1st Southwest / 2nd West 96.8 93.9 Road 13-7 Won 1 7-3
Phoenix 25-18 2nd Pacific / 7th West 103.8 102.7 Home 12-8 Won 2 5-5
No more hack a shaq???
I claim game-blog privileges. 3-0, es!
-Mars
they'll be hacking someone to take the Suns out of rhythm. Porter for some reason loves closing the 1st half of games with Matt Barnes. I could see hack-a-Matt from around the 4:15 to the 2:15 of the 2nd quarter. Matt's also someone who's head would get affected by that.
no, make him prove his consistency.
Fast or slow, Suns remain puzzled
by Paul Coro
The Arizona Republic
The Suns have been puzzled with themselves. Like a Rubik's Cube, they fix one side only to learn another side was altered.
They broke out of last week's visit to an emotional rock bottom with road wins Sunday and Monday, two of their better defensive efforts, but the offense did not look quite right. It is a running team without a stride, despite stats that say the Suns shoot better than any team and rank fifth in scoring.
The Suns' issues can be traced to one source: a roster of offensive players - an offensive hybrid that is not quite a floor model. It's a starting lineup of former go-to players asked to share the ball and play consistent defense.
There are more sideline pleas to "Push!" from coach Terry Porter, even after makes. Still, the run game is not the same in space or pace, just as Steve Nash's half-court navigation is limited by the presence of Shaquille O'Neal.
"Everyone other than Shaq plays that (fast) style better," Nash said. "It's great to go into Shaq. We love his advantage and he's a big part of our team. But if we're going to be great, we have to have a balance. He can't do it alone - and he doesn't want to. We have enough guys who are capable but we can't just stand and watch. We'll lose our connectivity.
"We still have turnovers because there's that want to do something that's not quite there because we're not used to do it. When two or three people aren't doing it at the same speed, it causes problems. We're still not that comfortable running. We're getting there but we still don't necessarily have the same automatic, unconscious rhythm and rules for running. It's very simple but we don't have that same thing yet. So we're still a work in progress."
Porter opened the offense for Nash in the past two months. Nash became more adept at feeding O'Neal in the post. Both shifts are reflected in Nash's 11.6 assist average in January after he averaged 8.3 entering 2009. O'Neal is averaging 22.1 points in his past 18 games.
"I'm trying to maximize Steve's skill but yet also realizing that Shaq has probably been the best big guy to ever play the game," Porter said. "The biggest challenge has always been how to create the type of space in years before. You can't do that with Shaq. It just can't be done."
Nash is seven assists from passing Porter for 11th on the NBA career assists list. O'Neal is six points from passing Hakeem Olajuwon for seventh on the scoring list. Amaré Stoudemire and Leandro Barbosa are re-emerging offensively and Jason Richardson can be as potent as any Suns player.
Offense will not hold the Suns back as much as defense can.
"Offensive players have a hard time concentrating for long stretches defensively," Nash said. "That's not necessarily what they have been asked to do. So it's second nature for them to think of other things or take their minds somewhere else when they should be rotating. It's a matter of us realizing we all have to do our part because we're all scorers out there. That's where we lose concentration."
Tomorrow's my birthday...So they better win this one, and give me a nice present.
That guy's face on the left is just priceless.
Tim Duncan is boring, Manu is a flopper, Tony Parker is a , Bowen's dirty, blah blah blah blah blah.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I'll be at tomorrow night's game and I'm pretty ing excited.This will be the 3rd Suns-Spurs game I've attended since 2005. The others:
1. 2005, when Pop went CIA and held Ginobili and Duncan out of the game. Suns won, barely.
2. 2007, WCSF, Game 5, no Diaw, no Amare. THAT GAME.
Good luck Xylus
spurs by 10
We need to really bring it against the Suns.
"Tony Parker is a "
WTF??? That doesn't even make sense. I guess IS a French word, but that's a bit of a weak link.
can't really take Xylus serious with that one.
the game wont be that tough
What'll really be sweet is all the booing by the jackass Suns fans. Too bad Horry isn't still with the team, that'd be excellent.
In fact " " means "shower" in french.
Thursday: Spurs (30-14) at Suns (25-18)
Express-News
Time: 9:30 p.m.
TV: TNT
Radio: WOAI-AM 1200, KCOR-AM 1350
STARTING LINEUPS
POS - SPURS - SUNS
PG - 9 Tony Parker (6-2, 8th yr) - 13 Steve Nash (6-3, 13th yr)
Nash has averaged 11.6 assists in 13 games this month.
SG - 8 Roger Mason Jr. (6-5, 5th yr) - 23 Jason Richardson (6-6, 8th yr)
Mason returns to scene of most dramatic shot of his career, Christmas Day winner.
SF - 4 Michael Finley (6-7, 14th yr) - 33 Grant Hill (6-8, 14th yr)
Finley is coming off first scoreless game of the season, at Utah.
PF - 21 Tim Duncan (6-11, 12th yr) - 1 Amare Stoudemire (6-10, 7th yr)
Duncan had 24 points, nine rebounds, 8 assists, 3 blocks vs. Jazz.
C - 15 Matt Bonner (6-10, 5th yr) - 32 Shaquille O'Neal (7-1, 17th yr)
Bonner moved up to second in 3-pt. percentage (47.4) after making 6-of-7 vs. Jazz.
SPURS RESERVES
20 Manu Ginobili, G, 6-7, 7th yr
3 George Hill, G, 6-3, 1st yr
12 Bruce Bowen, F, 6-7, 13th yr
5 Ime Udoka, G/F, 6-5, 5th yr
40 Kurt Thomas, C/F, 6-9, 14th yr
7 Fabricio Oberto, F-C, 6-10, 4th yr
11 Jacque Vaughn, G, 6-1, 12th yr
SUNS RESERVES
17 Louis Amundson, F, 6-9, 3rd yr
10 Leandro Barbosa, G, 6-3, 6th yr
22 Matt Marnes, F, 6-7, 6th yr
2 Goran Dragic, G, 6-4, 1st yr
3 Jared Dudley, F, 6-7, 2nd yr
15 Robin Lopez, C, 7-0, 1st yr
29 Alando Tucker, F, 6-6, 2nd yr
COACHES
Spurs: Gregg Popovich
Suns: Terry Porter
INJURIES
Spurs: Ian Mahinmi, sprained right ankle, is out.
Suns: None.
PROJECTED INACTIVE PLAYERS
Spurs: Mahinmi, Malik Hairston
Suns: Courtney Sims
NOTABLE
Tonight's game is last of a three-game road trip that serves as precursor to the annual Rodeo Road Trip, which begins next week. They have split the first two games on the trip, losing to Lakers and beating Jazz. ... Suns are playing first home game since Jan. 16, having played last six on the road. They closed out a six-game road trip with two straight wins. ... Spurs made only 21 of 32 free throws in win over Utah, Duncan making only 4 of 10.
— Mike Monroe
damn you are funny and pathatic
here's hoping Thomas can play some defense against Shaq, but I ain't getting my hopes up.
The Suns are still not a very good defensive team. If the Spurs are moving the ball well, hitting their open shots and defending, they should win.
I agree..but the Spurs better bring their "A" game.
Phoenix struggled on the road recently and with all the questions about their team..this is a game they will want to make a statement. Plus..a little revenge for the Christmas Day game!
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