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the magic have really only scored three points since halftime?!?!?!??! i'm looking at nba.com, i haven't turned on league pass yet
Suns going for their 11th straight
Magic 53 Suns 55 HT
Amare with 16 on 7-10 from the field.
the magic have really only scored three points since halftime?!?!?!??! i'm looking at nba.com, i haven't turned on league pass yet
How can you have league pass and not use it!
Let's gp Magic!
Hey is Hedo playing? He didn't last game.
11th in a row - tied with Dallas in terms of record.
LOL, only because I'm sick!How can you have league pass and not use it!
Let's gp Magic!
Hey is Hedo playing? He didn't last game.
Good game from the Suns. They've rounded back into form after that 1-5 start and are now blowing out teams, not blowing 4th quarter leads and going on their notorious 20-X runs and taking control of the game.
Orlando was the toughest game on paper, but they can't have a let down vs Miami. Keep it going while the schedule is still favorable.
Amare is coming along nicely too.
Suns always have problems in Miami (with or without Shaq)... then they tend to blow them out with 50 pt first quarters when they come to Phoenix.
It's a great time to be a Suns fan. At the beginning of this streak, I predicted 4 wins. I never expected 11!
Suns are playing the Heat on Wednesday. I think it's going to be on ESPN, so people across the nation can watch Phoenix thoroughly abuse the defending champs. I'm predicting a 25-point blowout.
I'm trying not to get too y during this whole streak because I think I tend to jinx the team when I do that, but it is very exciting and I said early on that the Suns just needed to rattle off about 7-8 in a row to get back in business when they were 3-6. Little did I know they were going to take it to 11.
I usually make pretty conservative predictions, but this team is dominating the Eastern Conference. Then again, Miami might benefit from Shaq not playing, since he can't keep up with the Suns these days.
Suns have beaten just two good teams during this stretch; Houston and Orlando.
I wouldn't place too much stock into this streak just yet. They look very, very good, but have been incredably lucky in a handful of the wins. They very easily could have lost three or four of them.
Wake me when they beat the Spurs, Mavericks, Jazz or Lakers.
They are very good, but until thee above happens consistantly, they could win 20 in a row vs. average compe ion and it wouldn't mean much of anything.
The average record of the Suns opponants during this stretch is only 9.5 wins against 11.1 losses. So the Suns can consistantly beat mediocrity.
HOOOORRRRAAAAAYYYYY MEEEDDIIIOOOCCCRRIIITTTYYY!
Uhhh, but the Mavs didn't beat anyone stellar besides the Suns and Spurs on their streak and everyone started saying they were back on the road to a le (Memphis twice??). The Suns had the toughest schedule in the NBA in the first two weeks, with multiple back-to-backs against the best of the West, and when their chemistry was all out of whack, but they were in ALL of those games.
You say "They very easily could have lost three or four of [the games on this streak]," but they could very easily have won against Utah (twice), Lakers, Spurs (Raja FT would have sealed it), and Dallas (poor execution down the stretch on second game of B2B OT game against SA) in the beginning of the season.
So, the schedule became a little more favorable to them, they stopped blowing leads and making costly mistakes down the stretch (with the exception of Barbosa who still tries to blow it sometimes), and now they've rattled off 11 in a row. They've needed this streak to get back in a groove and the confidence gained hopefully will help them beat those better teams in the rematches.
JMark, I appreciate your Suns support, but sometimes you gotta stop with the glass half-empty analysis (I'm not saying it has to be half-full, but it can at least be right in the middle).
Take the stick out of your arse, JMark. :P An 11-game win streak is an 11-game win streak, regardless of the compe ion. There are really good win streaks...and then there are great win streaks. We just happen to be on a really good win streak, which is something to be proud of. There's no denying that the compe ion hasn't been elite, but the Suns needed this stretch of "mediocrity" to get their running game intact, and to successfully integrate Amare (2 of his best games, by the way, came against Dwight Howard and Yao Ming). They have done both.
They very easily could have lost 3 or 4 of them, but they didn't. They are showing very promising signs for a team that struggled in the first 6 games of the season. They don't seem to be tiring on back-to-backs--they shot 61% from the field against Boston less than 24 hours after taking the Nets to 2OT. Their defense and offense have both improved greatly--they now have the 2nd best point differential in the league. This would indicate that they aren't playing down to their compe ion, which they had a tendency to do in recent seasons. They are destroying mediocre teams, exactly what an elite team needs to do. You can't fault Phoenix for taking advantage of a soft part of the schedule.
I'm just happy that the team seems to have found its chemistry again, and Amare is kicking ass.
D-Wade is out tomorrow, so I don't want to jinx it, but that is very promising for the Suns and they could take it to 12....
Houston is not San Antonio or Dallas. Orlando is not Detroit or a full-health Miami.
Don't get me wrong. They look very, very good at times. BUT... beating sub-500 teams should be expected of great teams, not celebrated.
That is all.
I thought it weak when the Mavs drew all the attention to the streak for the same reason. When the Suns consistantly beat the best teams in the NBA, then I'll celebrate.
I agree with all your analysis. Suns had a BRUTAL schedule to open up the season and unfortunately for their chances, they weren't using Doctor Scholl's inserts - gellin' - at the time. Yes, they were one FT away from beating the Spurs. They easily could have won vs. the Jazz and Mavericks.
Funny thing is, they were one FT away from losing vs. New Jersey and easily could have lost to Milwaukee and Boston.
So please, please tell me you see where I'm coming from.
No team can win every game, but when a team with Championship asperations defeats sub-500 teams, don't tell me that it matters near as much as the same team defeating other elite teams.
Suns are still lacking an "elite" win, unless you count Houston (which I guess you could) or Orlando (not quite yet). They are quality wins. Good wins, even, but they are not great wins.
Wake me when they net a few great wins.
Still, they are certainly playing better than at season's start. I don't expect them to win the le now. Only be ready to contend by April.
No Shaq, no Wade. The rest of the Heat will have to play out of their minds just to stay in the game. The basketball gods favor the Suns at the moment.
I don't think anyone said that.
But I'm going to celebrate this streak until it ends, because 11 games straight is a great feat. Especially when it includes an East coast road trip and a number of back-to-backs.
I just want the Suns to win the division and not the Lakers, so any win is a good win. I'm not making judgements about the playoffs based on this streak or the 1-5 start, and I'm just glad they're getting themselves back in position to have a strong seed in the West and win 55 games - even if they have to do it against lesser compe ion right now.
The reason I find confidence in this streak is because its the longest they've had in years, and they are putting away teams like Boston and Milwaukee when they should, and not playing down to their compe ion. They've weathered big nights from Kidd, Carter, Pierce, and Redd and still come out victorious (which I credit to Amare's ability to get to the line and shooting than 75% FT).
I'm not trying to say give Nash the MVP and the Suns the le because they have 11 in a row, but I'm simply saying, Thank God because I would have ripped my hair out if they were struggling like the Clips, etc.
I wouldn't say they are destroying mediocre teams. They easily could have lost to...
Golden State: a 113-110 win
New Jersey: a 99-93 win
Milwaukee: a 122-116 win
New Jersey: a 161-157 win
Boston: a 116-11 win
Only final-score blowouts are (15 points or more)...
Portland: a 119-101 win
Sacramento: a 127-102 win
Charlotte: a 114-84 win
Again, I'm just saying that perhaps we fans shouldn't pin our hopes to a (very nice) 11-game win streak vs. mediocre compe ion by and large, where close to half the wins could have wound up as losses to several very poor teams.
They are playing good. I appreciate it. I'm just realisistic about what this streak indicates, is all. It means they can consistantly beat inferior compe ion by decent margins.
What it cannot be translated to is success against those deemed equals or superiors.
Last edited by JMarkJohns; 12-12-2006 at 07:04 PM.
And I'm merely trying to temper the hopeful optimism which is being derived from the streak because while good in occurance, the streak, to me at least, isn't near as important a feat as say, splitting, or even winning a season series from the Spurs, Mavericks, Lakers and now the Jazz.
Don't get me wrong. I love that they are playing well. I'm just looking at this streak as a blessing, rather than a sign.
That's fair. From a wide perspective, though, the Suns haven't yet lost to a mediocre team this season (unless you count the Clippers--I don't). They're 7-0 against the Eastern Conference, and aren't showing any signs of slowing down.
Agreed. But, look at it from another perspective. The Fakers have beaten all of the "top tier" team in the west but have lost to Seattle, Portland, Milwaukee and NOOKy. Fairly bad to each as well.
The good teams take care of buisiness against the bad teams and roll the dice against the good teams.
It's not who you play, it's when you play them. For whatever reason the Suns seemingly always play the Spurs after long winning streaks.
Agreed, again. But, don't forget that they lead in all of those games at some point as well - several in the 4th quarter with healthy leads. To me, that was more their conditioning than not being an "elite" team.
Yeah, my point is that they're not blowing the leads (with the exception of the first NJ game) as badly as they were early in the season, which is very comforting. All-in-all, this just proves that no one in the league can beat the Suns at their game when they keep the hammer down... when they let up, then teams get back in it and the Suns start getting tight on the offensive end...
Except the Spurs.
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