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They just suck against us. We are their "Golden State"
I understand after tonight's impressive win against the Mavericks, the Suns should regain their status as the team to fear come playoff time from the looks of peoples' reactions.
They played impressive defense in spurts, made crucial plays down the stretch, hit shots when they mattered most, and kept their composure the entire game at a point where most of the other 29 teams would have folded.
But let's look at the reality of the situation.
The biggest reason this game was a classic was because 90% of us (most likely Suns fans included) though the game was over with the Mavs up 91-76 in the 4th. Now, I don't mean to discredit the Suns, but 99/100 if that situation was to repeat itself I don't think the Suns would come away with a win. If this was the playoffs, I'd be more impressed and I know the Spurs have had their share of "how the heck did they win that one?!" (such as the suns OT game back in 2005 with manu's 48) While the Suns are good enough to stay compe ive with the Spurs and Mavs, they are 4-3 in OT this season for a reason. They are still shaky in the clutch. They had a great win tonight but I don't think I could give them the benefit of the doubt in a close game.
The biggest reason I place the Suns slightly below the Spurs and Mavericks is because of the two main things that have plagued them the past few seasons.
Lack of rebounding (along with the Spurs) and lack of defense
After tonight, i still don't buy into this "Suns know how to clamp down when it counts".
Here's how to stop the Suns and you can mark my words on this come playoff time.
it's simple
Put a hand in their face
The only player on the Suns who will consistently hit shots with a hand in their face is Steve Nash. While the Suns have several hot shooters, I believe what helps their 3 point % immensely is their excellent passing skills that creates open shots.
The Suns have the playing style to kick ass in the regular season because 27 of the remaining 29 teams can't keep up.
The two teams who can keep up with the Suns?
The Mavs and Spurs of course
If the Suns have a cold shooting night they are screwed. Defense can show up every night but offense can't.
I don't think Nash has it in him to carry the scoring load every night over the course of a 7 game series. I think he's much more comfortable initiating the plays as oppose to finishing them.
Keeping Amare in check will be difficult, but he went for 37 ppg on us 2 years ago and the Suns only came away with one win.
I'm not saying we'd sweep the Suns, or that the series would be an easy one, but nothing this season has shown me that these guys are championship caliber, or at least enough to defeat BOTH the Spurs and Mavs.
I agree they are better than years past, but I don't think their style of play is playoff friendly and I have yet to see them prove otherwise.
I don''t mean this in any disrespect to the Suns, and who knows, maybe they'll surprise me, but I think the Spurs D will overcome the Suns O.
Spurs in 6
They just suck against us. We are their "Golden State"
The Mavs aren't clutch and the Suns can't rebound or defend. I'll take my chances with either of them.
we can beat this team in a sweep
Do the Suns lead in the most OT games? Cuz that might be the price for not being structured in Defense. They DO play D, but only when they think they have to.
Spurs fans are getting a little too y.
Talking about sweeping teams like the Suns, thinking the Mavs are going to lose in the first round, etc.
Sure, the Spurs are on a big win streak, which is impressive. But some posters are getting too high about it. The Mavs and Suns are both very good this season. Don't get fooled by the win streak into thinking the Spurs are going to cakewalk through the playoffs.
(By the way, this post wasn't addressing the original poster - moreso some fans that are running around in every thread thinking the Spurs are invincible.)
I agree with that post one million percent
I mean we once won 17 straight and then dropped 4 straight to exit out of the playoffs so anything can happen
Amusedaysleeper has an even-keeled at ude in his posts. (This win-streak is gonna end soon and we'll all be back to normal). But I do think if the playoffs were to start right now, all three have a pretty good chance of knocking each other off right now. But it's gonna be a knock-down drag-out battle with the Suns. I don't think we should assume we'll sweep them based on precedent, but I do believe we match up well. Even when we lost to them in the second game, I was pretty confident we could have pulled it out against them. The suns really don't scare me, as long as we do what we have to do about them. Manu, Parker, and Tim are really effective against the Suns allowing the bench to follow suit. So that's one thing that makes me pretty confident about meeting them in the playoffs. Now against Dallas it's a whole other story. So who knows.
All I can say is that the Spurs matchup with the suns better than they do the mavs - Bruce normally guards Marion well, and they have a good enough defense to limit Nash.
Unlike last year, beating the Suns is not a certainty, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the Spurs win if they bring their "A" game.
The Mavs are the ones that the spurs don't matchup well with - the spurs don't have a 'Marion' player who can guard Dirk 1v1.
Oh yeah, and 4-1 against the Suns in 2005 is misleading. Those were hard fought games if you don't remember--Amare was scary. So we were just glad the ball bounced our way numerous times. Some Spurs fans *do* get y, when they try to bring that up.
Well we're hoping Elson steps up, if he uses his body well enough I think he can do it. He's no Marion, (or Haslem as far as a good IQ, hardworker) but he's tall and quick enough.
Elson still hasn't proven much outside of his 18 rebound (if I recall correctly) game. But yeah, that was the hope.
Pop's trend to play a lot of small ball doesn't bode well for the playoffs though.
If the Spurs don't win the West it will because they continue to get out rebounded and can't make at least 80% of their FT's.
Dallas vs Suns OT Game
Suns FT's
24 -30 80% 38 Boards
Mavs
23-31 74.2% 55 Boards
The only team that scares me is the Spurs. The team that had no heart for over a month could show up any time, and the dreaded S word that plays no defense could come back at an inopportune time. If every team is healthy and plays to its capabilities, I won't count my team out against anyone.
brent barry hits threes.
Same sentiment here. All we can really hope for is that the Spurs remain healthy and keep up the strong play. Like Pop says, this will put them among 4 or 5 teams that can win it all.
The beauty of a Spurs 13-game winning streak: the iness of their fans rears it's ugly head again.
I won't stoop to your levels, but I just recall so many people (well, Spurs and Mavs fans) ripping on the Suns for playing "weaker" compe ion during their 2 15+ game winning streaks this year. Over half the Spurs' opponents on this streak have had records under-.500, so I guess we can all debate this again in a few weeks when we play in SA (and we won't have to hear the "oh, the Suns caught fire so the game was closer than it looked" excuses we heard two months ago)
Best post of the year... thank you so much for admitting those games VERY close, but the Spurs had lots of guys (Duncan, Ginobili and Barry) step up and hit big shots to pull it out.
It makes me angry every time a Spurs fan on here says something like "that last game we played in Phoenix was really close until about the last 4 minutes, so the 16 point loss is a little misleading." I could say that about every game in the 2005 WCF (except game 3) between the Spurs and Suns... even 6-point losses were misleading because of the amount of fouling and 3 pointers the Suns were jacking up at the end of those games.
Of course the Suns have to improve their rebounding, but at least it didn't lose them the game tonight... only made it a 2-point game instead of a 12-pointer
At least it's not 20 threads on "Spurs are a first round exit now", "Free White", "Trade Parker"
Plus even the media talks about us on a rare occassion compared to the previous "over the hill" and "too old" stuff.
The Spurs should beat the Suns, but what concerns me is what happened last year.
Last year the Spurs were looking past Dallas to Detroit, wondering if they could match the Pistons. This year the Spurs may be looking past the Suns to Dallas. Hope not.
Don't forget that we still have a lot of NBA left until the #1 seed is locked up. Mavs have a road trip too...
Suns to me are going to be just as tough as the Mavs. Suns have a great chance to beat the Spurs and Mavs in a best of seven series. They have great offensive and a 'decent' enough defense.
The more I think about the Spurs in the playoffs the more it worries me. If the Spurs get the 3 spot, and the Suns get the 2, thats going to be just as tough as playing the Mavericks in the second round (like last year). Actually the Suns might be a better team than the Mavs were last year.
As good as the Suns are, I think the Spurs match up well against them. Our defense and post-play wins us the series.
Dallas is another story. I don't think the Spurs match up well against them, and they are deeper. The only way the Spurs are gonna beat Dallas in a series is to play big, win the battle of the boards, and contest the drives to the hoop that killed us last year.
I think Bonner and Elson will be keys to victory. Just as Nazr was a couple of years ago. But if Poopavitch goes small-ball, Dallas wins.
I honestly think the Spurs can take the Suns out in a series in about six games. They are going to have to work hard though. They are going to have to show up every night on the defensive end. They are going to have to have big games from at least two of the big three and an adequate amount of bench help just about every night. They are going to have to rebound better than the Suns in almost every game and hit their free throws.
The Suns are capable of playing defense when needed. We all know what they can do on the offensive end.
Agreed Kori...Listen I one of the biggest homers of The Spurs in the world. But, I realize that these two teams(Mavs & Suns) have grown. I think the advantage that The Spurs have is their experience and defense. The game last night was highly entertaining...but in the grand scheme of things..I cannot see either Dallas or Phoenix getting loose like they did last night ...on this Spurs team. I still view Dallas as the most dangerous team b/c they can play both up tempo and half court...I still think last year was the luck of the draw for the Mavs vs. Spurs in game seven....
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