Game 21: Phoenix Suns vs Utah Jazz (12/6/2008)

[TASTIC]

So...will Shaq moan about not playing in the 4th?

Same question for Bell?

Will be interesting, they're all athletes with professional athlete egos...

[toucansma]

Good win. Looked better. I am not worried about the poor 3 point shooting or free throw, since Nash, Bell, Amare, etc. will get it back on track. I was glad to see a win where we didn't have to shoot 55% from the field. In other words be off our game in some aspect and still win.

Just because Barbosa had a great game doesn't mean he should start. I think he is better off the bench since he is that lightening burst of speed and shooting. Bell will be fine, he just had an off game.

I for once actually liked Porter's rotations. He actually took Shaq out in 1st with 5-6 mins remaining. My main concern, which I understand why, is he played Nash too much, but oh well for now.

[PeTBuLL]

Wow the bench played well, 54pts between Diaw/Barbosa/Barnes

Amare 20rebs...

Diaw turned it over 4 times in his first 8 mins but no more after that

Dare I say...

Shaq
Amare
Diaw
Barbosa
Nash

Might be a really nice starting lineup?

I'd still keep Hill in there, but am all for starting Barbosa...(and now await PeTBull telling us how Barbosa>Wade and starting a "START BARBOSA" thread)

Would like to see a starting line-up of: Shaq/Amare/Hill/LB/Nash

Shaq and Hill come out early to be replaced by Diaw/Barnes. At the 9min mark bring in Bell for Nash and slide LB to PG. If he's not playing well bring in Singletary for LB at the same time.

After that just go off the rotations that are working the best.

Tonight it was just good to see Nash play without Shaq in the game. It definitely looked a lot more fluid and I certainly think that if Hill and Diaw are in the game we can afford to sit Nash when Shaq is out there.

I hope Porter keeps this offensive scheme.

I love LB off the bench...he's a game changer.

Look for Nene to go 5-dime tonight... very rare...

[rsavaj]

For one night, the basketball world is as it should be.

let's keep this feeling...

[Cash]

So...will Shaq moan about not playing in the 4th?

Same question for Bell?

Will be interesting, they're all athletes with professional athlete egos...

Tough to moan about a win.

[nashill]

didnt watch the game. so who took place as center during the 4th quarter?

[nevetsov]

^ Amare.

[tsherkin]

Before I back-read, I just wanted to comment on Nash's little barb towards Stoudemire in the post-game comments:

"Amare was unbelievable, getting all those offensive rebounds," teammate Steve Nash said. "It was beautiful to see. That's something different for us."

It wasn't like a "screw you, Amare" thing, but "that's something different for us" was pretty funny.

[harshey1388]

i read the first 2 pages to catch up but then realized i had 11 more to go and decided to skip to the end haha didnt get to catch the game but got cell phone updates of amare's 20/20 and finally a WIN phew!

you know its a good day when UofA tears ASU up and the suns win too haha

[rsavaj]

Before I back-read, I just wanted to comment on Nash's little barb towards Stoudemire in the post-game comments:

"Amare was unbelievable, getting all those offensive rebounds," teammate Steve Nash said. "It was beautiful to see. That's something different for us."

It wasn't like a "screw you, Amare" thing, but "that's something different for us" was pretty funny.

I thought that was hilarious as well.

As long as Amare continues to care, we're in good shape. The odds of that happening though....

[tsherkin]

Yeah, Amare won't be playing like this nightly and that means that this type of game won't be happening frequently. But it's definitely nice to see. Good job to Porter for not screwing things up, but not screwing up and coaching well are different; let's see this be more consistent and then I'll start giving praise. I supported him early and he didn't really do anything good, so I'm hesitant to flip back so quickly.

Barbs looked good from what I saw (I've been watching a sort of game-in-an-hour thing someone did in my apartment building), which is nice. Millsap played a Boozer-like game, so Boozer not being there wasn't as huge as it could have been. Barbs getting 10 FTA off the bench was nice.

Couple of things, though:

Deron had a crappy game on O (as a scorer, I mean, 15 assists and 2 turnovers aside), Amare dropped a 22/20, Shaq dropped 15/10 and both Diaw and Barnes played very well..

And this is still a game that was a tie through 3 quarters and won at the end of the fourth... by 2 points.

The number of times through the rest of this season you'll see Phoenix enjoy a +17 on the glass is not going to be large (on the season to-date they're around -1 rpg, which isn't huge, but is a clear deficiency).

Amusingly enough, defensive rebounding (a traditional Utah strength) is what hurt them; Amare's 11 offensive boards hurt them too, but Phoenix racked up 38 defensive boards, one more than the Jazz got in total. This is not a regular state of affairs, nor a trend one should expect to continue.

Masked in the thrill of victory is just how bad the Suns were on defense; they gave up 104 points on 45% shooting or so, shot 11 more FTAs on only 3 fewer fouls (they gave up 29 FTAs, which isn't good, despite getting 40 themselves), and the trio of Millsap, Kirilenko and Miles pwn3d Phoenix on offense badly.

Between the three of them, they scored 57 points... and both Millsap and Kirilenko played under 30 minutes (29 and 24, respectively). They shot about 66% FG, were 5/8 from downtown and were basically unphased by Phoenix's defensive "efforts."

A win is nice, but it's a mirage for the moment; this was a win acquired on talent and in spite of the underlying performance factors.

I'm being a downer, which sucks.

So now to focus on tonight being the Suns looking awesome offensively; the improved flow was nice and Porter's 4Q choice of lineup was definitely neat... though resting Shaq because of foul trouble and never putting him back on the floor actually defeats the purpose of resting him because of foul trouble, a strategy I have long decided was stupid. At least the smaller lineup was good, and it was great to see Diaw and Barnes playing well.

Also, 5 boards out of Nash; nice.

[rsavaj]

Eh, you're not being a downer, you're being a realist.

This team has a long, long way to go before it can be confident that it's not merely first round fodder(if we make the playoffs).

[tsherkin]

Well, it feels kinda crappy to make a post like that the night of a really nice win, I just wanted to point out a few things I saw from my observance of the game.

[Phx4Life08]

I was really impressed with our guys tonight. They came out early with energy and fire. Two things that i think need to continue happening. 1) Hill starting over Barnes 2) Amar'e being agressive on the boards. The first is much more likely to change then the latter lol. I love Hill starting because he obviously is more comfortable in that role and Matt has proven he can be just as effective off the bench. Great Game GO SUNS!

[nevetsov]

Deron had a crappy game on O (as a scorer, I mean, 15 assists and 2 turnovers aside), Amare dropped a 22/20, Shaq dropped 15/10 and both Diaw and Barnes played very well..

And this is still a game that was a tie through 3 quarters and won at the end of the fourth... by 2 points.

You could argue that Nash had an equally crappy game offensively, sans the assists. He missed a number of shots that ordinarily you'd expect him to make.

Other than that, cheer up tsherks; too early in the season to be going all emo on us

[tsherkin]

Heh. I dunno, it's just that I'm so pessimistic about this team and that's rarely a good sign. They're not even normally fun to watch anymore, which is what I counted on when they lost before.

Yeah, Nash didn't play well, but that doesn't really dispel the underlying problems that have consistently eaten at the Suns for years. I'm still waiting to see what Porter has brought to this team besides a devolution of its strengths, and I was a Porter supporter!

[BigDaddyPR]

^^^^^^ Exactly, im still waiting for the improvement in Defense....... This is the same story with a different coach, except that now the team also struggles in offense....

Time to fire Porter IMO.. i dont see how he can turn this around....

[The Diesel]

I have to give credit to Porter and say he coached a really good game against the Jazz. One of the very few games where he's coached well.

But it doesn't change my opinion (yet) that he was the wrong hire and isn't a good coach.

It's a joke that a team with THIS much talent would not make the playoffs if the season ended today.

[Jdiddy701]

went to the game.. fun to see a win. I saw a lot of people up close for once.. like the team, robert sarver, amares family, brodcasters.. It was nice and I have pics, but I don't want to upload, too lazy.

LETS GO SUNS!