Game36: Phoenix(22-13)@Denver(26-13)

[rebelx]

personally, after Barbosa was jacking up his 3rd or 4th brick late in the 4th and into OT....I felt that they needed some defense at that point, and Barbs was just a headcase after a couple of misses. They needed to put Lou back in, his hustle was a amazing in the 4th quarter, and he was really playing well when Porter yanked him for the starters....

besides, out of the all the big guys Billups got a switch on last night, Lou was the only guy that gave him textbook defense and made him pass the ball....he got the switch, but soon realized that Lou was too long and athletic, he tried to fake him a few times, and then just passed it off so he could get Nash back on him.

I think that Porter tries to go too offensive at the end of the game when the team needs defense more than offense. IMO, you got plenty of playmakers in Richardson, Nash, and Amare. You need a guy that will get an offensive board, block a shot, or just bring an overall defensive pressence.


...maybe if Lou can shake himself of the silly fouls, he'll get those minutes later on. That said, the play where Billups kicked Lou in the groin while Lou was going for a block (trying to avoid Billups) was a ridiculous call....Billups went in like Karl Malone, except in this case it was a Karl Malone/Reggie Miller move as he had to actually extend his leg to even make contact with Lou.

[ma_falaa_50]

I thought It was a horribly coached game by porter. The suns had J-rich and Barnes that can post and what did they do ... let them jack up threes??? really?? I thought AMare still makes the same dumb mistake. I dont know who he thinks he is but if he continues to play this way I dont think he will be re-sign. yesterday should have been his game. Shaq was out. The reason Shaq was out because amare gets schooled by Al jefferson evrytime. I am a fan of AMare but he needs to find his heart. He is not hustling. I thought Lou should have gotten more minutes. He had the same amount of fouls as amare but lesser TOs. He plays with more energy and can board on defense and offense. I am losing faith on amare. I dont think he is a franchise player!.

[albasuna]

Matt Barnes and Jason Richardson were really disappointing during last nights game. Matt Barnes was forcing things to much.. trying to get out of his slump and Jason was being to passive. Did he forget that he can score in more ways than threes?

[JohnVancouver]

By the time I could sit down and watch the game it was 1 a.m. after the OT, and like someone else said, I was too pissed off to post. In the cold light of day, then:

-- Some bad officiating; the Hill non-call was just awful but there were numerous others. Sweet Lou was called under the rim for one that the replay showed he was half a foot away for the offensive player. Nash looked like he got knocked over at least twice, but form the angle I couldn't say for sure. Didn't really notice any bad calls from the Denver side but I'm sure they suffered too - it rarely goes all one way.
But - we shouldn't have been in a place where one bad call at the end of the game was that important.
Amare's D was atrocious and it's startign to matter big time. When he was putting down 35 pts and allowing his opposite number 25, you could say it was a +10. But Stat isn't putting up those numbers and he's still allowing people like Nene , Anderson, etc. to do what they want.

It struck me watching though that Denver plays they way we were supposed to - for a team that was renowned for no interest at all in defense they play good team D, force turnovers, rebound and then run like hell. They shut down the PnR pretty effectively.

It also occurred to me that we've now built this team around a 36 yr old center and when he's out we look a bit lost. I worry about pinning our game on Shaq - I know he looks better than he has in years but will our luck hold and will we have him consistently through the second half of the season and the playoffs.

We need to reintegrate Amare into the offense toot sweet and get his head back into it and his enthusiasm up - I see today he's complaining that his game is suffering and he's not "feared" any more.

[DaDragicShow]

JohnVancouver nice post.

Noway Amare can put up those big numbers anymore when you have Shaq, Richardson and Barbs on your team. Also, by not picking up silly fouls every single game Amare could be averaging around 24-25ppg instead of 21.8 I believe. We just have too many good shooters on our team that Amare simply can't have the ball on every possession. Anywayz points 21.8ppg is great for him, now if he can just start grabbing those rebounds then everything would be perfect.

[JohnVancouver]

I agree - we have Shaq, Amar'e, JRich and Barbs, not to forget Nash, who are all capable scorers, as are Hill and Barnes. 20 points a game is no come-down for someone on a team rich with offensive talent. If Amare would just step up his D and rebound - and he's no longer being asked to guard centers - make the most of his touches, and draw fouls, then we could make everyone on the floor an offensive threat which allows us top spread the floor, cuts down double-teams, all kinds of good things.

There's a lot to admire in Amar'e both as a player and a man but he does often sound like a kid. This will eb is team in less than 2 years. he needs to start stepping up now in order to be ready to take it over.