Game 7: Phoenix@Milwaukee.. Sat 11/8

[snowchess]

shaq's simply awesome
is that what you get when resting him

Maybe we should just play him 41 games. If he scores 28 in each of them, it'd probably be worth it.

well he's the only starter who didnt play yesterday
nash looked esp tired tonight, maybe he has back issues again

any way, shaq and amare won the game, hill and nash had decent to mediocre games everyone else.. no idea how they contributed
tragic and barbosa are especially out of sync

[suns12345]

too many turnovers again

[Cash]

shaq's simply awesome
is that what you get when resting him

Maybe we should just play him 41 games. If he scores 28 in each of them, it'd probably be worth it.

well he's the only starter who didnt play yesterday
nash looked esp tired tonight, maybe he has back issues again

any way, shaq and amare won the game, hill and nash had decent to mediocre games everyone else.. no idea how they contributed
tragic and barbosa are especially out of sync

Barbosa looks absolutely lost under Terry Porter. I'm wondering if maybe the Suns should trade him at this point. He still has pretty good value.

As for Dragic, here's one positive thing I have to say about the New Suns Era: They've committed to playing Dragic to develop him, whether he's good enough to win games right now or not. That's something we didn't see in the 7SOL Era. (Although one could argue that there were no players on the roster worth developing at that time.) I'm still not sold on Dragic, but I'm glad that he's at least getting the opportunity to play. It will probably cost the team a few games over the course of the whole season, but if Dragic has the potential that the Suns think he does, then giving him these minutes will pay off in the long run.

[BringinDaRuckus]

I am happy we went 3-1 on this roadtrip. two back-to-back games in 5 nights.... impressive. Some of our guys were tired tonight, but that should okay when barnes returns.

I think our guys are more rested even when tired compared to two seasons ago. Eddie Johnson made a good point that during our running and gunning, all 5 starters would be exhausted by the fourth quarter.

And did anyone catch that defensive stop we had where it was 3 vs 5? Shaq and hill were on the ground in the back court and Bell, Nash, Amare made the stop.... Anyone want to bet that they have practiced this? That play more than anything really stood out this game.

I can see the effort in EVERY player on our team on the defensive end.

[BringinDaRuckus]

I could not agree more with you Cash on the statements about Dragic.

Everyone has to understand that yeah, the guy was hyped up (what organization wouldn't hype up it's own players?), but he is still young and has a lot to learn and improve. But the only way he, or any player in any sport, to improve is to actually get some experience under the belt. I remember when Barbosa was a rookie and was raw... I cringed everytime he drove or shot.... granted he flourished in Mike's system, he still turned out a solid player. Wouldn't have happened if he never got the chance to gain experience....

[snowchess]

Barbosa looks absolutely lost under Terry Porter. I'm wondering if maybe the Suns should trade him at this point. He still has pretty good value.

barbosa looks as he's looked in the past postseasons. i.e. no transition game drastically reduces his value. i truly like him but I agree that he doesnt seem to fit into the new offense, whatever that may be, at all.

[nashill]

its not the new system, he just cant make his shots. he had may open shot tonight.

[BringinDaRuckus]

give him a little more time.....

he takes his family matters extremely personal.... so i can only imagine that basketball is not high on his list at the moment.

Like nashill said, he had open shots, they were just not falling. He is not going to average 17 a game or anything, but he will still be a nice scoring spark for us off the bench.

[rsavaj]

I'm glad Shaq's playing well, but holy crap our bench sucks. Barbo's obviously distracted(missing wide open shots), and Dragic is still 'meh'.

[Beware]

It is frustrating to be a Suns fan out of state, some online streams SUCK. Anyways, a good win. I was a bit disappointed in our second unit and it seems Dragic looks scared out there at times. Overall, I thought it was an entertaining game with Shaq dominating and staring down Skiles.

[DaDragicShow]

Shaq hasnt score these many points in who knows how long, so it's good to see the Diesel make nearly all his shots.

[OzzyAZ]

Was up at the studio so I didn't get to see the game, but holy ****: 54 freethrows! (to their 22). Were they good calls or were the refs in our favor? Nash had 9 FTA which is rare. The dude gets knocked around every possession but never gets frethrows since the refs expect him to pull off something crazy.

[Mr Smoke Weed]

wow what a game by shaq, hes really impressed me this season, no homo

[BringinDaRuckus]

Overall, the game wasn't horribly officiated. A lot had to do with Amare attacking the basket straight up and no one on the Bucks can stop a player such as Amare. Nash is showing more vetern skill this season than ever. He saw Luke Ridinour had his hand out to try and stop Nash and Nash just went straight up and Luke's hand got his arm. From three point land no less. Vetern move right there.

Our team seems to have more court awareness this season than previous ones. On both sides of the ball. Of course our previous system was just run and do whatever (or pick-n-roll), this system is far more structured. I liked how they kept feeding Shaq when he was dominiating.

[KJ7]

Noticed the last couple of games that Amare is really getting to the line again. 15, 18 & 20 FTAs in the last 3 games respectively.

Looks like Shaq absolutely schooled Bogut in this one. His footwork is just on another level to what it was last season. He really needed an offseason with our fitness guys to come back 100%.

If the start of the season is anything to go by it's gonna be so hard to judge how we do during the reg season.

I think LB has been quite effected by the change of coaching possibly more than anyone else. I remember reading an article where Bell said that he stopped worrying what a good and bad shot was in pre-season. Might sound a bit arrogant but he's veteran enough to know what works for him. LB just doesn't have that self-confidence and tends to want to do *exactly* what coaches ask of him rather then just believing in himself. Not that his shot selection was great last season but at least he had the backing of the coaching staff to keep hoisting them up and not worry about being dragged. Not this season.

[daveang]

I loved it how Shaq kept looking over at former teammate Scott Skiles every time he hit one of those turnaround baseline hooks.....Nice to have an O'Neal sighting. As for Barbosa, I don't think he looks lost, moreso just slowed and possibly frustrated by the game pace - he's going to have to adjust, and I think he will. He'll still get his looks, they just won't be as frequent in the flow of the game.