Open Gameday Thread - Suns vs Bucks

by Seth Pollack on Nov 8, 2008 10:32 AM MST

Phoenix Suns at Milwaukee Bucks, Nov 8, 2008 6:30 PM MST

Phoenix Suns	vs.	Milwaukee Bucks
4-2		2-3
6:30 PM Mountain / 8:30 PM Eastern
TV: My45 HD
Probable starters:
Steve Nash	PG	Luke Ridnour
Raja Bell	SG	Michael Redd?
Grant Hill?	SF	Richard Jefferson
Amare Stoudemire	PF	Charlie Villanueva
Shaq	C	Andrew Bogut

Official Suns Game Notes

A must win game in week 2 of the season? No. But this is still a game that we would all feel much better winning. Coming home from the road trip 3-1 would be quite nice indeed while 2-2 against 4 non-playoff teams changes the tone entirely.

Fortunately, this is a very winnable a game against yet another young team in rebuild mode without (maybe) their star shooter Redd who is day-to-day with an ankle.

Game Thoughts on a Saturday Morning After a Friday Night that Left me with a Headache

Going straight to the bullets because they are easier then my otherwise poetic prose. Let's hope the Suns give more effort them I am
Bogut for all his stiffiness is a guy that gave the Suns small front line problems last year pre Shaq. He played 25 minutes last night while Shaq looked quite pleased with himself on the sidelines in this natty suit. Advantage Suns
We missed Richard Jefferson in East Rutherford but catch up with him tonight. I don't exactly follow the Bucks but my guess is that he packed up his quite awesome game when he made the move to Wisconsin. Stop RJ and Save the World
Amare vs. the Hairless Forward (was that cruel?) - this is exactly the kind of game were Amare Sun Tzu benefits from playing his natural position. CNuv is a decent player with range but he's no match for the Chinesse War Lord and let's Amare play his game instead of trying to keep Big Bogut off his ass in the paint
Young Bucks - Joe the Dunker, Luc Mbah a Moute and Ramon Sessions
all bring a fresh look to the north country but they shouldn't really present too many problems for the wily Suns vets - Diaw, Hill and Bell (and hopefully Barnes)
Bucks played last night as well - losing the World NBA Champs
Say it with me now - turnover's lose games. Limit turnovers. Win the boards. Play hard. Win.

Drop by well written Brew Hoop blog and toss one back

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Comments

yeah, without doubt this is the sort of matchup where we must go inside frequently

bogut villa and jefferson? man even if they double teamed they would still be too small haha

whichever one bogut isnt on, we just go to them and pound em, attack bogut too, get him in foul trouble. I dont care if im an aussie and should be cheering him BOO BOGUT GO SUNS!

elson? gadzuric? haha the bucks cant stop our frontcourt at all

by SDU on Nov 8, 2008 2:56 PM MST reply actions

They are improved. However, GO SUNS!

Milwaukee is improved. I think we’ll take them. GO SUNS! Bogut is definetly an overshadowded maybe even overrated #1 overall pick. My brother lives in Australia and asks about Bogut. However, while Milwaukee is improved, we are better. GO SUNS!

by CanadianBlazerfan on Nov 8, 2008 3:59 PM MST reply actions

Nice play so far

Barbosa still looks for crap and the second unit really misses Grant Hill. Nice game by Shaq.

Blogging Suns Basketball

by Seth Pollack on Nov 8, 2008 7:55 PM MST reply actions

Great point about Grant Hill

With Antonio McDyess possibly available soon, why wouldn’t the Suns be interested? I think we’ll struggle the most against guys with two quality bigs..wouldn’t McDyess be a solid second unit guy?

by cah05 on Nov 8, 2008 8:09 PM MST up reply actions

Word is

When Denver releases him he’s just going back to Detroit, a la Brent Barry Seattle to SA.

by hcblankscreen on Nov 8, 2008 11:14 PM MST up reply actions

did you really just type that or was it someone else saying

“Nice game by Shaq.”

Suns Re-ignited.

by ZonaFlash on Nov 8, 2008 8:21 PM MST up reply actions

Bell on Bell is getting annoying

The announcers need to stop saying “Bell this Bell that”

Suns Re-ignited.

by ZonaFlash on Nov 8, 2008 8:18 PM MST reply actions

sessions is embarrassing dragic

Suns Re-ignited.

by ZonaFlash on Nov 8, 2008 8:31 PM MST reply actions

Nash shanks a wide open 3

Announcer: “Well, Bucks forcing misses!”

Suns Re-ignited.

by ZonaFlash on Nov 8, 2008 8:38 PM MST reply actions

5 bucks on 3 suns, and we got the stop and the ball =)

Suns Re-ignited.

by ZonaFlash on Nov 8, 2008 8:47 PM MST reply actions

where's rosewood?

I want the back story on Raymond Sessions. 56th pick in the 2007 draft. Looked like a great pickup.

Suns Re-ignited.

by ZonaFlash on Nov 8, 2008 9:03 PM MST reply actions

Much better game.

Everyone’s effort looked up tonight. Shaq was ridiculous. Amare’s foul shooting the past three nights is ridiculous. Nash looked much improved over the past two games. All in all, a very satisfying effort.

by Azreous on Nov 8, 2008 9:29 PM MST up reply actions

Too close for comfort

Dragic looked out of his depth against Bucks backup Sessions. Dragic is a raw talent which I like quite a lot, but I think he needs a couple seasons’ of polishing before he’s ready to lead. Our backcourt depth is pretty precarious, really. With the always undependable Barbarosa, we have essentially no backcourt depth whatsoever.

Disappointing that we let an easy win against a subpar team with virtually no talent to speak of play us so tight. We need to close games better; the easy points we’re conceding to teams could prove deadly against stronger teams who can mount a serious comeback challenge. Against weak teams like these, it’s wasting our starters’ strength. Amare played 43 mins. Against a really lousy team. That just shouldn’t be happening; we need to save some of his awesomeness for the other teams.

by felixthm on Nov 9, 2008 8:13 AM MST reply actions

Dragic v Nash

On the broadcast Leander made the point of comparing Dragic numbers to Nash in his rookie season backing up J Kidd. Similar.

Dragic is going to take a while to develop. I hope the Suns can afford the wait.

We did see that the Suns have other options when Nash is resting. I really liked the Hill, Barnes, Barbosa, Diaw and Amare line up we saw against the Blazers.

I suspect we will won’t be seeing Dragic in crucial situations for some time. Of course if Nash goes down for any extended period before he’s ready that’s really going to hurt. But as I always say – what team can afford to lose their best player(s) and not feel the pain. Can’t worry about that.

Blogging Suns Basketball

by Seth Pollack on Nov 9, 2008 8:43 AM MST up reply actions

Anybody with better access to stat stuff than me...

I’m assuming that the high number of free throw attempts (and low number of field goal attempts) has to have been notable in some way, particularly given the 7SoL style of the past few years. Anybody have the ability to find out when was the last time we took that many free throws or shot that few from the field?

by Azreous on Nov 9, 2008 10:43 AM MST reply actions

Mainly it seems to be given Sun Tzu a bigger piece of the offense.

Even before, STAT was the “And-1” King of the NBA. Since we’ve given him a larger share of the offense, he’s been able to do more with that, going to the line more often. In the last 3 games, he’s gone to the line 15, 18 and 20 times, making 15, 16 and 18 of them, about 90%!

Also, thanks to Hack-a-Shaq, as soon as we traded for the behemoth, we inherited the propensity of collecting fouls instead of buckets.

So, to the extent that the trade of speedster Marion for the Big Shaqtor ended 7SOL, you are correct. However, what we are now seeing is a conscious decision by Kerr and Porter to put more offensive responsibility on the team’s undisputed star, Amar’e, who happens to play 6+ more minutes than anyone else on the team

Suns Re-ignited.

by ZonaFlash on Nov 9, 2008 12:39 PM MST up reply actions