MVP or MIA - Amare in the Second Half of Game 2

by ZonaFlash on Apr 23, 2008 11:55 AM MST

Judging from the poll and the recent stories, Amare gets the blame for the loss in Game 2.

I disagree.

I voted for Grant Hill, although I don't blame the player himself.

More importantly, I didn't put any additional undue blame on Stoudemire. Stoudemire may not have scored well, but he was engaged and in the game to win.

Stoudemire took what the defense gave him. And after Kerr chided him for the offensive fouls in Game 1, chided him to take more jumpers, he did. I'm sorry they didn't go in, but he's a good shooter and sometimes they don't go in.

Did Stoudemire not bring it on the defensive end? Did he not stop Duncan twice in the low post? Did he not stay out of foul trouble? Is it his fault the coach keep calling someone else's number?

He may not have played great, but he wasn't MIA and he wasn't short on passion. He nearly got a T on the defensive end he wanted it so badly.

Cut the guy a break - there's plenty of blame to go around.

Can I get a witness??

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Comments

Good points

But I feel as though Amare should have been much more agressive in the 2nd half. He was settling for too many jumpers. I’m not asking for him to force the issue, but it seems like he came out placid in the 3rd quarter and only woke up in the waning minutes of the fourth.

by rsavaj on Apr 23, 2008 12:08 PM MST reply actions

Yeah, it certainly wasn't an MVP half - just saying he was in it even tho

(Truth is I wanted to post the pic and had to say something! =)

by ZonaFlash on Apr 23, 2008 12:12 PM MST up reply actions

Agreed

There was no reason to go away from him. Why did Doris get the ball in the post 4 times in a row? Because he had a mis-match? It’s not a mis-match if Doris does not play like he’s shown he can. I’d have rather seen STAT double-teamed with the ball in the lane than Doris posting Udoka. There would have been a better chance to score.

This “spread the scoring around” crap is crap. Especially now, that the Suns occassionally play interior defense and can play it a little slower. Give it to him every time. Especially early in the third while he’s still hot.

Mmmmm ... Guinness

by JSun on Apr 23, 2008 12:09 PM MST reply actions

Yeah, but that's on the coach and the PG....

by ZonaFlash on Apr 23, 2008 12:11 PM MST up reply actions

It is

That’s why I’m agreeing with you

Mmmmm ... Guinness

by JSun on Apr 23, 2008 12:14 PM MST up reply actions

I'm a little slow - it's my liberal arts background

=) Sorry man – waiting to hear about the hospital tour!

by ZonaFlash on Apr 23, 2008 12:18 PM MST up reply actions

A Liberal Arts Physicist?

You think we’re in the French Enlightment or something? Don’t tell me you write poetry and philosophic dialogues, too, because I wouldn’t believe you.

Mmmmm ... Guinness

by JSun on Apr 23, 2008 12:55 PM MST up reply actions

I just make sh*t up. I'm unemployed and live in a van down by the river

The hard sciences are in lib arts – it requires some humanities but probably not nearly the dosage Turumbar or Pliny have sustained.

I was just grasping for an excuse for my slow mental acquity without admitting it was genetic. Sorry, it was the best I could come up with.

by ZonaFlash on Apr 23, 2008 1:11 PM MST up reply actions

More Detail Below on the Hospital Tour

http://www.hoopsvibe.com/nba/nba-articles/it-hurts-to-cry-phoenix-suns-versus-san-antonio-sterns-game-2-ar48028.html

How do I start a poll?

I’m feeling pretty crappy right now, missing work today and I will likely only work a few hours Thursday and Friday. I’d like to know whether I should do the guilt-ridden thing and skip Friday’s game (I have a follow-up appointment with my ENT on Friday and it appears that Monday is surgery day) or do the die-heard fan thing and show up with a broken nose even though I’ve been skipping work (kind of like sitting out school with a cold but miraculously getting better on Friday afternoon).

Mmmmm ... Guinness

by JSun on Apr 23, 2008 1:01 PM MST up reply actions 1 recs

Way to take one for the team

You win the BSoS Nash Nose Award!

oh – and if you don’t want those tickets for Friday….you know where to find me :)

Blogging Suns Basketball

by Seth Pollack on Apr 23, 2008 1:17 PM MST up reply actions

Let's get a poll going

That’s what I’m saying

I’m torn here. Back in grade school, it would’ve been a no-brainer. I need some help from the collective conscience. Revert to age 12 or do the adult thing?

Mmmmm ... Guinness

by JSun on Apr 23, 2008 1:26 PM MST up reply actions

Its about the focus

You can always tell with Amare by his free throws. He was 3 – 3 in the first half and 3 – 6 in the second.

The jumpers he missed weren’t the tough turn around type he was hitting in the first half. In the second he was missing hop 10 footers.

Sure they gave the ball to Diaw to much. I want Amare to go and DEMAND the ball. Maybe he did. I doubt it.

Blogging Suns Basketball

by Seth Pollack on Apr 23, 2008 12:16 PM MST reply actions

Yeah, I'm surprised Nash has avoided complaints

Here was the team in the critical start of the 3rd Q:

Nash 1-2, 2TO
Bell 0-2,
Hill, 0-0
Amare 0-4, 1 TO
Shaq 0-3, 1TO

That was the ballgame, but we always credit Nash for the great offensive production of the team, why not for the offensive failures?

He’s the guy they say that can get the ball to the right players in the right places.

by ZonaFlash on Apr 23, 2008 12:23 PM MST reply actions 1 recs

Fair enough

but I believe it was also Nash that shot the Suns back into the game in the fourth quarter with 11 points on 4 of 5 FG and 1 -2 3PG.

Blogging Suns Basketball

by Seth Pollack on Apr 23, 2008 12:37 PM MST up reply actions

He was just padding his stats - the game was already in the deep freeze =)

by ZonaFlash on Apr 23, 2008 12:46 PM MST up reply actions 1 recs

all sorts of things went wrong in that 3rd Q

Not just amare, it was just plain ugly! What’s worse is the Suns have had similar offensive meltdowns recently! To see a team (The Suns) who often score 30-40 points in a Q, struggle like this is really tough to watch. Yes, the spurs have great Defense, but this lack of scoring had little to do with that (in my opinion), the Suns just went cold, dead cold. As a fan, how do you respond to watching your team miss so many shots (close shots), and as ZF said, Amare’s shots weren’t off balance tough shots, they were 10-15 ft jumpers that all went long.

by be-the-ball on Apr 23, 2008 12:42 PM MST reply actions

Fallen cactus creates traffic problems

http://www.azcentral.com/community/scottsdale/articles/2008/04/23/20080423abrk-cactus0423.html

Cactus = Shaq and the Suns
Speeding car = S.A. Spurs

by TwinnerA on Apr 23, 2008 1:10 PM MST reply actions

The game was awful and I quit watching at the end of the 3rd quarter. I just couldn’t watch. I am not killing myself over it because to be honest I am not surprised at how they played. I love the Suns, but it ain’t happening apparently. Plenty of blame to go around from the players to the coach.

I will be there on Friday and Sunday at the games and will cheer my brains out for them and hope they win, but the Suns can’t seem to to play for 4 quarters, 2 most times, 3 once in a while, but never 4 in the important games.

by TwinnerA on Apr 23, 2008 1:15 PM MST reply actions

Hate to do the What If thing...

but how big are those lapses against Houston and Dallas looking right now?

Blogging Suns Basketball

by Seth Pollack on Apr 23, 2008 1:20 PM MST reply actions

tentation

On the one hand, it’s tempting to go to the “what if”. And we all said that those losses could be painful at the end. On the other hand, if the Suns is not able to pass through the Spurs, right now or later, one cannot tell they could be the champions. On the opposite, I thought (and I was not alone) that the path through the sucking Spurs in the first round could be a huge “confidence builder” in order to go through NO/Dallas, LA/Utah, and Boston/Detroit. Those teams (except pehaps NO/Dallas) are not easier than Spurs.

We have to beat everybody if we want to go far, and having the third seed wouldn’t have helped (ok, perhaps we could have won a series, it’s better than been out after the first round, but it was not the aim of that season!). Now it’s the spurs, and I think that if the SUns overcome their “mental toughness issues” ot these last two games and win the series, our hopes to go far are not over (the legs will however be tired, which can be detrimental against youg teams). But it will be very hard to overcome that and win the series….

where full french Diaw has been absolutely owned by the other damned French (what's is name?)

by warmup on Apr 24, 2008 1:41 AM MST up reply actions

Had we won those

The Suns would have been a team in a further stage of discipline and development than they are. The Suns would have been a HOTT team coming into the playoffs.

Therefore, it wasn’t just some bad breaks in those games, especially against Dallas in the 4Q – we wanted that one. It was wholly indicative of the team status. Worse yet, it was an indictment of this team.

by ZonaFlash on Apr 24, 2008 1:45 AM MST up reply actions

Painful

I have to quit watching, it is bad for my health, it is too painful. I taped the game and watched it last night when I got home, I had seen the first half at a friends house before I had to go play in a rec league game and thought for sure we were going to tie this series up. I got home last night, fast forwarded through the first half, made some dinner and then spent most of the next half an hour fast forwarding through the second half because I just couldn’t take it. Finley hit two shots coming out of the locker room, we stopped trying to defend a pick and roll, every shot we took was tentative and I just knew we were done. I just can’t watch these games any more. We are killing ourselves. It’s simple. My beloved Suns are slowly squeezing the life out of me and as of right now I am resigned to not watching any more of this series, because it is too painful.

by clutch14 on Apr 23, 2008 1:28 PM MST reply actions

Sure, it wasn't all Amare's fault.

It’s rarely just one player that’s to blame when bad losses happen. But I think in terms of floor leadership, it has to begin and end with him. Nash needs to know that if he can get the ball into Amare’s hands, good things will happen or he will die trying. Ditto Coach D.

While the Suns may have brought Shaq in to go heads up with Duncan, this is the kind of knowledge he needs to be imparting to Amare. If getting him to average 30 points and 10 rebounds over the last couple weeks of the season was The Amare Stoudemire Project, then filling the leadership vacuum on the Suns should be the ASP 2.0.

by Mike Lisboa on Apr 23, 2008 1:53 PM MST reply actions