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"Wow Granger" downs Rusted Sunz, 113-110

Nice Comeback, but Nobody Home

After dragging behind the Pacers for 3 quarters, the Suns cast off the rust and roared through the fourth 24-15 to tie the game with 35 seconds to go. After some see-sawing back and forth, it came down to a tie game, Pacer ball, 0.9 to go and Granger got open to hit the three. 

As discussed, Suns players were supposed to switch on screens, but LB did not, leaving the deadliest Pacer open for the game winner and the career high.  Stuff like that happens and for Granger to win it with 0.9 is all credit to the Pacers.  A nice win for the Pacers and Pacers fans everywhere.

While Granger's career high (yes, another one) 37 was awesome, I felt it was Troy Murphy's threes in the 3rd quarter that really hurt the most.   Chronically, the Suns seem never home on the shooters. 

On a different note, the Pacer frontline really hurt us not only with troy Murphy's long ball, but also with Foster and Softy Rasho going 9 of 11 for 18 points.  Who was defending that soft frontline??

 

Coverage:  ESPN    Yahoo!     AZCentral       Quotes

 

Rusted Sunz, Green Power and Guess Who is packing their bags to Iowa after the jump!

Star-divide

Rusted SunzRusted_suns_medium

Hey, the final score was a bummer, but this game was a good one to work out the kinks in the rusted Suns.  This has only been the Suns fifth game in 21 days.  There was a lot of good individual performances (just check the box scores), but the Suns were clearly out-of-sync and there was talk of Nash not being well enough to play this game.

The Suns did in fact play hard enough to win this one, outrebounding the Pacers by 10.  They aggressively made good at the foul line, with 24 more attempts.  However, they simply had an uncharacteristically poor shooting night.

I don't think this is a bad loss and I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

 

Green Hippie Power

Cancel your APS and SRP service, there's a new green energy source in the Valley of the Sun.  Lou Amundson has enough energy to power half the city, enough to power the first half of tonight's game and almost enough to power the Suns to a victory.

Lou1

He may not make his FTs (1 of 7??), but he comes in with huge energy and does all the dirty work needed to win.  9 offensive and 14 rebounds in 25 minutes.  We are lucky that our team found this player.  We have enough stars.  Credit to coaching and management for giving this guy a chance to play. 

Lou Amundsun is this year's Jamario Moon, an older energy player that has found his way onto a team and into the hearts and minds of NBA fans.

I would recommend a genius point for the GM having found Lou Amundson had Foster and Rasho not also gone for 9 of 11 from the field.  We'll have to wait to see more as to how Lou pans out.

Barnes, despite shooting 2 of 10, was also a game-changer with his aggressive energetic play.

 

SunDolphin is waiting for Robin Lopez at the Iowa Airport.

The starting rookie centers Hibbert and Fropez played, like, rookies. Hibbert played for less than 8 minutes but really didn't get credited for much.  Fropez played less than 6 minutes, accumulating 4 fouls to go with his blocked shot and 2 of 4 free throws.  He didn't get a rebound.

After being widely advertised as "Not Fit for Suns Play" Fropez started the game and further proved that Coach Cartwright isn't enough - he needs serious time in the D-league.

We would have a seriously short upfront lineup with Robin in the d-league during games that Shaq shits, but 5:19 minutes of play and 4 fouls is not much help anyway.

0 recs  |  Comment 9 comments |

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Sims City

Lopez goes to Iowa. Had his chance(s), coach called him out, he performed the same, poorly. Nab Sims from the D-League please. We need a big in there when our new team leader apparent Shaq, is sitting on the bench.

by STUCK IN LA on Jan 7, 2009 11:31 PM MST reply actions   1 recs

agreed.

do a little swap. i’m not ready to give up on lopez yet…he’s just really not been able to put it all together yet. even after his much hyped “defensive presence” on draft night, with many stating he’s a better defender than his brother, which, don’t look now…but bropez just put up a pretty healthy line tonight against the grizz.

i really want to see how/if sims would work out. he seems like he’s doing pretty dang well, and i want the suns to be the team to pick him up.

by iamtrevorpaxton on Jan 7, 2009 11:40 PM MST up reply actions   0 recs

bropez....phuck what a difference 5 spots make...

There was a lot of optimistic blogger ink over the summer saying Fropez > Bropez….

by ZonaFlash on Jan 7, 2009 11:46 PM MST up reply actions   0 recs

Not so so fast

He’s got time. There’s a huge difference in the minutes Brook is getting versus being thrown out there and expected to be as good as your great team mates ever time.

He’s got work to do but the Robin Project has just begun.

Not to mention – how long it takes some guys to blossom. Granger for example in his rookie year was a nobody.

by Phoenix Stan on Jan 8, 2009 7:53 AM MST up reply actions   0 recs

So, couple of questions

Did we have a timeout to take when JRich got that offensive board?

I think he did the right thing taking the shot since a timeout wasn’t called, and he did get a good look. But wouldn’t it have been better to draw something up?

I don’t know if Porter answered this question after the Spurs game, but why have Nash on the floor when we’re looking for a stop?

I understand he might be better staying with a small guard on the drive, but we all knew it was going to be a catch and shoot. I don’t recall who the fifth man was with Amare, LB, Nash, and Hill on that last play, but why not put Barnes/Amundson/Dudley in? It was LB who missed the rotation but maybe someone with more length would’ve recovered better than Nash or been able to bother his shot.

by hcblankscreen on Jan 8, 2009 1:02 AM MST reply actions   0 recs

timeout

I think Porter was calling for a timeout after the offensive rebound. I don’t have a problem with JRich’s shot, though. Don’t hold it and hope for overtime. He took a decent (not great) shot with less than a second left on the clock. With a timeout, the Suns wouldn’t have been able to slice off a little more time — what, leave .4 seconds on the clock? Come on.

Agreed as to Nash. Not his fault, but there are better defenders to have on the court.

Mmmmm ... Guinness

by JSun on Jan 8, 2009 11:24 AM MST up reply actions   0 recs

I am ready to give up on Lopez

Just think he has it to be anything but a MINOR role player, 12 minutes a night for a first round pick, seems about right.
 Suns play 4 games in it seems a month and come out flat, go figure.
 I said it before and will again, the Suns are the 9th seed.

"Have You heard of the Boom on Mizar 5?"

by Grockcubs on Jan 8, 2009 5:03 AM MST reply actions   0 recs

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