Suns Drop Yet Another Close Game

by Trevor Paxton on Jan 7, 2009 10:16 PM MST

In case any of you didn't catch the Suns/Pacers game, the Suns were once again obliterated on another buzzer beating 3, delivered by none other than Danny Granger. Now, I find this loss a bit more puzzling than the coaled-blooded Spurs delivery, where that was clearly a blown defensive assignment.

In case you missed it, here's basically how it went down: 30-something seconds left on the clock. Nash drives in, doesn't find anything, retreats back out to close to the arc. Passes to Amaré. Amaré clanks the 18 footer with the shot clock running down. Richardson gets the offensive rebound. Somewhere around 6 or 7 seconds left in the game. Richardson pump fakes, moves around the defender, and puts up a 15 (or so) footer. He misses. Indiana comes down with the rebound, with .9 seconds left on the game clock. Timeout called. After the timeout, Indiana inbounds the ball to Granger, who hits the game winning catch-and-shoot 3 pointer.

Now...while I don't blame any one person for that shot (i.e. Richardson in the Mason debacle), I know I can't see everything. Maybe I was blinded by rage that we lost another one in the final second. Maybe I just didn't want to think about it. Nevertheless, there is strength in having such a devoted Suns nation out there all in one place.

So, let's take a look at it. I've enclosed a poll, giving a few suggestions, and I would like to see what you all think is the cause for not only this, but many of the other close Suns losses...Lord knows there's been more than just a few.

I want to hear what you have to say.

Poll

Granger hit the game winning 3 with .9 seconds left. Who's at fault?

Jason Richardson. Should have held for that extra .8 seconds before putting up his shot.

17 votes

Leandro Barbosa. Blew his defensive assignment by failing to rotate over on Granger.

22 votes

Robin Lopez. Why did he even play 5 minutes in this game when Porter said he's clearly not ready to play?

2 votes

Steve Kerr. Just...because.

20 votes

The previous 47:59.1 minutes of play. Seriously? I mean...seriously?

68 votes

129 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

i wonder if anyone would be so kind as to

provide details of close games we lost and ones we won this season? i dont know if this is accurate, but the only close games i remember the suns winning are against the thunder and orlando, and losing like 8 others. o_O true that? o_O

by ryansunsfan on Jan 8, 2009 8:28 AM MST reply actions

i'd add jrich - calling a change on the defensive end

with .9 sec left. That was a much bigger mistake than his shot. It wasn’t like he took a shot with 10 seconds left or something, it was kind of close, not great, not horrible….

The problem is the suns team on defense isn’t very good, I think if shaq was in this game, we’d won. Nice to see barbosa play well…people might be saying he messed up on the defensive end there (at the end)…but I think the question should be – what and why did JRich call for a change…and did that screw up the suns defensive assignments at the end?

by be-the-ball on Jan 8, 2009 9:22 AM MST reply actions

We don't know

for sure that it was Jason. I believe it was based on what I saw but to be fair…we don’t know.

Blogging Suns Basketball

by Seth Pollack on Jan 8, 2009 12:25 PM MST up reply actions

Missing 2 thing

1) A legit backup center R. lopez isn’t cutting. He should go to the D-league to tuneup his game.
2) The hard-nosed/dirty guard/forward. Barnes could be that guy that irritates the Kobe’s & Lebron’s of the world. Every champion has that one guy that just don’t give a **** hence (Posey, Bowen, Horry)

by Change on Jan 8, 2009 12:47 PM MST reply actions

it could be argued

that guys are labeled as “hard-nose” being the toughest (although not as tough as some nba players) in a championship team. how is posey tough? hes a good, not a great defender. had the suns won a championship, raja bell would be talked as “that guy”. they havent, and hes not. championships overhype people. ask paul pierce, the greatest player in the nba today. o_O or rajon rondo, a perennial all-star. or garnett, the defensive player of the year. or even ray allen, the 2008 all-star with the worst stats. or scalabrine, the ’defensive prescence". i could go on and on.

by ryansunsfan on Jan 13, 2009 8:00 AM MST up reply actions