Shaq's Suns slay Raptors

by Seth Pollack on Feb 27, 2009 10:58 PM MST in Phoenix Suns: Game Coverage

Now that was great game. I didn't get too excited about scoring 140 on the depleted and lowly Clippers and I wasn't all that thrilled with beating up on the 13-win Thunder and reaching 140 on a last minute 5 pt run from Barbosa.

This game, though, was impressive. Let me count the ways:

1. Alvin Gentry was smart enough to not try and run the run and gun without Nash. He had an advantage down low and he used and abused it. The running the Suns did came off defensive stops.

2. Defensive stops. The bench guys were very active on the perimeter, putting pressure on the ball and getting 11 steals and outscoring the Raps 21 to15 off turnovers.

3. Turnovers. 12 for the Suns to 17 for the Raps. At least 3 of those turnovers were late in the game when Shaq was just in goof off mode.

4. Shaq. His numbers were awesome. His effort was fantastic. The Raptors interior defense was horrible. I have no idea why they waited until the final couple of minutes, when Shaq was trying to get 50, to decide that was the point to double him -- not early in the game, when he was racking up points, putting fouls on the Raps front line. That's some questionable defense.

5. Entry passing. Big props to the Suns for getting Shaq the ball. This is something the Suns struggled with all year long. Tonight they made the easy pass. When the Raps fronted, they either made a nice lob coming from a good wing passer (Hill or Barnes) or they reversed it around to the weak side and got Shaq the ball with his man sealed on his back.

I am just going to say it. The Suns seem to play better with Shaq, without Nash. In the Bobcats game, Nash had three straight turnovers making lazy high entry passes against taller defenders. LB on the other hand in a similar situation faked high and hit Shaq with a bounce pass. You can't tell me Nash can't find a way to get Shaq the ball. If he wants to.

Of course, the Suns are better with Nash on the floor, but the story of this season has been the inability of these two former MVPs to coexist and that's a real shame. Run off stops and misses. Work the ball inside out in the half court. When you have two weapons like that, you use them both. Too bad that didn't work. I hope someday we find out why that is. Back to this fun game...

6. Lou. Lou had a career-high 20 points, which he mostly got by moving without the ball. Imagine how good this guy would be in Utah, where cutting and passing are the name of the game. Jerry Sloan might even let him keep the pony tail....

7. Grant Freaking Hill! Grant was not really hitting his shots and he hasn't been for a few games now. After the reports of having foot problems, it seemed he was bothered enough to be slowed. That was until he went back to playing the three instead of trying to be a power forward (Grant Hill at the 4. How was that ever a good plan?) and he got out on the break, crossed Bargnani over and invited him to join in a classic poster dunk. That seemed to ignite Hill who went on to have 12 assists and a very loud 14 points. He was awesome running the half court sets and his perimeter D was stellar.

8. Half court shots FTW!!! This guy stepped up and hit the granny half court shot to win $77,777. It was all net! He then proceeded to go bonkers jumping on Barbosa and having to be dragged away from Lopez by The Gorilla and Coco the glee squad kid.

9. Bonus shot. I have no idea either...

Shhh. Don't tell anyone, but Dragic was horrible. He even managed to blow a 3 on 1 fast break. To be fair he had a great wrap around pass to Shaq for one of his two assists to go with his five fouls.

What does it all mean? In the long run, not much. Like Shaq said, the Suns need to win games like this, even without Nash and Amare, if they want to get to the playoffs.

During the Suns broadcast, Eddie Johnson pointed out the Suns have lost 9 games to sub-.500 teams and if they had won 6 or 7 of those, they would be right in the middle of the playoff pack.

Box Score * Raptors Republic

Audio provided by Sports 620 KTAR

Direct links to audio files:

Hill post game audio - raptors feb 27

Lou post game audio - raptors feb 27

Shaq post game audio - raptors feb 27

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Comments

FTW

Nice win, but the best play of the night has to be from the fan with the granny shot.

BTW

I’m beginning to think my name is bad luck.

Anyone who has read the story of Turin Turambar please let me know what you think

"Yeah I could have been king, but maybe I already am king. Hail to the king baby." Ash from Army of Darkness

by Turambar on Feb 27, 2009 11:23 PM MST reply actions

Yeah, just watched that game, was awesome

That’s what we envisioned when we got Shaq, and what we were hoping could still work out at the start of the season.

For one game at least, our wing-men learnt the art of entry-passes into the post. They even had some really good lobs when defenders fronted Shaq. In previous games, it’d simply be throw a bounce pass or chest pass that gets intercepted, or a lob pass that isn’t high enough and still gets intercepted. Yeah, looks like Gentry has taught the team to pass the ball and work the angle before feeding the post. Porter’s system(or players) was/were horribly inflexible, and tried to force-feed passes that were not there at all. Balance in the offensive philosophy will be the key if we’re to make a push for the playoffs. But if we’d had been in the East, we’d already be the 4th seed and have home court in the first round of the playoffs. Bah.

by felixthm on Feb 27, 2009 11:52 PM MST reply actions

I thought it was pretty lame to double Shaq when he was going for 50

I mean, you’re already pretty much blown out, what’s the big deal if one of the most iconic players gets 50 late in his career? I guess they’re already talked about enough with Kobe’s 81 they didn’t want to be victim to Shaq’s 50.

by hcblankscreen on Feb 28, 2009 1:13 AM MST reply actions

wow!!

what a fun game to watch, as if the game wasn’t enough…then the half court shot by the fan!!

One note, I keep jumping back and forth on whether we even want to be in the playoffs…after the celtic and laker games, and losing so badly, then winning like last night..it’s hard to tell whether our suns team is pretty good, or just good against bad teams…I don’t have an answer for this yet, but….I did notice one big, BIG THING. The Suns team that played tonight, for most of the game minus the right before halftime letdown, really hustled, and was actively trying to steal the ball…the suns team against the lakers and celtics didn’t even try to steal the ball, it’s like we were that over matched or something…just ugly…

I wonder what we’ll see on Sunday vs the lakers?

by be-the-ball on Feb 28, 2009 1:16 AM MST reply actions

Dragic was sure talking some smack on the bench - he couldn't stop laughing...

In Nash we trust - for better and for worse...

by ZonaFlash on Feb 28, 2009 2:57 AM MST reply actions

He was dissing Nash

“Did you see that, Stevie? I may have had 5 fouls, but I only had ONE turnover. Suck it, Captain Canada.”

by Mike Lisboa on Feb 28, 2009 11:28 AM MST up reply actions

Nope

I am pretty sure it was Jake Voshkuls ridiculous headband / haircut combo which btw explains his belligerent attitude

Blogging Suns Basketball

by Seth Pollack on Feb 28, 2009 11:32 AM MST up reply actions

iF ONLY WE COULD DROP THE BALL DOWN IN TO SHAQ A LITTLE EASIER AGAINST GOOD TEAMS! MAYBE WELL SEE MORE OF THAT SUNDAY.

by mteo78 on Feb 28, 2009 5:57 AM MST reply actions

Now THAT was a happy recap!

I saw the 4th Quarter and it was awesome. I’m really happy for Lou. He has worked hard all year and he deserved to have a game like this. I hope this gives him more confidence so he can continue to drive to the basket. Gentry decided to rest Hill and Shaq on the Lakers game and it paid off.

Hope they can bring it on Sunday too.

"Basketball doesn't build character. It reveals it"

by PanamaSun on Feb 28, 2009 6:57 AM MST reply actions

It took me a while to start hating Porter, well after a lot of you were hating him, but this is exactly why porter should have been fired. Even if we can’t beat the three or four best teams in the league, even if we get blown out by them every time we meet, there is no reason to EVER lose to a sub .500 team, and we should be blowing teams like the raptors out, and since Gentry has taken over, that’s what we’ve been doing.

And Shaq is my hero.

Take care of the little things, and the big things will take care of themselves.

by SunDolphin on Feb 28, 2009 7:22 AM MST reply actions

I missed the game

on account of a hot date with the wife, so thanks for the excellent recap.

by Diosnomeama on Feb 28, 2009 7:56 AM MST reply actions

sub-500 teams

It’s good to be beating the crap out of the crappy teams. Porter couldn’t do that.

Mmmmm ... Guinness

by JSun on Feb 28, 2009 8:33 AM MST reply actions

No kidding

Porter was like 0 for 72 from the field against those losers

Blogging Suns Basketball

by Seth Pollack on Feb 28, 2009 11:27 AM MST up reply actions

Game to remember

Between Shaq’s 45 and the half-court shot, it was great to be there. Right before he hit it, I told my wife’s uncle (he’s visiting from out of town) that they always take the 3-point shot. Being an accountant, he agreed it was the best risk to taken given the reward and probable success. Shows you what he knows.

I also liked the way the pulled away in the fourth (part of which was done with Goran in the game). The had a couple let-downs through the first three periods, but stayed in the lead and then hit another gear. That’s good to see.

Mmmmm ... Guinness

by JSun on Feb 28, 2009 8:35 AM MST reply actions