Suns Lose Heartbreaker, 102-101

tough one. I have dogged Lopez a lot, he deserves props tonight. Give him credit, he was active and actually looked like he had an idea. Dragic will be a good player, he really shows signs of being a starting guard. Amare looked really motivated in the 4th, this is the type of ball we all expect from him.
 J RIch and Channing killed the team tonight. I think Gentry might have to look at some different combinations.
 This one sucks, but the team really did play well.

Can’t feel bad about losing that game.

i mainly just saw the end and sadly no matter what now adays im thinking well the suns are going to lose this somehow its inevitable that was in my head at the end and sadly i was right i guess this is the expected downs of this season i hope our ups are coming soon enough

i was at this game cheering on the Suns and this loss was extremely hard to swallow. I thought for sure we had the game wrapped up in the last minute. My observations on the game:
bigger defenders definitely bother Nash a lot more. I really thought he should have looked for his shot earlier in the game rather than in the 4th quarter.
Amare was everywhere, solid game for him and Grant Hill.
Robin Lopez was a monster. put-back dunks, huge blocks, hook shots, even a jumper. he was great tonight.
where the hell was J-Rich? completely non-existent this game.

It was an extremely entertaining game that (due to a ridiculous shot from Crawford) ended badly for us :(

The guy behind me and I had a few interesting conversations. He kept dogging on Nash the entire game.
him: “Man, Nash is a bitch! look at that weak ass white boy play. Now Bibby, he’s the truth!”
me: “Nash has 2 MVP’s. All Bibby has right now are 2 fouls.”
him: “man, why you gotta bring that up?”

And he kept talking about how Dudley can’t shoot and I, willing to educate an ignorant NBA fan, informed him that he actually is the league leader in 3 point shooting.
He also kept talking about how “Lopez’s skinny ass” should hit the weight room, but I think each of Robin’s 6 blocks shut him up.

Ah, there’s nothing better than repping my Suns at an away game :)

The main folly was that rebound, which sort of feel like just terrible luck.

I’m glad to see Gentry’s starting to make players accountable, by yanking Frye and putting in Lopez, who played well.

Is the best thing that came out of this game for me. Maybe if he can get another two or three games like this under his belt, where he plays a meaningful role, he will get a boost of confidence. It sure would be nice to see.

this is certainly a game that had lots of both. I loved that Gentry was willing to go away from Frye and play a defensive line-up with Lopez and Dragic (who is the Suns best defensive guard) down the stretch.

Nash was pretty fresh and he and Amare carried the offense in the fourth while the others played solid D. Lopez really was fantastic. I had this thought that perhaps he’s not gotten as much playing time as Frye b/c Channing is such a nice guy and better communicator while Robin is…well kind of a goof. You wouldn’t think it matters but I am telling you I think it does. Everyone loves Channing. Everyone kind of makes fun of Robin. I’ve seen it.

Certainly when the Suns were going with a lot of zone D those two were far better than Frye and JRich. Dragic is quicker and smarter on his rotations and Robin covers a lot of space and…well 6 friggin blocks!!! while Frye was getting abused by Horford in the paint.

This would have been a solid win but you just can’t excuse blowing a 4 point lead in 10 seconds but when you look at it you kind of have to blame Hill if anyone.

On the missed FT it was just a fluke thing. Guys were aggressive going after the rebound and got in each others way. It happens a couple of times per game when teams are playing hard. This was just a really bad time for it. 9 times out of 10 the Suns get that ball. On the last shot, you just have to tip your hat. The Suns defended their first option – Joe in the corner – and Dudley switched on to Crawford and defended him well. He just nailed it.

The most boneheaded play was Hill inbounding to Amare. I watched that play several times and even counted the refs arm swings keeping time.

Nash was on the far side and made a fake cut one way and turned and was running right towards Hill with JJ several steps behind him. It would have been a pretty easy in bound to Steve but Grant was looking at Amare the entire time and lobbed him the ball.

I am never going to blame a guy for missing late free throws. I just don’t think it’s fair to call someone out for missing a shot in a situation like that. But Hill not even looking for Nash makes no sense to me.

Mostly though, the Suns fought hard and like most of the post-game quotes say, if they play like that even though the long ball wasn’t falling they are going to win most nights. If this didn’t come on the heals of all those other crappy games (Pacers, Bucks, Heat, etc) then it would have been a nothing at all.

Hopefully, it’s a step in the right direction and they can back it up tonight in Charlotte but that’s a tough place to play right now…Hopefully, Frye and J-Rich will step it up and carry their mates.

I say start him in place of Frye.

It makes sense, but I’m thinking I like what Lopez brings to the second unit. Yes Frye in theory brings more offense, but with the way this team handles second quarters of late (succumbing to the other team’s surges) I’m thinking more D is the best move. In addition Lopez brings a low post presence so when the shots aren’t falling from the outside, we can dump the ball into him as another option.

I’m dang happy the kid is getting a shot and responding. Us being able to even have this conversation is good news.

and it is really hard to swallow… AG made one mistake there at the end, 10 sec to play he pulls out amare and lopez who were very solid on the boards, so lou and dudley get in and we allow that first rebound to josh smith… we got that rebound – game over!!!… and then, dudley with his high bball IQ allows crawford to dribble couple of times, one could tell he is taking that shot… stay close, don’t let him be compfortable with the drible, if he wants to penetrate, let him or make a foul…yes, he contested, but when he got up so smoothly, it was too late… damn shame to lose like that…

however, as most of you, I was impressed with lopez’s game… he should be the starter, of course, after he proves it on constant bases… we are last in defensive rebounding, that has to change if we want to get in playoffs… yes, get in, you see those memphis and Oklahomas of the west… we must start getting Ws or we might end no9 spot… and tonight another tough one, b2b to “red hot” boris and very solid bobcats team… i can smell a loss here… I’ll be watching (finally)… c u all on thread…

that jamal felt comfortable having few dribbles without dudley’s hands to disturb him… he was 2-3 meters away from him, that gave crawford room to dribble and get up… hand was there on the shot, but with 3 up, you go after him, make him hard to dribble, make him lose 1-2 seconds, and then if he pass you foul him… it would be hard to get off. rebound and make shot after ft miss…