Alvin Gentry's Homecoming: Suns/Bobcats Game Preview

by Wil Cantrell on Jan 16, 2010 12:40 PM MST in Phoenix Suns: Game Coverage

The Suns 3rd stop on a 4 game road trip finds them in Charlotte tonight to take on the Bobcats. Boris Diaw's squad has won 4 of their last 5, most recently a huge and impressive upset of the San Antonio Spurs, 92-76. Diaw came up huge against the Spurs, with 26 points and 11 boards, prompting his teammates to turn from openly calling out the young Frenchman to quite complimentary of his play, when he wants to play. Well, at least our old friend hasn't gone a changin' on us.

Other than Diaw, who put up 27 and 26 points in two match ups versus the Suns last year, the Bobcats are led by Stephen Jackson, 19.8 ppg, and Gerald Wallace who averages 18 points and 11 rebounds per contest. Last year you may recall Wallace owning the Suns once in a messy 22 point defeat on the road which saw the Suns shoot 36% from the field.

This Larry Brown coached team stresses defense. Just ask Greg "Pops" Popovich whose recent experience with the Bobcats left him gushing:

"This is a typical Larry Brown team,they are tenacious, physical, use pressure defense to create turnovers and create offense out of those turnovers. We knew this coming in, but just reacted poorly to it."

Raymond Felton averages 15 points and 6 assists against the Suns while Nazr Mohammed leads the Cats with 58% from the field.

Stephen Jackson was an early season acquisition for the Bobcats and has managed to make a believer out of Larry Brown: "He's about as bright as anybody I've ever coached. He's in that difficult category, but he loves his teammates and he loves to play. And he's made everybody better."

Check out the Diaw led Bobcats last night:

Commentary

The Suns face another difficult challenge tonight against a defensive minded squad on the second night of back to back contests on the road. Phoenix is 2-6 on second-nighters, so the bench will need to step up again. These Bobcats are not the Bobcats of old. Their challenging for a playoff spot and obviously coached by a guy who knows what he's doing. In addition he's got a squad of guys who seem to be responding to what he preaches.

I expect another low scoring, low FG%, grind it out kind of game. Of course, just when we think we understand our Phoenix Suns, they play in a manner which makes us realize we really don't know what to expect from them night in and night out.

So, we can hope, right? Hope that Jason Richardson and Jared Dudley find a little extra in their tanks tonight to stick it to their old teams. Rich is notoriously bad on btb's, but then again he really didn't play last night, even if he did log 26 minutes. The good news is Dragic's play enabled Steve Nash to conserve. Nash put up 8 field goal attempts and only played 31 minutes, so in theory he should be fresh and energetic. I don't expect much out of Amare, he played very well last night, but who knows if he can summon that same energy, even if he faces up against his old teammate, Diaw.

Numbers:

The Bobcats have won 5 straight at home, and are 15-4 overall in Charlotte.
The Suns have won 9 of 10 meetings overall with the Bobcats
In 6 games versus the Bobcats, Amare Stoudemire averages 21 points and 11 rebounds
In 10 games versus the Bobcats, Steve Nash has averaged 15 ppg while dishing out 9 assists
Jason Richardson enjoys seeing his old squad, averaging 21 ppg in 6 games versus the Bobcats
Stephen Jackson needs 14 points to reach 10,000 for his career
Charlotte averages 93 ppg while allowing opponents 92.

			FG			3PT			FT			Rebounds			Misc
	G	M	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	Off	Def	Tot	Ast	TO	Stl	Blk	PF	PPG
Stephen Jackson	37	39.0	7.2	17.4	41.3	1.4	4.7	29.9	4.1	5.3	76.9	1.1	3.8	4.9	3.6	3.2	1.6	0.5	2.3	19.8
Gerald Wallace	36	42.0	5.9	12.6	47.1	0.6	1.8	31.8	5.6	7.4	75.2	2.1	9.3	11.4	2.0	2.6	1.7	1.1	2.8	18.0
Raymond Felton	37	33.6	5.0	10.9	45.9	0.8	2.0	40.0	1.8	2.4	78.2	0.5	2.7	3.2	5.2	2.3	1.8	0.2	2.2	12.6
Boris Diaw	37	34.7	4.3	9.2	46.3	0.8	2.5	32.6	1.1	1.5	74.5	1.4	3.1	4.6	3.6	2.2	0.7	0.7	2.7	10.5
Ronald Murray	31	20.8	3.5	9.1	38.4	0.9	2.8	30.7	1.9	2.6	70.7	0.4	1.8	2.2	1.6	1.4	0.6	0.2	1.7	9.7
Nazr Mohammed	37	14.8	3.1	5.2	58.2	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.3	2.1	64.5	1.6	2.6	4.2	0.4	0.8	0.2	0.8	1.7	7.4
Tyson Chandler	25	25.7	2.2	4.4	50.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	2.2	3.0	72.0	2.2	4.7	7.0	0.4	2.2	0.3	1.2	3.2	6.6
D.J. Augustin	35	17.7	1.7	4.8	35.7	0.8	2.1	37.0	1.3	1.7	75.0	0.1	0.9	1.0	2.2	0.9	0.5	0.1	1.6	5.5
Stephen Graham	31	11.5	1.5	3.3	46.1	0.2	0.6	26.3	0.6	0.9	74.1	0.3	1.5	1.8	0.5	0.5	0.3	0.2	1.5	3.8
Derrick Brown	27	11.1	1.5	3.1	48.2	0.0	0.1	25.0	0.7	1.2	54.5	0.7	0.9	1.6	0.5	0.4	0.5	0.3	1.2	3.7
Acie Law	10	7.5	1.0	1.8	55.6	0.1	0.3	33.3	1.4	1.7	82.4	0.0	0.3	0.3	0.9	0.3	0.7	0.1	0.5	3.5
Gerald Henderson	22	8.5	1.0	2.7	37.3	0.2	0.6	28.6	0.9	1.1	80.0	0.3	0.7	1.0	0.3	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.5	3.1
DeSagana Diop	16	8.4	0.5	0.9	57.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.3	40.0	0.3	1.4	1.7	0.1	0.3	0.2	0.4	0.9	1.1

Look for the early game thread, football fans, why not start things off early, it's the weekend!?

Game Day Links

Gameday: Suns Vs. Bobcats Preview, Charlotte Observer

When 18-19 is Tough as Heck: Paul Coro

The Roar of Defeat (Poor Steve Kerr): Paul Coro

Suns vs Bobcats coverage

Suns vs Bobcats preview

Phoenix Suns stats

Charlotte Bobcats Stats

Rufus on Fire

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Comments

I am rewatching the 4th quarter

the more I watch and think about this game the more excited I am about Robin Lopez and the potential he has to change this team.

He was +12 last night which not only lead the Suns but both teams. He’s going to have up and down nights like all young players but if given a consistent 20-25 minutes per game (more if Frye is cold) then I think we will see improvement on the glass on interior defense that we need. Offensively, I like what I saw despite some mistakes. He sets the best screens on the team and he does have some touch from 4 to 10 feet. You could even say he’s got more range now than Shaq ever had.

Obviously his post moves are pretty much non-existent but as long as he’s not forcing the offense (like Clark) he can make the occasional open face up shot (unlike Lou) and his right hand hook shot is probably a 50% move – especially if other teams go small like the Hawks did putting Josh Smith on him.

It takes a lot of pressure of Frye to put up big numbers every night and he can really help the perimeter defense be more aggressive knowing he’s back there.

I really really hope Gentry keeps going to him. You will recall earlier this season he said Robin was in the rotation then the very next day changed his mind and said he wasn’t. I get that it’s hard to take minutes from Lou but Robin’s upside is so much greater. Let Lou take 10 or 12 minutes behind Amare and Frye and Robin can slip the 48 at center with the balance fluctuating based on who’s hot, etc.

Blogging Suns Basketball . twitter: @phoenixstan

by Seth Pollack on Jan 16, 2010 1:28 PM MST reply actions

Yes

I was impressed with his little hook-didn’t know he had it in his arsenal.

He is going to have to improve from the FT line (among other things), otherwise opponents can simply foul him when he gets in good position and let him brick the free tosses and move on.

Robin was a career 61% FT shooter for Stanford over his two years there.

Blogging Suns Basketball. Twitter: @willcantrellphx

by Wil Cantrell on Jan 16, 2010 2:11 PM MST up reply actions