Another Classic, But Suns Fall Short - Spurs 112, Suns 110

Goodnight :)

Let’s do it again sometime.

i just sat in my car, at a flying j rest stop in a small ass city in wyoming, on my laptop, stealing internet, to watch the suns throw away a game like this!!! sigh

good game for hill, bad for suns

Roll to the basket on P&R or keep his pants up. He also runs funny.

Frustrating game. I guess missing 8 shots in a row down the stretch is a bad thing. We can only lose so many games like that before we stop pretending to feel good about it.

That was some ferocious basketball. It’s good to hear your perspective, Alex – sometimes, things look different on TV.
     I thought the Suns were rushing everything – I don’t think they know how fast they are. We’re pushing the ball well, but the game hasn’t slowed down for everybody yet – even Nash is rushing. I thought everybody had some good moments – even Siler. This is going to be a great team, and Hakim has surprised me – I watched all the offseason clips and stuff, but I had no idea.
     And before anybody gets suicidal, (Scott), that’s a game we could have easily lost with Amar’e.

When he crosses you over, he breaks your ankles along with the ankles of every member of your family.

Just wanted to share how awesome he is in case some weren’t paying attention.

That is all.

But one thing for sure is that this was sorta like another Steve Nash who was playing tonight, like he wanted to do it it all, too many missed field goals in which he hesitated, like if the shot clock was only 5 seconds instead of 24, he should’ve pass the ball. He must’ve been pretty frustrated when Lopez missed on a P&R when Nash slammed the ball below the basket.

I really wanted a win tonight..and I thought we should have won. We were clearly the better team tonight, as I alluded to in my post on the game preview thread. But it was another very strange game, and we just couldn’t pull it out at the end.

Some freaky happenings:

1. Lopez was just awful! Even with foul trouble, I doubt Siler would have seen as much time as he did if Robin wasn’t playing so badly. I’m not sure what it is, I just hope he can fix it.

2. This is now the second game I’ve seen this season (out of four total) where Nash couldn’t hit even the easiest shots! What gives? Maybe I put too much faith in him, or maybe his age really is starting to affect his game just a little (please don’t flame, I’m only suggesting possible reasons)? Whatever is going on, he shot the ball abysmally tonight just as he did in the season opener at Portland. With Nash, I normally would just chalk it up to a bad game, a VERY RARE occurrence, but he’s now played like crap in 2/4 games, and it’s making me just a tad uneasy. Still, he’s too good of a player for me to panic at this point…at least not yet.

3. I really don’t like it when fans whine about the officials as a reason for losing the game, but give me a break! The officiating tonight was absolutely horrible, especially the offensive penalties against us that were clearly blocks, and the refs buying into the acting routines of Manu, as if they don’t know his history. Also, the block by Timmeh on Warrick at that crucial juncture of the game was NOT clean. He slapped Warrick’s hand to make him miss the easy bucket (As the replay clearly showed). I know these things are hard to catch, and if this was one of only a few oversights I wouldn’t even mention it, but with the amount of bad calls tonight, it really did affect the game for us.

Bottom line, is that if it was only Robin that was playing so badly, or if it was only Nash who was missing the easiest shots I’ve ever seen, or if it was only the refs that were making bad calls, I think we’d still win handily tonight. However, with all three of them combined, we simply couldn’t overcome them all.

Hang in there Suns fans…We still have some growing pains to endure, but I think we are starting to see the potential we have as a team…and we have the make-up to be a very good one! We are much better than our 1-3 record, and I truly believe it is only a matter of time before this team catches fire!

I don’t know if it’s Nash, Gentry, Hedo or all of them, but egos need to be put in check and all of the roles from seasons past need to be reevaluated. We didn’t get Hedo to spot up or play post defense, we got him to facilitate and make plays down the stretch.

Even when we had STAT that fourth quarter pick-and-roll could get stagnant, now that it’s Warrick and Lopez it’s pretty obvious that we have to find other ways do get it done. Once they slowed the game down we didn’t get a bucket for 3 minutes. Hell, unless you count Nash’s “bad shots that only Nash makes” we only got one decent look and Duncan snuffed it out (sure got a lot of elbow on that block though).

Hedo is the answer. Give Hedo the ball. Hedo. Ball.

But I guess I “feel,” whatever that means…I hate losing especially to the Spurs. Its nice that it was only by two even though Lopez sucked it up. It means we are close. If we can play hard like this every game it will be good. What is crazy is looking at the box score. How did we LOSE THIS!? Only down 5 rebounds, more steals, more blocks, more 3s, only a few more fouls, WAAAAY more OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS…I saw the box and I still cant believe we lost that. Shooting percentage?? We had much better foul shooting (which is encouraging). I just don’t know…I am a little out of sorts, thats all. The Spurs are probably going to be one of the “easier” teams this early in the season. Hopefully the Griz will turn out to be our patsies.

because he has no confidence in his rollers (especially Lopez). Maybe the answer is to simply stop trying to run the pick and roll with Lopez, unless he improves dramatically pretty quick. I also agree that Hedo should be getting the ball more. He was brought in to take some of the pressure off of Nash, but so far he has not really gotten the chance to do that.

I feel bad for the guy and even more so when i saw this. Rolo looks flat out clumsy out there.

The game was really hard fought and if the Suns play like this every night they will be a playoff team. The Spurs(see RJ) were making improbable clutch shots out of their mind at the end of the game and we couldnt seen to execute even the simplest of plays.

One we could have very easily won.

They took 77 shots, we took 92. They were 43% from three, we were at 38%. And we lost by 2 points.
We’ve all seen Nash have bad games in the past – just not to start the season like this. What about his play screams that he’s too old? He was getting good looks, he got into a rhythm for a little while there, but honestly, our picks were very poor.
     It’s a tough loss, especially since we could have won. We didn’t score for like 3:50 there at the end. We got some pretty bad calls, 2 of our starters pretty much sucked, and we still had a shot.
     I know we’re dooooooooooomed and all, but Jeebus, this is going to work. In one of these next few games, Nash is going to go Neo, the game will slow down, and he’ll figure out some options that he can’t see now. Hopefully, one of them will be Robin.
     I’m glad I wasn’t in that game thread, though. I probably won’t be – I just glanced at the last part of the overflow thread, and it’s pathetic. There is no Bright Side there. I don’t know what else to say about that, but knock it off.

Lopez has to stay on the floor. For this team to beat good teams, he has to be productive.
 I was shocked at the lack of Hedo minutes and Dragic’s. This is going to be an issue all year I think.: Find constistent minutes for the bench.
  I would love to fast forward and see what the record of this team at 25 games.
 I also think Nash is frustrated for the first time in several years.
 I hope Lawal gets up to speed and can get some minutes soon. It is obvious Clark will not see the floor unless this team has a lead of 25 or more points. I just hope Lawal can take Silers limited minutes in the future.
 No panic on the Disco, I believe this team will find its direction.

i was really bummed out with last nights game…Anyways, i have an insight. i think down the stretch Hedo should handle the ball (because that’s where he’s most effective) and have Nash and JRich come off the screens. I hope you guys see this the way i see it. That way Nash doesn’t feel all the pressure from bringing down the ball and gets to rest up a lil bit. You all remember how succesful that was back in Orlando. Even the Heat are doing it. Lebron handling the ball and DWade coming off the screens.
Siler played really good in my opinion. he definitely gave Timmy a good time. Hackim was awesome off the bench. Just imagine how much more productive would he be if he was in the starting line-up. I was really disappointed in Frye. I was hoping for Frye to hit more shots than that.
All of our guys are capable of scoring in the double figures. We just need to learn how to take full advantage of that. I know it’s still really early in the season…but when are you going to make adjustments? Better to do it early before it’s too late. Remember the 08 season with Porter? Lol.

I hope we’re better prepared with against the upcoming game agains the Griz.

Let’s GO SUNS!

All the big expectations Have really took rolo out of his comfort zone.

15 points, 8 boards, 3 steals, 2 blocked shots, 1 assist and a big three in 33.5 minutes.
Yeah, he’s old.

1. The defense has been inconsistent so far. If the Suns continue to give up 106 points per game with 47.9% field goals and 41.9% threes, it will be a long season. This is also against good teams. Once the Suns play some weaker competition (next year), these numbers might level out.

2. Nash is averaging 6.8 assists per game. He has 27 assists and 21 turnovers through 4 games to boast a gaudy 1.3 to 1 assist to turnover ratio. I’m going to go out on a limb and speculate that Nash might never have gone four consecutive games without double digit assists since his return to Phoenix. Hopefully it’s an anamoly and not an indicator of future trends.

3. I’m not sure how I should feel about Warrick looking the best of the offseason acquisitions to this point. If he can provide 15 and 7 for the Suns that would be more than I had expected and a pleasant surprise. But, does that mean I should be happy that the Suns got such a good deal underpaying him or angry that they overpaid for Childress and (especially) Hedon’t?

4. Overall, the Suns have played very competitive basketball so far. If they had found a way to close out one of the games against Portland/San Antonio they would be a very respectable 2-2. Unfortunately they didn’t. I’m still worried things might spiral out of control if the team fails to gain traction over the next couple weeks. When I first suggested a worst case scenario of 4-13 to start the season I was met with sneers, jeers, and stiff retorts, but somewhere between 4-6 wins in the first 17 games looks pretty realistic to me. If it does end up this way, it will be a tough uphill battle.

but how long do we have to wait before the Suns start thinking about trading Hedo?

Rec’d. For all of you who weren’t around here over the summer, know that Alex did a great job keeping the conversation going for us who were here all the time. He’s a content-producing machine! Much appreciation, Alex, even though I annoyed you from time to time.

Usually come out flat after more than three days off especialy at home the last few years if memory serves me right,Not a bad game for a team trying to find its way.