A Breather and Time for Reflection: The Pacers and Beyond

So, last night, this moron, Danny Granger was in a scuffle with Suns underachiever Channing Frye. He was awarded a technical free-throw and the crowd was about as loud Booing Granger than I have heard them all year. After making his free-throw he held his finger to his mouth to silence the crowd. He did this EVERY TIME from that point on that he made a shot. The GREAT thing is, he was only able to do it twice because he went like 2-5 in the fourth quarter while being Booed every time he touched the ball. If you are going to be brash and try and silence the crowd, you might want to also make a basket. Missing late free-throws and drawing three fourth quarter fouls, wasn’t very helpful to your team Danny. I hope you can’t come into Phoenix without getting Booed from now on Danny… and I predict you will find it ends up that way.

– On the scuffle –

It’s nice to see Channing finally get fired up about something. It’s just sad it was a foul away from the ball, and ZERO hustle is involved. Maybe Channing Frye can be the new Suns enforcer, because he certainly can’t rebound or play Defense. Channing Frye getting into a fight while doing essentially nothing on the court… Why can’t RoLo get late minutes? I still can’t figure it out. Either way, the nicest thing Channing did for the Suns last night was get ejected so that some defense could be played.

–On The Game –

This should have been an easy win for the Suns, and they seemed in control for 90% of the game.

The Suns were very balanced in their attack last night. Three players scored 20 points or more. Amar’e, Grant and J Rich.

A real bright spot and a key to the Suns pulling out this victory was the play of Jared Dudley. Not having Goran Dragic or Leandro Barbosa is forcing Dudley to play even more minutes and he is usually always playing the opposing teams best scorer. Last night, on Granger in the fourth quarter, Dudley SHUT HIM DOWN. J-Dud finished with a DOUBLE-DOUBLE! 11 Points, and 12 Rebounds not to mention 2 steals and a block. Without him pulling down crucial offensive boards, the Suns looked like they might lose the game late. Way to play Jared! Keep it up because we need your defense to be your main focus.

Amar’e Stoudemire had his 3rd Consecutive thirty point game. Although, he only had 6 rebounds, it was clear that Amar’e wasn’t going to be stopped on offense. He shot poorly by his standards going 8-19 but was taking it strong to the rim on almost every possession. Maybe he didn’t play great defense on Roy Hibbert or Josh McRoberts, but he did get the ENTIRE Pacers front-court into foul trouble. Hibbert Fouled out, McRoberts had 4, Murphy had 4 and Dunleavy had 5. This isn’t defense technically, but it did force them to remove these players from their normal rotation and that had a BIG effect on the Suns being able to score inside.

Note on Amar’e:

STAT is now the NBA’s 9th highest scorer at 22.1 PPG. However, Amar’e gets the fewest touches by far of anyone in the top 15, and he also plays the fewest minutes of anyone in the top 15 in scoring. To put it in perspective, Carmelo Anthony scores 6.0 ppg more than Amar’e. He also takes 6 more field goals per game. If Amar’e went from 15 shots per game, to around twenty like most of the league’s elite scorers, does anyone think he wouldn’t be averaging 28/9? At which point, who does that? What NBA player does that? Does Amar’e know he could score more points? Of course! Does he complain about touches, or the team not giving him his opportunities? NO! So why is this guy constantly being painted as someone who is disgruntled. Wouldn’t you be upset if Steve Kerr was your boss? Just saying.

Amar’e, step back up the rebounding. Don’t get content on just being a scorer. Because I can feel a contract extension getting closer every time you throw down a Monster Dunk in traffic AND draw the foul… Robert Sarver has to notice. I see him court-side losing his mind when you do something spectacular. Keep it up, I want Amar’e a Suns player for life.

On J Rich -

Jason Richardson played well last night. He finished with a double-double as well. 20 points and 10 rebounds. He made BIG shots when he was OPEN and passed when he wasn’t. He didn’t pull up early in the shot clock for 20-foot two point shots…

So J Rich, consistency is going to be key. You are taking smarter shots SOMETIMES, you are rebounding on the defensive end SOMETIMES. J Rich, you are still doubling down away from the perimeter too far, and your understanding of the Zone concept seems to be developing pretty slowly. The key to the Suns will be if we can guard the perimeter and not expose Channing and Amar’e inside with constant dribble penetration. If J Rich helps these guys out, not literally, but by playing smart and not letting 2-guards cut us up at will, we could be a scary team.

Final Thought:

The Suns look like they are developing some level of consistency and hopefully Big Al will get RoLo those minutes late in games. The real bright spot of the Suns lately is that they are playing well without one  of their most dynamic scorers. Leandro Barbosa when healthy is one of the league’s more dynamic scorers. He shoots the 3. He is fast enough to get into passing lanes, and he hustles NON-STOP. It’s that Brazilian “never say die” attitude. Or maybe his Special Forces trained Brazilian Military specialist brother is so scary that he is afraid to fail. Either way, the Suns haven’t been healthy together really all year. We need Leandro and Goran to get some time before the season ends back on the court so we can figure out what line-ups are most effective.

I have to give Big Al that credit… he is having to use different rotations a lot and he is experimenting with them. I have always liked that tendency. Now that the playoff race is ON, we need to see which combinations are going to be the best in CLOSE games, because we can expect those in the playoffs. Defense will be key. I think the fourth quarter unit should be:

4th Quarter Unit:

Nash, Goran, Lou, Amar’e and RoLo. I think that this line-up would be CRUSHING. If you want to see how good it really is, check out the 5 man rotations on the home-page.

GO SUNS!

Next Game: Lakers on Friday!