Suns Lose Series; Fan Arrogance Blamed

(foto courtesy of Max Simbron)

Phoenix, Arizona

In a stunning turn of events, the Phoenix Suns have lost the first round 7-game playoff series to the Portland Trailblazers, 1-0.  Despite overwhelming punditry to the contrary, nary can a single analyst be found suggesting that the Phoenix Suns stood a donut's chance in a Botero police station of beating the Trailblazers in a 7-game series.

Postgame, several explanations for the loss were bandied about, but they were shot down like prairie dogs in front of a machine gun bunker by the players and coaches from both locker rooms.  After the jump, I cover the postgame reactions and let you decide.

***News You Can Use * We Report, You Decide * Read at Your Own Risk***

Lackluster play by Suns Starters

The most glaring shortfall of the game was the comparatively poor play of the Suns starters.  The starters managed to be on deck during three of the most egregious runs of suckage, a 10-2 run in the mid first quarter, a 9-0 run to close the half and a 14-5 run that sealed the game in the remaining five minutes of the fourth.

It would be hard to fault perennial underdog star Steve Nash for the sputtering offense and all too easy to blame him for porous defense, but either he wasn't able to crack the Fort Knox-like defensive schemes of Portland or his teammates were laying enough bricks to rebuild the Egyptian pyramids from scratch.  And for once, his downtown hail mary's went unheard, and the fourth quarter didn't completely start to suck until he subbed in.

Then there was the man of the post all-star break, clearly reformed.  Stoudemire's epic -16 plus/minus really says it all.  The Suns didn't really attempt a comeback in the fourth quarter until he fouled out.

Jason Richardson, known for his gritty, punishing defense, gamely held offensive powerhouse Andre Miller to just 31 points, while shooting an awesome 4 of 12 and bringing down a team-leading 10 rebounds. 

Grant Hill was his customary self, quietly pulling in 8 rebounds and shutting down Batum so badly that the player was never even mentioned on the telecast.  Despite Grant Hill's 2 of 9 shooting, I find it hard to fault his play here, except that if he wants to even sniff postseason success, he's going to have to will it not only from himself but also from his teammates too.

Probably the only starter playing up to expectations was Jarron Collins, whose contributions regularly defy his sparse stat line. 

I went to the Suns lockerroom to ask WTF.

"WTF?" I asked Steve Nash.  "Hey, things were going to be all right, but the Suns fans were too arrogant." Nash complained. "I would have made that last trey, but fan overconfidence was just oozing off my shot and it veered right."

"Sometimes players read the message boards and we totally forgot about our recent loss to the Blazers" lamented Grant Hill.  "We really thought they were patsies and its all the fans' faults!"

Bad Matchup

During the final game with the Utah Jazz, there was considerable banter as to whether the Suns might want to sandbag their way into an ostensibly easier matchup with the Denver Nuggets.  Perhaps the Utah Jazz were trying to do the same as jubilant Suns players easily won by 20.

Obviously, the cowardice of such sandbagging deserves retribution from the basketball gods, but it remains a testament to the fact that Portland seems to have something on the Phoenix Suns, having now won twice recently without their star player, Brandon Roy. 

"Bad matchups are unlikely to be important at this level," explained Assistant Coach Dan Majerle. "We are the 3rd seed and they are the lowly 6th seed.  We easily cruised into a top position and they barely made it into the playoffs.  We won 3 more games than they did.  A 54-win season is hugely different from a 50-win season. " 

"I said that I've never seen a fan hit a jumpshot in a game, but tonight we saw Suns fans miss a lot of jumpshots for us." said Suns Coach Alvin Gentry.  "If Suns fans, especially those bloggers, knew more about the game and were more respectful, we might have won this game."

Rare, Exceptional performance by Portland

Given the relative impossibility of an upset in the NBA playoffs, one theory is that the Portland Trailblazers played unusually and especially well beyond there normal abilities.  Essentially the Blazers got the right bounces and the Suns did not. 

Alternatively, as Seth points out, the Suns may have gotten outcoached and outfoxed.

I can already see you are not buying that one.  Let me know if you would like to discuss a David Stern conspiracy theory about Game 1.  I'm sure someone is writing it up right now.

(foto courtesy of Max Simbron)

Fan Arrogance

Repeatedly, we have heard voluminous and educational advice provided at the hands of fans from the North.  As the evidence seems to suggest, they are absolutely right and Suns fans, at least the ones with the bald arrogance to post, are wrong.

"We are really afraid that Blazers fans will start posting en masse on Suns sports message boards and blogs." said Blazers Coach Nate McMillan.  "They'll inform Suns fans of correct behavior, instruct them on how basketball is best played and reveal all of our tactical secrets from Game 1.  If Suns fans, players and coaches learn from Blazers fans, then it's possible the that Suns may come back and win this series."

"If Suns fans panic after this loss," crazy Martell Webster reported with mock solemnity, "then the Suns will surely lose the series."