Phoenix Suns Daily Links: The Lost Manu and Grant Quotes

Here's a couple of good quotes from last night that I didn't see anyone else publish anywhere...

"I think they are just playing better defense. They hustle more. They scramble. They improve in this regard."

Manu on improved Suns team.

"So far we lost both games, the game I scored and the game I dished. I don't necessarily think it was the offense the problem. I've been blitzed or hard-hedged almost the whole game and that's the way I'm told to play - find the open team and we got good shooters...They played good D, they were aggressive."

Manu on his role as a facilitator in Game 2 versus a scorer.

"I feel good. I feel really good. I think I've got to be a little smart.

Game 1 before the Portland series. So excited to be here I went so hard in practice the two days before and I didn't have any legs in Game 1 and I kind of did the same thing before Game 1 the other day.

I've got to be a little smarter with how I train and practice. I'm not going to get out of shape this time of year. Rest is important. I felt good tonight, I didn't do anything yesterday in practice. Whatever aches and pain you have, when you win they don't ache as bad."

Grant Hill on how he feels now that he's in the longest season of his career.

"I think so. They came out to get this win. They put all they could into it to get this win. Maybe we did wear them down physically maybe mentally as well. It's got to be frustrating for them to shoot as well as they did and for us to play as bad and still be tied up at half time."

Game 2 Links

• Game 2 Seppuku: Bite the Bullet, Sam | Pounding The Rock
  Eff You, Probability I say we use the energy of the home crowd to win games 3 and 4, thanks to the return of our three point shooting, Blair's beastly putbacks and countless layups. I say we go back to Phoenix 2-2 and the perennial runner-ups feel the pressure of history. I say this goes to 7 games, and we continue our in crescendo development into the team to beat. I say these Spurs will make history.
• NBA HD: Time for Time of Possession | Hardwood Paroxysm
  It seems as though I stumble upon a new basketball advanced stats site every week.  I found statsbynumbers.com after it was linked to in the APBRmetrics forum
• Basketbawful
  The San Antonio Spurs: Hey, you know that saying, that benches win home games and stars win away games, or whatever? Or maybe the Spurs decided to deny any pre-existing home/away splits data, as Channing Frye went 5-6 from downtown, with J-Rich going 3-6 himself, and Dudley contributed 11 points.
• Parker's strong game doesn't lead to victory
  When Tony Parker lobbed a ball toward the basket, a teammate was there to throw it through the rim. When he dribbled the ball into the lane and attracted multiple defenders, he found the open man.
• Steve Nash Discusses SB 1070 After Suns' Game 2 Win | NBA FanHouse
  PHOENIX -- The Suns made a splash outside the world of sports on Tuesday when their team's owner Robert Sarver went on the record against
• Gentry on Tim Duncan Hitting Another Playoff 3-Pointer Against Suns | NBA FanHouse
  "I should say something about Tim Duncan," Gentry said as he headed for the exit. "The guy's hit two three-pointers in 10 years. You figure out who he's done that against."
• San Antonio Spurs AT&T Center Tim Duncan Spurs Basketball
  To my mind, this is where the Suns pose the most difficult challenge to the Spurs. The Spurs must counter the Suns’ tremendous accuracy from range almost entirely with lock down defense. San Antonio does not have the shooters to exchange three point baskets with Phoenix. In the past, the Spurs could go 1 in, 4 out and keep pace with Phoenix (in this respect).
• Brownie Points: Dudley brings his lunch pail and gets to work on the Spurs in Game 2 | Fanster.com - All Sports. All Phoenix.
  And with Robert Horry and Bruce Bowen now safely housed in the Home for Retired Cheap Shot Artists (HRSCA), the Spurs are going to have to give young DeJuan Blair a 48-hour crash course on thuggery and get Ginobili into some sort of facemask where he can flop properly for Game 3.
• Behind the Box Score, where Los Suns are rolling | Ball Don't Lie - NBA Blog - Yahoo! Sports
  The Spurs? They just couldn't cover everything. Weren't able to keep up on the screen and roll, weren't able to guard that three-point line. Just a team out of time.
• Hollinger: Isolation-Heavy Offenses Struggling in the Playoffs - Blazersedge
  Hollinger praises both team's offensive efficiencies, which is caused by a low-turnover rate, good rebounding numbers and slow pace. But he turns to recent history to conclude that this system has not proven very successful in the playoffs, "an environment in which opponents have several days to scout, game-plan and match up for this specific tactic." On ESPN Insider, Hollinger writes...
• KTAR.com - Sorenson: Viva Los Suns
  On the bottom of a colorfully cluttered dry-erase board in the Suns locker room scribbled with Xs and Os and last-minute instructions, it read, "Play hard, play smart, play together."
• Gentry leads Suns' evolution | NBA - Yahoo! Sports
  Steve Kerr leaned against a counter in the locker room and took one last gulp from the longneck in his hand. He smiled and nodded, admitting the obvious. Yes, this was the grittiest, the toughest, he had ever seen his Phoenix Suns play. They had won with defense and rebounding, out-Spurring the San Antonio Spurs, and now they controlled their Western Conference semifinal series.
• SUNS: 2010 PLAYOFFS INDEX
  Continued great work from the Suns.com crew...
• azcentral.com blogs - Coro's Suns dish - PaulCoro - 20 slices on Suns 2-0 lead
  Coro's Suns dish: Phoenix Suns update: For a 2-0 lead, here are 20 orange slices: 1. Send a thank you to the Dallas Mavericks. This couldn't have happened without them. The Suns would have started a second-round series with Dallas on the road and would have been...
• Phoenix Suns did the right thing with immigration stand
  We are a better world because athletes have used their platforms to address important social issues.
• Phoenix Suns' Channing Frye takes on Tim Duncan challenge
  With starter minutes come starter responsibilities for Suns reserve center Channing Frye. That means plenty of time on the back of San Antonio power forward Tim Duncan, the Spurs' lone post-up threat.
• Phoenix Suns forward Grant Hill's versatility pays off again
  So he sought advice from an unlikely source — his dad, former NFL running back Calvin Hill. "Believe it or not, I spoke to my dad," he said. "He played football and he played on offense so I don't know how much knows but, he said stop looking at the ball and looking at his shoulders, look at his waist. "There were a couple of times in the last game where he blew right by me. He's so crafty and good with the ball, so I tried to focus on his waist and midsection and stay in front of him. And our bigs did a really good job on the screen and roll getting out and showing early."
• Phoenix Suns' 2 versions too much for San Antonio Spurs
  The Spurs are discovering that these Suns have a second team, and a second gear. It's a lower gear, the kind that allows them to go off-road when necessary, splashing up some mud, plowing through some rough terrain. This team doesn't mind getting a little dirty, and its versatility is making all the difference in the world.
• 2010 NBA playoffs: Suns surprise Spurs on the glass - ESPN
  But sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Let the record show that the soft, mellow, all-style-no-substance Phoenix Suns dominated the big, tough, experienced San Antonio Spurs on the glass Wednesday. Mercilessly beat them. Bloodied their noses and battered them into submission, in fact, en route to a 110-102 victory that gives them a 2-0 series lead in their best-of-seven series. Game 3 is Friday in San Antonio.
• Colangelo on 'Los Suns': No Comment | NBA FanHouse
  Jerry Colangelo, the Suns chairman and former owner from whom Sarver bought the team in 2004, chose not to comment on the issue when speaking with FanHouse by phone en route to the US Airways Center.
• NBA Playoffs Wednesday Viewing Guide: Why Mike D'Antoni Let The Suns Down | SB Nation
  For that, Gentry deserves a lot of credit, but D'Antoni also deserves some criticism. If Gentry can find a way to tweak the Suns' core identity like this and succeed with a worse roster on paper, why couldn't D'Antoni do the same with his stronger rosters? He could have, and it would have helped get his teams over the hump, but it also would have meant admitting his system needed some small tweaks. He wasn't willing to admit that, so instead, they spun their wheels until the Shaq trade. It all could have ended so differently.