Suns beat Magic 106-96

[Editor's Note: Hmmm... Maybe jasonsuns1 is onto something with his 2-0 record during recaps. When this road trip started, I was thinking we'd be looking at a 3-1 week with three blowouts and a close, fatigue-induced loss in this one. Instead the Suns end up with a 3-1 week anyway, with the loss coming in the last place I expected it. But like a wise soul recently said, a loss is a loss and a win is a win. The Suns are 5-2, nearly equaling their 2004-05 start. Not bad for a team that many think is still hitting its stride.]

Suns Play well for 4 quarters. Barbosa really was on fire tonight, 8-13 from the 3 point line, wow!
Great to see. I'm excited about his play tonight!

Seemed like Nash was the only other Suns player shooting really well tonight, 9-13 with 19 points.

I like Hill, I really do, but the Suns need to wake up and have him attack the basket, or shoot 15-18 foot shots, not 3 pointers! (2 for 8 tonight) Hill can attack the basket as well as anyone in the league, why aren't the Suns exploiting this? The few times Hill attacked the basket, he scored. Am I alone on thinking this, or could Hill be scoring 30+ if he attacked the hoop?

Seems like Howard was getting a lot of calls going his way, pretty frustrating. During the 3rd quarter, 83-62 with 2:42 left, I kind of kept thinking one thing, let's play some of our bench. Isn't it a smart thing to try and give 7-10 minutes to some of the bench in games where your clearly ahead? I just don't agree with the
Suns strategy on this.

I've been writing this during the game, and there's maybe 2 minutes left, all starters are still in but the Suns are up by 20+!! Also, instead of playing DJ, or anyone off the bench, it appears it's more important to get Hill to shoot and miss another 3! (Update, it's important to look at things from multiple angles, the Suns ended up winning by 10, maybe our bench is that week, but isn't this more the reason to play them more?)

This game has been Phoenix all the way, but the free throw line has something interesting. Only 5 freethrows the entire game for the Suns, while the Magic has taken 18. Right as I type this, the coach puts in DJ! Yes! As badly as I wanted DJ to see some time, kind of cool to see Barbosa hit another 3!

I think for DJ to really gain anything from any playing time, it needs to be during the game, not garbage time! Is it that hard to play hime 8-10 minutes somewhere?

GO SUNS
(side note, suns 2 for 2 during my recaps, hmmm...playoffs :-) )