sorry to hear about the other things. I have 3 kids 4yrs old and under and I can sympathize with you on the swearing, etc. I've been to a few Suns games and have run across much swearing, etc and as much as I love the Suns (when they show up with energy), I won't take my kids to a sports game for years.

On Bell, he's not a consistently great shooter, never has been, he's a streak shooter, and not even a great one. I really like bell, but he shouldn't shoot as much as he does. There's such a thing as off nights, then there's another thing as a pattern of poor decisions. With weapons like Hill and Amare, we should be attacking the hoop more.

Great call on the Amare jump straight up, but get called for a foul because the offensive player ran into him. It's a simple thing, even if it is wrong. It's common knowledge in this league (at least now) that Amare gets into foul trouble, because of this, I think refs tend to make calls that are phantom calls, we sure saw enough of it during the spurs playoffs (thinking of a tim duncan block by Amare in particular).

Nash is not looking good, his passes have been picked off often the last two games, this is a very scary thing, if this continues, so go the suns. But, it's earlier, let's hope they just need to wake up. Personally, I don't think it'll be that simple, I think our chemistry is screwed, and I'm not referring entirely about Marion, I think a few others just don't click, Amare is a big part of this. I feel bad for him, because he has some of the very most exciting moments of any Suns player in a long time.

I love this team, and I will keep watching them all season long, but this also needs to be said. When talking about 3 point shooting, this current team just doesn't do much for me vs the Suns team 2 years ago. If we had a shooter/ball handler like Joe Johnson still, or Mike Miller, I think we could do more with the 3 pt line, but not with our current team. It's like we're in the middle, not at the top. Nash is really the only pure outside shooter on the team.

Nice to see Marion hit some shots.

Anyone know what's going on with Barbosa, apparently he only plays hard and aggressive when it's already over.

I want to see Hill forget about trying to become a 3 pt shooter, instead he should be attacking the basket, this guy is one of the best ball handlers / drivers to the basket ever, yet it seems there's too much emphasis on either protecting Hill from injuries, or trying to make him a 3 pt shooter.

I know Nash was getting caught in the air with no one to pass to, but, on the other side of this, the other suns players should be cutting and slashing to the hoop when Nash does, it's not rocket science that he'll get you the ball if you don't stand still!! Frustrating!

If your Amare, how do you get rid of a reputation for fouls, etc. I think that's a tough thing, to get rid of preconceived ideas about players that refs have in their heads. Plus, it's dirty, but I'm sure a lot of teams are thinking about trying to get a quick 2 fouls on Amare. Until they do away with fouling out, I think Amare will suffer, some of it being his fault, maybe most of it not.

I really liked skinner!

On Banks, this guy has a lot of skills, and provides more offense than some of our starters right now, but he can't make a good pass to someone 10 feet away.

Wish this was more positive...

• laker scrubs were hitting threes like they were all Ray Allen
• Kwame Brown had a better game than Amare. Kwame!!!
• LAZY DEFENSE. Fisher hit those shots due to luck and also b/c they were not very contested, imo. And how many easy buckets did Bynum get? Or all the lakers for that matter.
  

When our shots aren't falling, we have to MAKE STOPS. We're not always going to be hot outside, so we have to take it to the basket and more importantly, play defense!!! The laker scrubs had their way with our defenders and no one on the suns could protect the glass.

Frustrating, but we'll move on. I just hope we can adjust b/c there WILL be occasional situations where no one is hot, but we can't just roll over like logs just cuz our shots aren't falling and then let our opponents get hot and blow us away. Especially when those opponents are the lakers.

-Also D'antoni shouldn't have complained in regards to his little jab with Jackson. I couldn't believe Amare was still on the floor in the fourth.

I was not impressed by Skinner. Not enough aggressiveness and subpar defense in many cases.

What bothers me is the suns, including D'antoni, looked like they expected this to be an easy game (ok we all thought that) but they definitely took this one for granted and played without energy. Then when they were down and not defending, and the lakers were hitting everything they threw up, everyone looked pissed off and gave up. The announcer made a comment during half time that D'antoni said they suns might be "fat and happy" from all the media praise. I think this is a good wake up call.

Overall, I'm not worried. But a couple things bothered me.

as bad as it may sound, don't forget it was just one awful night. They might not be at their best yet, but I don't think the Suns will fail to show up again anytime soon.
Don't panic yet, please. And don't go to the US Airways booing the guys

Sorry about bad fans - hopefully that guy won't be there for the other 41...as Jerry and Elaine once said, "People!  They're the worst!"

Bickley had a good column (for once?) on the game, too.

Just a bad game, and in my experience with watching early season Suns games, sadly not unexpected.

Maybe in Phoenix. Hmph.

I saw very little of the game, but I did notice Bell's utter unnoticibility. I don't get to actually watch that many games and was hoping for a better showing.

Didn't the Suns start slowly last year?

No worries. It's only November 4.

Have fun today, JSun. Ask the concessions stand people to give you a heads up when the keg's about to tap out this time, and if the drunk guy's there, offer to buy him another round at the opportune time. It might be worth the $7.00 to see the foam explode on him.

Let us proceed...