Little Lineup Wins Big

One game isn't enough to convince me that starting Leandro Barbosa alongside Raja Bell long term is a good idea. But it worked for one night as the Suns buried both the Timberwolves and two ugly losses beneath a barage of Nash and Bell 3-pointers. By the time LB joined in on the 3-pointer fun in the fourth quarter, the game was well on its way into the win column.

Nice distribution of both playing time and scoring tonight. Boris Diaw played well off the bench. Barbosa started out slow shooting-wise, but kept the tempo up and relocated his shot later in the game. Jalen Rose scored eight points in his 13 minutes of play, and played much better defense than advertised (including a blocked shot shortly after he took the court for his first meaningful minutes in months). Steve Nash had a typical Steve Nash night (18 and 11 to go with five rebounds), while Shawn Marion had a quiet 12 and 10, and got some rest with only 28 minutes of play. Kurt Thomas helped keep the Suns within striking distance on the boards with his 9 rebounds.

Still some room for improvement, though. The Suns lost an early big lead, courtesy of a less-than-steller close to the first half. Amare Stoudemire had a rough night, getting into foul trouble, and appeared to be sulking a bit on the bench because of it. But he was all smiles by the time the game was over, and was first off the bench to cheer a block by Pat Burke in the final moments of the game. James Jones had a horrific shooting night, but the team seemed to play well when he was on the floor in spite of that. It was also disappointing to see Eric Piatkowski stapled to the bench, even in garbage time. And to think, I'd finally learned how to spell his name...

All in all, this was a nice win for the Suns to clinch their third straight Pacific Division title. The idea was to leave the Timberwolves eating desert dust, and that mission was most certainly accomplished. I'm convinced if we could ever get both Amare and Boris playing well at the same time, the Suns would be absolutely unstoppable.