There's talk on the internets about how the Suns played themselves out of tonights re-match with the Nuggets:
Here's the "but." D'Antoni rode his starters hard and put them away wet to get 'er done, and they play again in Denver tonight. Technically, he used eight men against the Nuggets, but it was effectively seven men since D.J. Strawberry logged only 36 seconds of PT. I'm not saying they can't win, but I wouldn't want to drag a tired Shaq and company into Denver's thin air on the second night of back-to-backs when most of the main guys are sure to be exhausted.
Good point right? I certainly clamored for Skinner to come in during that lame-ass first half.
But let's just check the numbers:
Suns' Starters
| Minutes Played | Age | |
| Steve Nash | 38 | 34 |
| Shaq | 35 | 36 |
| Amare | 42 | 25 |
| Raja Bell | 44 | 31 |
| Leandro Barbosa | 31 | 25 |
| Total | 190 | 151 |
Nuggets' Starters
| Minutes Played | Age | |
| Carmelo | 34 | 23 |
| AI | 43 | 32 |
| K-Mart | 33 | 30 |
| Camby | 31 | 34 |
| Anthony Carter | 31 | 32 |
| Total | 172 | 151 |
The combined age of both teams' starters are exactly the same. The Suns' starters logged a total of 18 more minutes or 3.6 minutes each.
But when you compare Amare at 25 years old and AI 32 which do you think is able to bounce back faster and which means more to their team?
I would take the Sun's chances with a slightly tired Amare (which I am betting we won't see) to the Nuggets with a worn down AI which we did see in the fourth quarter.
I am not saying the Suns are a lock to win, but I don't think playing 7 guys would be the reason they don't.
The Suns have a much more balanced attack and I would expect LB and Giricek to step up their scoring tonight and hopefully JR Smith is like Diaw and can't put two solid games together in a row.