This Bright Side of the Sun blog was named by someone else. He's a very positive person and the kind of Sun's fan that even after games like this finds something nice to say. He never turns on his team and now that he's got his dream job the keys to this blog ended up in my hands.
I am not an optimistic person. I am sarcastic and generally will see the negative side of things before the positive. I am George Castanza with hair and 6 more inches (of height).
But after a(nother) horrible outing by the Suns in which they failed to compete, I am going to go to a happy place and list the bright sides of this game.
Why? Because there's nothing negative about this game or the way this team is playing right now that you haven't already heard, read or thought. So why pile on at this point.
Here we go. The positive things about this game:
- I didn't have to watch the entire game which let me get down and boggie Friday Night Lights style
- Nazr Mohammed picked up 4 fouls in 4 minutes - that was kind of cool
- Sean Singletary. He's a nice kid
- Suns held an opponent to under 100
- The Bobcats had to wear those dorky checker flag Nascar uniforms
- Puking up dinner helped my diet
- It can't get worse (that's a lie of course)
- It was very easy to figure out the winner in the Guess the Score Contest since only one reader picked the Bobcats to win
- Ben's lawn mower was broken
- Maybe Amare will realize that he's undeserving of the all-star votes and....oh forget it
- Tucker and Dragic both played 9:34 and were each a +10
- Amare did lead the team in rebounding with 9. Way to step up Amare
- Boris Diaw had 26 points and 11 rebounds against his old team but was 1 assist away from getting the Full French (google it)
- Dave and his fellow Bobcats fans at Rufus on Fire deserve something to cheer about because their team has sucked for so long and Charlotte has a lot of bank headquarters jobs and banks are the only thing sucking worse then the Suns right now
- Juwan Howard missed a wide open 17 footer at the end of the 1st half or it would have been 61 - 37
- Shaq leveling Wallace after he threw Hill to the ground on the previous play
- Shaq scoring the Suns first 12 points of the second quarter to cut the lead to 7 with 5:43 to go in the half
- Bell was a +33. Boris was a +34 but those weren't the Bobcat's leaders. Felton was a +35
- The Suns Gorilla Game is cuter then yours
There's always a bright side if you stare at the sun long enough even if it does make your eyes burn and leave you blind.
Box Score * Rufus on Fire * Game Quotes
The turning point...
The Suns started the game cold on the offensive end but at least managed to hold the Bobcats to 21 points in the first quarter.
They kept the second quarter close while Nash and Amare rested by riding Shaq for their first 12 points including 6 of 7 at the line. The lead was down to a manageable 27 to 34 with 5:43 left in the half when the Bobcats when on a 9 - 0 run to put the Suns away. Here's what happened during that stretch:
- Amare fell asleep on defense watching the ball on the wing while Boris floated out to the three point line for a wide open 3. Bobcats up 37 - 27
- Wallace grabs Hill coming around a Shaq screen and held him up so he could get the steal and finishes with the dunk on the other end. Bobcats up 40 - 27
- Grant Hill gets a T arguing the non-call. Bobcats up 41 - 27
- Diaw does a GREAT job defending the high pick and roll and forces Amare to miss a contested 18 footer
- Bell hits a wide open 3 as JRich cheats off to double Okafor on the lane who was matched up on Hill after a nifty screen by Wallace forced a switch. Bobcats up 44 - 27
- For the next few minutes the Suns outscored the cats by 1 making the score 34 - 50 with 1:29 to go. Wallace then hits a pair of three's and Diaw get's an old fashion three point play to score 9 quick points at the end of the half
The Suns D is designed right now to give up jump shots and prevent penetration. The idea is that the Suns are going to score enough points in the paint at a higher percentage that they will win most game.
However, with the Bobcats shooting well on one end and their hustle D forcing the Suns to turn the ball over and missing everything on the other there really wasn't any other possible outcome. That was the worst sentence I've written a long time. It's so bad I am going to leave it.
I didn't watch enough of this game to say if the effort was horrible. I didn't think that it was bad during that end stretch of the first half but clearly this is a team that's not playing with the same level energy as they were a few weeks ago.
Long road trip or no, the Western Conference is too unforgiving to allow this kind of let down.
You know the score
Steve Kerr. You get two Moron Points for this one. One for Raja who's playing well for the Bobcats and one for Boris who's playing even better.
Everyone loved this trade when it happened but I wonder if many of you are thinking we traded the wrong power forward.
[Note by Phoenix Stan, 01/23/09 10:18 PM PST ]
Nash's back problems apparently are back:
“I tried to fight through the back pain tonight but it was tough. I probably should have taken myself out earlier. Hopefully that wasn’t the wrong decision. It’s a struggle right now. I wouldn’t say I had back spasms, but it was locking up. It was more of a shooting pain at times.”