clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Preview: Suns vs Golden State Dysfunctionals

By Seth Pollack Updated

If you buy something from an SB Nation link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Note to Stephen Curry: Please do not sit on Grant Hill. Thank you. (Photo by Max Simbron)
Note to Stephen Curry: Please do not sit on Grant Hill. Thank you. (Photo by Max Simbron)

Preview Mash-up

[Note by Phoenix Stan, 10/30/09 4:32 PM MST ]

Quick reminder that Jason Richardson is serving the second day of his 2 game suspension.

Coach Gentry said LB would start. Probably.

[Preview by BSotS Reader Suns Fan For Life , 10/30/09 3:08 PM MST ]

Here is a chart for my preview.

Position Offense Defense Intangibles
PG Nash Nash Nash (experience, shooting, IQ)
SG Barbosa Ellis Barbs (experice)
SF Jackson Hill Hill (iq, Jackson has one foot out the door)
PF Amare Turiaf Turiaf (Amare 60-80% Turiaf’s toughness shines)
C Frye Biedrins Biedrins (tough call, jury still out on Frye)
6 Maggette Dudley Dudley (toughness and hustle, Maggette ?showup)
7 Watson Dragic Watson (known commodity)
8 Randoph Amundson Amundson (see Dudley)
9 Morrow Morrow Morrow (huge upside, Clarke 1 game)
10 Moore Collins Moore (just a better player)

I think I want to try this for every game. You guys let me know if you like this or not. I think there is already a tendency showing up. These first two games we have not neccessarily had the edh=ge in ovrerall talent but in intangibles. This should be our edge agianst many of the teams we “should” beat. This is exactly what won us the first game. It should be what wins us tonight. Although I think you could argue that talent level is fairly even. Just look at the fg% from last year. We were plus 5 in regular and adjusted percentage over the warriors last year.

Alot of you may not agree with my assessment of Amare, but we can all agree he is not himself. He could erupt, but I think that is still a few weeks away. Turiaf is a know commodity and helps in several categories, especially with his solid defense and energy against Amare’s tentativeness.

I think we are still discovery or rediscovering our identity this year. I think we should make a few steps tonight. We saw more of our potential on defense lawst night. Tonight will be a night to really let the horses run. I hope our young guys can get some good time agian. I would love to see Clarke in transition. There is no better team to get out an run with then the Warriors. SHould be exciting.

It actaully looks like they may have more depth on their team. NOt in talent but in number of players. If our second team defense does anything like it did the other night this is a non issue, and may even be our advantage.

Key matchups.

Amare-Turiaf: Can Amare be productive tonight against a solid Turiaf
Maggette-Dudley: Does Dudley’s defense shut down the sometimes explosive Maggette
Morrow-Clarke: this may not happen, but won’t it be fun to match the defense of clarke agianst the offense of Morrow. Potential vs. Potential.

I think we win this game. We are just more solid. Should be fun to watch our defense against a very different team than the other night. I don’t think it will be as close. 116-106 Suns.

[Preview by BSotS Reader Eutychus , 10/30/09 12:30 PM MST ]

This is probably the most unpredictable and craziest match up in the NBA (in my humble biased opinion) – like SunDolphin, I think this could go either way on any given night… They fight nitrous with nitrous – so let’s watch it BURN!

It stinks JRich is out, I could see him throwing down his first 360 of the season in this game.

Here’s my couch-coaching for the suns:

Play like you did on Wednesday… but don’t let them shoot 99% from the field (with the young guys they have I doubt they will)

WATCH YOUR SHOOTERS. This team has a lot of good (streaky) shooters with Curry – AR – Maggette spaghetti – Ellis – Morrow -Jackson – who on any given night can drop 30…

Run. You need more than 2 fast break points. The best thing to do I think is get these guys running with us (which shouldn’t be hard), even though they are young and fast and can get back with solid transition defense, when they run too much their inexperience or selfishness shines and they turnover the ball like crazy.

Make them angry – (Lou – Duds -Clark – Dragic this is on you!) When we can get under these Warrior’s skin, they play out of character, commit stupid fouls, and get funny techs… so let’s get em’ riled up with pesky D!

MAKE THE CROWD GO WILD! Give em’ a show – this is your debut as the run&gun Suns 2.0… give the flakes a reason to pick up their tickets again!

Can’t wait for the game thread! See you there

[Preview by Phoenix Stan, 10/30/09 11:17 AM MST ]

As always when the Suns meet the Warriors the over/under for the total points goes way up. In this case it's listed at ~232. By comparison, the next highest point total predicted for tonight's games is 213 (Miami vs Indiana) with most games around the 200 mark.

No surprise when you have two teams that are small, fast and filled with shooters and scorers. These are also two of the worst rebounding teams with the "bigs" on the floor being Biedrens, Randolph, Frye and Stoudemire. Not exactly a forest of beef in the paint.

The best news is that Amare has always played well against the Warriors and he needs a night like this to get his game on track. It might be too soon to expect him to drop 35 points but then again....It is the Warriors.

The most interesting player in Golden State is young Anthony Randolph. He's a kid with amazing talent but he's still very young and he's not a good team player. He played Amare well in preseason and now that he's going to start and get big minutes (allegedly) we should have some fun watching AR tonight.

The Warriors back court is a match-up nightmare for the Suns with Ellis, Morrow and now Curry. Without JRich to help, it's going to big a big test for not only Barbosa and Dragic but for the Suns wings and bigs who are going to have to be sharp on the help rotations.

The one player I am not concerned about is Stephen Jackson. The rumors are swirling that he's about to be traded so I do see him having a good game. He's likely got one foot out the door already. Besides, with Hill and Dudley the Suns match up well with him. He's also exactly the kind of guy that Clark could do well on.

 

Home openers are always fun. I am looking forward the game tonight and am curious to see the crowd. The Suns have had to push hard to sell tickets and they are giving away a ton of free one's to help fill the building. The days of automatic sell outs are over.

 

Game Links

Other Links

More From Bright Side Of The Sun

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for the Bright Side of the Sun Daily Roundup newsletter!

A daily roundup of Phoenix Suns news from Bright Side of the Sun