I am having no luck getting jazzed about the "Who's the real Superman" imbroglio. If you aren't up to speed on that you can check out the details over at Third Quarter Collapse.
Here's the Cliff Notes version:
Shaq said something about Dwight. Dwight didn't like it. The end.
Stop me if you've heard that one before.
- Looking at this these two teams, I think it is fair to assume that at the forward positions and the big men, we have a general wash. Lewis, of course, is a much better player than Barnes but Matt is a good match-up there defensively and I've never been a big Rashard Lewis fan, anyway.
- Nash coming back versus Rafer could be interesting, but let's hope not, because if we are talking about Rafer, it will mean he's hot and torching Steve.
- The match-up I am looking for the Suns to exploit is Jason Richardson versus Courtney Lee / Mickael Pietrus.
- Both are solid defensive shooting guards but I look for JRich to come off a poor shooting game against the Lakers and put up 20 points in this one.
- Leandro coming in to limit Steve's minutes in his first game back could also be huge. He's been playing very well and could easily be the difference-maker in this one.
- Bench-wise the Suns also should have an advantage. The Magic are not very deep and won't be able to exploit the Suns' smaller front line.
- Defensively, the plan is simple. Stay home on on Dwight and play solid perimeter defense extended out to the 3 pt line.
- Against Jameer Nelson, I would be much more concerned since we know that he would be attacking Nash off the dribble and creating havoc, but Rafer isn't that guy, so we should be ok there.
- Offensively, lets see the 7SOS continue with Nash at the helm.
- Let's hope Nash is fully good to go but I hope that Gentry is confident enough in LB to pull him if not.
Despite the Magic's record, they aren't playing great basketball now without Nelson. They are 8-6 over the last month.
This is a very winnable game for the Suns and I expect a victory tonight.