Well that's the only way the Suns will win this game, anyway.
Sure, Lopez was a non-factor most of the season in his short minutes. But at worst he was this season's Jarron Collins - the big man at the start of the game to fight for the tip, hold down the fort for 5 minutes and then give way to the stretch-man Channing Frye.
Now the Suns are stuck starting a 4/5 combo of Hedo and Frye. Yuck. Luckily, Denver has its own big-man problems, with only Nene and some journeymen manning the post.
Just pray that when the first quarter clock strikes 6:00, the Suns don't already have Frye and Hedo on the bench with 2 fouls apiece. If that happens, it'll be a long night.
Nuggets vs Suns coverage
Coaches Notes
- "I don't think we can count on 22 three's every night" - Alvin Gentry
- Channing Frye will start and then play it by ear. That's how the Suns role. No set rotations
- Gentry was happy with the way his team battled the Lakers in the paint and praised Frye's block on Pau
- He feels like the Suns are playing well defensively but need to finish the play by grabbing the rebound but other than that he's happy with how the team is playing
- Gentry thinks that George Karl doesn't get the credit he deserves for being a great coach...he's nearing 1000 wins. Karl was a defensive innovator when he was in Seattle, implementing switches and traps that teams didn't used to do but are now common place
- Asked if Hedo's big shot changed how the coaching staff views him. Gentry said no, they always looked at him as a guy who made big shots and that's why he had the ball. BALL!
- Karl indicated that he would play a lot of small ball
A little Earl Barron reading for ya
Knicks 104, Celtics 101: "Earl Barron is giving me a boner." - Posting and Toasting
Barron flourished and posted a career-high 18 rebounds to go with his 17 points (8-13). Just 2 games into his Knick career, it's safe to say that P&T has a new pet.- Barron's bonerific performance was truly one for the ages. "The Aristocrat" has flaws- he hasn't shown anything in the post and isn't especially athletic- but played brilliantly to his strengths. Barron's got a luscious mid-range stroke (which I don't really recall from his days in Miami) and a nose for the ball, and he made good use of those skills in his extended minutes. He repeatedly rolled off screens for confident jumpers and spent the rest of his time hustling for scrappy rebounds. And I'm not talking cute-scrappy like Scrappy Doo. This was scrappiness to the tune of 8 offensive rebounds and some splendid loose-ball saves. Earl is a monarch among men.