The Phoenix Suns responded to a heartbreaking loss in their season opener to the New Orleans Hornets with an uninspired, sloppy, and downright awful performance against the Philadelphia 76ers in which they lost 103-83.
The Suns had a decent start to the game with Grant Hill hitting his shots and Channing Frye recording eight rebounds in the beginning of the first quarter. However, once Nash left the game the offense quickly ground to a halt and the Sixers began to pull away fast...and it went downhill from there.
Read on after the jump for more doom and gloom...
The Suns shot barely over 30% in the first half and scored only 34 points equaling a season low from last year when they scored the same amount against both the Orlando Magic and the Dallas Mavericks. The problem is, this is only the second game with 64 remaining against much tougher opponents.
After halftime, the starting unit responded to an unproductive, lackluster first half by coming out cold and missing their first nine attempts to start the second half. The Sixers scored the first 19 points to quickly extend their lead to nearly 30 points before the Suns finally hit their first shot more than halfway through the third quarter.
The Suns played very lackadaisically throughout most of the game, with little sense of urgency or purpose except for a few exceptions. Suns' head coach Alvin Gentry seemed largely unable to motivate most of the players or find a good combination to play on the floor together, and appeared resigned to finish out the game with whoever he could find to play with any energy whatsoever.
The fourth quarter saw the Suns bench at least attempt to score some points and climb back in the game, but it was too little too late as the Sixers cruised to an easy victory.
Bright spots:
- Hakim Warrick was the first off the bench tonight after registering a DNP in the season opener. Warrick scored 14 pts off the bench on 7-13 shooting and at times seemed like the only player on the floor who could score.
- Ronnie Price got off to a slow start in the first quarter but picked it up in the second quarter and in the second half of the game to finish with 16 pts and 3 ast.
- Markieff Morris didn't enter into the game until midway into the second quarter, but he still found a way to make a difference with his rebounding, hustling, and scoring, especially in the second half of the game. Morris followed up a nice first game as a Suns with another solid game in his second appearance scoring 9 pts and grabbing 3 rbs.
- Grant Hill got off to a nice start in the first quarter, then disappeared, but then reappeared again finishing with 14 points in just over 26 minutes.
Dark Spots:
- Steve Nash shot 2-11 finishing the game with 4 pts, 6 T.O.'s, 4 P.F.'s, and only 1 ast. This was uncharacteristically bad game for Nash that makes me wonder if there is something else going on that we don't realize.
- Marcin Gortat finished the game with only 4 pts and shot 1-6 from the field. On a positive note he did grab 8 rbs in only 18 min of play, but we need more production from our starting center.
- Jared Dudley scored 0 pts, yes, 0 pts on 0-2 shooting in nearly 25 minutes of play. I don't even know what to say about this.
In other news...Paul Coro of the AZ Republic reported that the Suns worked out Michael Redd along with Ime Udoka and Gilbert Brown on Tuesday to try and fix some of their offensive woes. Expect someone to be brought in soon to help address the Suns' sputtering offense...Stay tuned.
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