The Suns of 2009-2010 are a much different team than any Suns team in the past.
Sure they still run and gun as they did during the D’Antoni era. However, they actually do something they have long been criticized for not doing and that’s playing DEFENSE. Yes ladies and gentlemen, the Phoenix Suns play defense. They are actually being praised for it by the like of Gregg Poppovich.
As I was watching the predictions for the Phoenix Suns series against the San Antonio Spurs, not many analysts and so called “experts” were giving the Suns much of a chance even though they had the better record and the home court advantage.
I guess I can’t really blame them. Look at series past. And I will admit that as big of a Suns “homer” as I am even I did not predict the Suns actually sweeping the Spurs. Hell the Spurs haven’t been swept since 2001 and that was by a Lakers team with Kobe and Shaq on it.
But for anyone who has not been paying attention to NBA basketball since the All-Star break; this Phoenix Suns team is playing some of the best basketball ever. There is only one team playing better and that is the Orlando Magic.
The Suns all year have been utilizing their bench. Again something that in coaching regime’s past was ignored. Coach Alvin Gentry has done a phenomenal job with this team. He has developed a great relationship with Amare Stoudemire. This relationship may just be what is needed to keep Amare in Phoenix next season. Gentry has also shown faith and confidence in his bench players allowing them to develop, and allowing his starters to get much needed rest to stay fresh. These fresh legs are what is helping this team make such a deep playoff run.
While Suns fans all year have known about Goran Dragic, Game 3 in San Antonio was his “coming out” party on a national stage.
The “Slovenian Jordan” as he is called by teammates showed what he could do. I guess the Suns secret weapon has been unleashed and is not so secret anymore. Behind Dragic’s great play all season and especially in the playoffs, Steve Nash has been tallying an average of just around 35 minutes a game. That is the least amount of minutes for a starting point guard in playoff history.
Ask Nash how he feels about the success Dragic had in that Game 3 and he beams from ear to ear like a proud parent.
Dragic used to stay up late at night in Slovakia to watch his idol Nash play basketball. Now he is learning from Nash.
Still, there seems to be pessimism about this Suns team. Are they for real? Can they ever win the big one?
While I like to think so, the Suns have to get through the defending champion Lakers first. While not many are giving the Suns a chance in the series, one thing to keep in mind…in the last 5 playoff series with the Lakers, the Suns have emerged victorious 4 of those times. Shocked? I admit I was when I realized that.
One other thing to note…while most people talk about the “7 year itch”, the Suns seem to have a “17 year itch”. The Suns have only been to the NBA finals twice. The first time in 1979, the second time in 1993. That was a span of 17 years. This season marks 17 years since the Suns last reached the finals. Will that 17 year itch be on their side again? Time will only tell but this Suns fan is hoping so!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
NBA Playoffs Round One Recap
NBA playoffs have wrapped up the first round.
There have been a few surprises in the first round, and some expected outcomes.
Let’s do a brief recap by series:
I don’t think anyone really expected this series to go any different than it did. The “Akron Hammer” aka King James, aka Bron Bron showed why he won the MVP award for the second straight year.
The Cavs played a little sloppy in Game 5 but were still able to eliminate the Bulls.
LeBron injured his elbow during game 5 and test results show a right elbow strain and bone bruise.
He will continue to get treatment but should not miss any playing time.
Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro continues to draw the ire from the front office and rumor has it he may be looking for a new job soon. He does however, have the support of his players. Personally, I think he has done a hell of a job with his players. They’ve gone to the playoffs the last 2 seasons. Is it really his fault they came up against the Cavs?
I read somewhere a stat on the betting line for this series. The basic gist of it was, in any series that the Cavs are in, bet on them to win. After all, David Stern wants LeBron to win a championship and hopefully stay in Cleveland. And as us Suns fans are all too aware, whatever David Stern wants, David Stern gets.
Ponder on that for a minute.
The old guys versus Dwayne Wade. That is what this series looked like. Poor D-Wade. He has a rough summer ahead of him. He may test the free agent market, or he may re-sign with Miami. He also is trying to play with Team USA and is facing a tough divorce battle. I certainly would not want to be in his shoes right about now. The “old guys” in Boston once again were able to put it all together and are looking formidable.
The Celtics have a lot and I mean A LOT of experience on their team. They were able to use that experience to handle the Heat 4-1. Next up for the Celtics are the Cavs. This should be a great battle but in the end I predict King James and crew will be too much for the aging Celtics.
Orlando reached the Finals last year and this is the first year the Bobcats have been in the playoffs.
Dwight Howard and company played the best basketball of any team coming out of the All Star break.
This will mark Michael Jordan’s first time in the playoffs as an owner and he’s hoping his team makes a respectable showing. Unfortunately, they came up against the Magic, who continued their great basketball playing and eliminated the Bobcats 4-0 without much of a struggle.
Looks like swapping players (Vince Carter and Hedo Turkoglu) was the right move for the Magic, but maybe not so right for the Bobcats.
The highlight of this series was Stan Van Gundy running his mouth off about the officiating, the way the NBA schedules games, and everything in between. Even David Stern hitting him with a $35,000 fine did little to slow his mouth.
Jamal Crawford, swallowing his pride and agreeing to come off the bench for Atlanta after playing for Golden State and starting his entire career received his first trip to the playoffs. He was rewarded also with the NBA’s Sixth Man Award.
The Hawks have seasoned veterans Mike Bibby and Joe Johnson playing for them and looking to make a deep playoff run.
The Bucks came into this series undermanned with the unfortunate loss of Andrew Bogut to a horrible injury. If you haven’t seen it…look it up on You Tube and make sure your stomach is not weak. It is a Thiesmann -esque type of injury. However, the Bucks also have rookie Brandon Jennings and he started his playoffs off right…scoring 34 points in his playoff debut.
This series started out with the home-court team Atlanta winning. Then the Bucks came storming back to tie the series up. As I write this, the Bucks took a 3-2 game lead stunning most people including myself.
A week ago, without Bogut and down 2-0 to the Hawks, many were predicting the series all but over and the Bucks to start cleaning out their locker.
However, with Bogut on the sidelines watching, and behind Jennings, the Bucks have won 3 straight and could have wrapped up the series at home.
However the Hawks showed that they were not to be counted out. They were able to take game 6 and won game 7 at home.
Wow-this was a great series and the Thunder put a bit of a scare into some Lakers fans. After playing less than defending champion like in games 3 and 4, the Lakers finally woke up and played like, well the Lakers in a game 5 victory. All it took was finally putting Kobe on Westbrook who up until that point was making it look easy to score on LA.
The Lakers were able to take game 6 in Oklahoma City despite the Thunder really putting it to the defending champs. It took a nice put back by Gasol and a last minute attempt by the Thunder to miss it's mark for the defending champs to walk away with the series win. It literally came down to the last second.
Had the Thunder won game 6 I still think the Lakers would have won game 7 in L.A. but I think they are grateful it didn’t come to that.
Do not think for one minutes that this Thunder team is a fluke. They won 50 regular season games and had they been in the East, would have been a much higher seed.
This team is young and full of talent. They have a bona fide Superstar in Kevin Durant.
A special shout out to my ASU Sun Devil alum James Harden. My family jokes that his beard has magical healing powers. So all hail Harden and the “magical healing beard”. We were able to experience his talent on the college level. As he gains more experience look for him to also become a STUD!
This team in a few years will be a major force in the West. They are that scary good!
WOW! That’s about all I can say here. The Nuggets were favored to win. The Jazz are beat down, tore up injured. The Nuggets had the emotional factor on their side. Nothing like playing for a hurt coach to act as a little extra motivation.
Or so you would think. However the loss of Coach Karl just ended being too much for the Nuggets to overcome. Prayers of course out to Coach Karl as he continues to battle throat and neck cancer. We are all hoping for a speedy and full recovery but it’s a long hard road he faces. Major kudos to Adrian Dantley who came in to lead this team in Karl’s absence. However, the players said he wasn’t as “in your face” as Coach Karl was and they needed that. There was also rumored bad blood in the locker room with some players feeling others weren’t doing their part. Added up together and it was just too much for the Nuggets.
And as beat up as the Jazz have been, they are playing good ball. Deron Williams became the first player since Magic Johnson to have AT LEAST 20 points and 10 assists in EACH of the first 4 playoff games in a series. He got a little banged up in the last game but seems to be ok.
Mehmet Okur is out with a ruptured Achilles tendon and as the Jazz now face the Lakers, he will be missed.
This was another series that I did not see ending the way it did. This was a very physical series with technicals and flagrant fouls being called on both teams. I do find it ironic that after a VERY physical game 4 Spurs fans were whining calling the Mavs “dirty players”. Really? Pot…Kettle…Black!
Hey Spurs fans, let me call you the “wambulance”. I guess you don’t like seeing your team get a taste of their own medicine. Get over it! Your team has been playing like that for YEARS! Ask Suns fans…the series in 2007 is proof positive of that. But that’s an article for another day!
A few quick notes on this series: In Games 1-3 Tim Duncan scored 25 points each, but in games 4-5 he only combined for 15.
Manu Ginobili was also shooting only 26% after breaking his nose (minus game 6) despite insisting the injury was not a factor.
Another interesting note…the ref’s in the NBA 100% SUCK! I do not know how they earn a paycheck.
Joey Crawford needs to be FIRED! Or at least not be allowed to ref any game in which the Dallas Mavericks are playing.
Disgraced former ref Tim Donaghy had always said when he bet on games, he looked at who the ref was and used that as a factor in his betting.
The Mavs are a horrible 1-16 in playoff games in which Crawford was a ref. Ponder that for a minute…1-16!! No ref should have that much of a factor in a game and yet he does. His personal grudge against Mavs owner Mark Cuban should not have such a negative impact on the team. Hopefully now that more people are commenting on it, Crawford will not be reffing any Mavs games, but I won’t hold my breath. David Stern has blinders on.
Mark my words, just like Jose Canseco who was at first ostracized and ridiculed for naming names in his book on steroid users and who now looks like a prophet, Tim Donaghy will also soon be looking like a prophet. The NBA is fixed all the way up to the top.
I will be the first one to admit that I am a big time Suns homer. And I knew that the Blazers would play us tough. They had all season.
Games 1 and 4 and the start of game 5 the Suns looked like zombies out there. They had no fire, no spirit, not SPUNK. Then BAM! The zombie trance wore off and the SUNS started to play their ball and game 5 went their way. Games 2-3 were also blowouts by the Suns.
If the Suns stop playing like they are bi-polar I see them going far in these playoffs.
Brandon Roy was pretty much a non-factor for the Blazers. He probably should not have come back from micro-fracture surgery after only 8 days. Hopefully he did not do any more damage to his knee by coming back to play. You never want to see a player suffer a serious injury especially someone as young and as talented as Roy.
The Suns bench continues to play very well when they are in. That is something quite different than Suns teams of the past. Their strong play is allowing the starters particularly Steve Nash to get some much needed rest. With a hip injury flaring up, rest is what Nash needs if he is going to be a factor for this team. As long as this trend continues, and the starters get rest, they should still be fairly fresh and will hopefully allow for a deep playoff run.
Next round will see the Celtics battling the Cavs, and the Magic taking on the Hawks in the East and the Lakers versus the Jazz, and the Spurs taking on the Suns in the West.
I’ll have another recap after the conference semi-finals.
There have been a few surprises in the first round, and some expected outcomes.
Let’s do a brief recap by series:
Cleavland Cavaliers vs. Chicago Bulls
The Cavs played a little sloppy in Game 5 but were still able to eliminate the Bulls.
LeBron injured his elbow during game 5 and test results show a right elbow strain and bone bruise.
He will continue to get treatment but should not miss any playing time.
Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro continues to draw the ire from the front office and rumor has it he may be looking for a new job soon. He does however, have the support of his players. Personally, I think he has done a hell of a job with his players. They’ve gone to the playoffs the last 2 seasons. Is it really his fault they came up against the Cavs?
I read somewhere a stat on the betting line for this series. The basic gist of it was, in any series that the Cavs are in, bet on them to win. After all, David Stern wants LeBron to win a championship and hopefully stay in Cleveland. And as us Suns fans are all too aware, whatever David Stern wants, David Stern gets.
Ponder on that for a minute.
Boston Celtics vs. Miami Heat
The Celtics have a lot and I mean A LOT of experience on their team. They were able to use that experience to handle the Heat 4-1. Next up for the Celtics are the Cavs. This should be a great battle but in the end I predict King James and crew will be too much for the aging Celtics.
Orlando Magic vs. Charolotte Bobcats
Dwight Howard and company played the best basketball of any team coming out of the All Star break.
This will mark Michael Jordan’s first time in the playoffs as an owner and he’s hoping his team makes a respectable showing. Unfortunately, they came up against the Magic, who continued their great basketball playing and eliminated the Bobcats 4-0 without much of a struggle.
Looks like swapping players (Vince Carter and Hedo Turkoglu) was the right move for the Magic, but maybe not so right for the Bobcats.
The highlight of this series was Stan Van Gundy running his mouth off about the officiating, the way the NBA schedules games, and everything in between. Even David Stern hitting him with a $35,000 fine did little to slow his mouth.
Milwaukee Bucks vs. Atlanta Hawks
The Hawks have seasoned veterans Mike Bibby and Joe Johnson playing for them and looking to make a deep playoff run.
The Bucks came into this series undermanned with the unfortunate loss of Andrew Bogut to a horrible injury. If you haven’t seen it…look it up on You Tube and make sure your stomach is not weak. It is a Thiesmann -esque type of injury. However, the Bucks also have rookie Brandon Jennings and he started his playoffs off right…scoring 34 points in his playoff debut.
This series started out with the home-court team Atlanta winning. Then the Bucks came storming back to tie the series up. As I write this, the Bucks took a 3-2 game lead stunning most people including myself.
A week ago, without Bogut and down 2-0 to the Hawks, many were predicting the series all but over and the Bucks to start cleaning out their locker.
However, with Bogut on the sidelines watching, and behind Jennings, the Bucks have won 3 straight and could have wrapped up the series at home.
However the Hawks showed that they were not to be counted out. They were able to take game 6 and won game 7 at home.
Los Angeles Lakers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
The Lakers were able to take game 6 in Oklahoma City despite the Thunder really putting it to the defending champs. It took a nice put back by Gasol and a last minute attempt by the Thunder to miss it's mark for the defending champs to walk away with the series win. It literally came down to the last second.
Had the Thunder won game 6 I still think the Lakers would have won game 7 in L.A. but I think they are grateful it didn’t come to that.
Do not think for one minutes that this Thunder team is a fluke. They won 50 regular season games and had they been in the East, would have been a much higher seed.
This team is young and full of talent. They have a bona fide Superstar in Kevin Durant.
A special shout out to my ASU Sun Devil alum James Harden. My family jokes that his beard has magical healing powers. So all hail Harden and the “magical healing beard”. We were able to experience his talent on the college level. As he gains more experience look for him to also become a STUD!
This team in a few years will be a major force in the West. They are that scary good!
Utah Jazz vs. Denver Nuggets
Or so you would think. However the loss of Coach Karl just ended being too much for the Nuggets to overcome. Prayers of course out to Coach Karl as he continues to battle throat and neck cancer. We are all hoping for a speedy and full recovery but it’s a long hard road he faces. Major kudos to Adrian Dantley who came in to lead this team in Karl’s absence. However, the players said he wasn’t as “in your face” as Coach Karl was and they needed that. There was also rumored bad blood in the locker room with some players feeling others weren’t doing their part. Added up together and it was just too much for the Nuggets.
And as beat up as the Jazz have been, they are playing good ball. Deron Williams became the first player since Magic Johnson to have AT LEAST 20 points and 10 assists in EACH of the first 4 playoff games in a series. He got a little banged up in the last game but seems to be ok.
Mehmet Okur is out with a ruptured Achilles tendon and as the Jazz now face the Lakers, he will be missed.
San Antonio Spurs vs. Dallas Mavericks
Hey Spurs fans, let me call you the “wambulance”. I guess you don’t like seeing your team get a taste of their own medicine. Get over it! Your team has been playing like that for YEARS! Ask Suns fans…the series in 2007 is proof positive of that. But that’s an article for another day!
A few quick notes on this series: In Games 1-3 Tim Duncan scored 25 points each, but in games 4-5 he only combined for 15.
Manu Ginobili was also shooting only 26% after breaking his nose (minus game 6) despite insisting the injury was not a factor.
Another interesting note…the ref’s in the NBA 100% SUCK! I do not know how they earn a paycheck.
Joey Crawford needs to be FIRED! Or at least not be allowed to ref any game in which the Dallas Mavericks are playing.
Disgraced former ref Tim Donaghy had always said when he bet on games, he looked at who the ref was and used that as a factor in his betting.
The Mavs are a horrible 1-16 in playoff games in which Crawford was a ref. Ponder that for a minute…1-16!! No ref should have that much of a factor in a game and yet he does. His personal grudge against Mavs owner Mark Cuban should not have such a negative impact on the team. Hopefully now that more people are commenting on it, Crawford will not be reffing any Mavs games, but I won’t hold my breath. David Stern has blinders on.
Mark my words, just like Jose Canseco who was at first ostracized and ridiculed for naming names in his book on steroid users and who now looks like a prophet, Tim Donaghy will also soon be looking like a prophet. The NBA is fixed all the way up to the top.
Phoenix Suns vs. Portland Trail Blazers
Games 1 and 4 and the start of game 5 the Suns looked like zombies out there. They had no fire, no spirit, not SPUNK. Then BAM! The zombie trance wore off and the SUNS started to play their ball and game 5 went their way. Games 2-3 were also blowouts by the Suns.
If the Suns stop playing like they are bi-polar I see them going far in these playoffs.
Brandon Roy was pretty much a non-factor for the Blazers. He probably should not have come back from micro-fracture surgery after only 8 days. Hopefully he did not do any more damage to his knee by coming back to play. You never want to see a player suffer a serious injury especially someone as young and as talented as Roy.
The Suns bench continues to play very well when they are in. That is something quite different than Suns teams of the past. Their strong play is allowing the starters particularly Steve Nash to get some much needed rest. With a hip injury flaring up, rest is what Nash needs if he is going to be a factor for this team. As long as this trend continues, and the starters get rest, they should still be fairly fresh and will hopefully allow for a deep playoff run.
Next round will see the Celtics battling the Cavs, and the Magic taking on the Hawks in the East and the Lakers versus the Jazz, and the Spurs taking on the Suns in the West.
I’ll have another recap after the conference semi-finals.
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