Marbury already has six assists as the Suns are up 29-23 on the Bulls at the end of one. As I stated in another thread, this is one of three games that will decide what kind of year Phoenix will have. So far this game is going very well as the Suns have six players with four or more points (Marion leads with six). Scott Williams makes his comback tonight as well and has provided some frontcourt help for the Suns and it allows Jahidi White to rest his dislocated finger. Another good sign is the nine assists after one quarter for the Suns (though all are from Penny and Marbs) and so far they are leading the battle of the boards. Eddy Curry is doing really well for the Bulls though with ten points. Hopefully the Suns can keep this pace up for the rest of the game and just pull away from here.
This is the type of game that the Suns have needed to play since the beginning of the year. They are winning every battle possible: rebounds, assists, free throws, turnovers, and most importantly on the scoreboard. Their 18 assists in the first half surpasses their season average per game. Zarko is playing amazingly well (12 points), and Marion is having a great game also (12 points, 7 boards). Marbury is leading the way with his assists (8), and Amare is having a nice little complete game (11 points, 4 boards, 3 assists). It's also a plus when Joe Johnson is shooting 3/6 from the floor. Suns up 57-47 at the half.
The Suns couldn't top 100 points in the game, but their offense was real nice tonight. Amare ended with 21, 10, and 4 with a lot of production in the fourth quarter. Marion had 19 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 steals.. Zarko had a career high 14 points all but two were in the first half and Marbury ended with 12 assists. Scott Williams had a nice boost in the frontcourt getting 10 rebounds. The scoring was very evenly distributed during the game for both teams. The Suns defense really stepped it up in the second half it seemed. What I didn't get was why Chandler only played 18 minutes. He's coming off an injury, right? Maybe they wanted to bring him back slowly? In his time he did very well. Either way with a final score of 95-88 the Suns got a much needed victory.
