<font color="RoyalBlue">Philadelphia76ers</font> (14-15) @ <font color="Orange">Phoenix Suns</font> (10-20) Sunday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern America West Arena, Phoenix, AZ Previous Games: <font color="RoyalBlue">Sixers</font> 98 <font color="Red">Clippers</font> 101 <font color="Green">Celtics</font> 104 <font color="Orange">Suns </font> 102 Probable Starters: <font color="Orange">Suns</font> C- Jake Voskhul PF- Scott Willams SF- Shawn Marion SG- Joe Johnson PF- Stephon Marbury <font color="RoyalBlue">76ers</font> C- Derrick Coleman (Game-time decision) PF- Kenny Thomas SF- Glenn Robinson SG- Aaron McKie PG- Eric Snow Players to Watch <font color="RoyalBlue">76ers:</font> Aaron McKie is the shooter that can kill the Suns. He leads the league in three-point field goal percentage and with the advantage the 76ers have inside he can be of great use. With McKie the 76ers will be able to use and inside-out game to try and gain an advantage. His defense can also throw Joe Johnson's game off. JJ has been doing pretty well the last few games, but the veteran McKie can take JJ out of his rhythm. <font color="Orange">Suns:</font> Shawn Marion is going to have to take advantage of Glenn Robinson's poor defense. Marion has been scoring big the past few weeks, and with the type of defense Robinson has there is no reason why that shouldn't continue. The 76ers might put McKie on Marion because McKie has better defense, but he can not keep up with Marion's quickness which makes it a must that Marion should drive. His defense will also be vital in trying to stop Robinson, who is the 76ers best scorer with Iverson out. Against the Celtics, Marion got in foul trouble on Pierce and once he stopped guarding Pierce that's when Pierce led the Celtics to victory. Marion has to stop that from happening. Best Matchup: Marbury and Eric Snow should be interesting. Snow is one of the best defensive point guards in the league and Marbury is arguably the best offensive point guard in the league. They say great defense can never beat great offense, but we'll see if the defense can neutralize the offense enough to keep the 76ers in the game. Keys to the Game: <font color="RoyalBlue">76ers:</font> Slow the game down. If the 76ers can make the game into a halfcourt battle they will increase their chances of winning greatly. They have the defensive minds to try and limit Marbury's and Marion's effectiveness as much as possible, but they can not let the Suns get into the open court. The fact that they don't exactly have the best open court players will make them need to stay away from a run-and-gun pace. <font color="Orange">Suns:</font> Try to beat up the already beat up 76ers. Make them run as much as possible, but when in the half-court set they should try and beat down on the 76ers. Put Jahidi White in and make him abuse whomever is guarding him in the post. Post up Marbury and Snow, post up JJ on McKie or Robinson, force Marion's man to actually make him guard them. A lot of people on the 76ers are playing beat-up so the Suns need to make them pay for it. Outcome: The Suns are tired of looking for excuses and moral victories. They were hoping the comeback against the Celtics a couple weeks ago would be their wake-up call, now they're hoping letting the Celtics come back against them will be the real wake-up call. The Suns will come out with an extra bounce in their step and try to run over the beat up 76ers. Suns by 9.
I think the Suns come away wih this one easily. Shawn Marion is going to be awsome with Robinson's poor defense. They also are going to make the sixers run and run and run and RUN. Without Iverson's speed they're doomed. Suns by 11.IMO
After three quarters the Suns are winning 73-64. The quarter scoring has gone from 35, to 20, to 18. That's horrible. The Suns need to find a way to keep up their efforts on the offensive end. Leading Scorers: Suns Marbury: 18 Marion: 16 Johnson: 12 76ers Robinson: 18 Thomas: 12 McKie: 9 McKie was out due to a hamstring injury ever since halftime. Suns win 100-92. Marion came up with 10 fourth quarter points to boost the Suns and JJ had 11 points in the last period. Joe Johnson has been really solid over the last stretch of games for the Suns. Looks as if he is finally finding some consistency to his game. White was big on the boards and Harvey had possibly his best game as a member of the Suns. The amount of points that the Suns score as the game continues to go on is pretty pathetic, though. I'm gonna do some research and see if I can find some patterns about this. Leading Scorers: Suns Marion: 26 Johnson: 23 Marbury: 17 76ers Robinson: 23 Snow: 17 Coleman: 12 Leading Rebounders Suns White: 10 Marion: 9 Harvey: 8 76ers Robinson: 9 Thomas: 6 Snow: 5 Snow led the game with 7 assists, Marbury had 6.
