Filling in for ASU tonight.10:30 P.M. EST on TNT San Antonio Spurs (<span style="color:#808080">32-15</span> 2nd in Southwest, 3rd in Western Conference) ? Tony Parker? Manu Ginobili ? Bruce Bowen? Tim Duncan? Fabricio Oberto o Beno Udrih, o Michael Finley, o Brent Barry, o Robert Horry o Francisco Elsonvs.<span style="color:#4B0082">Phoenix Suns</span> (<span style="color:#FF8C00">36-9</span> 1st in Pacific; 2nd in Western Conference) ? Steve Nash? Raja Bell? Shawn Marion? Boris Diaw? Amare Stoudemire o Leandro Barbosa o James JonesInjuries: ? Kurt Thomas (Phoenix; hyper-extended left elbow)Who to Watch For:San Antonio Manu Ginobili? He seems to bring his ?A? game whenever he plays against the Suns. However this wasn?t the case in their 1st meeting as he had his worst game against Phoenix in his career shooting a horrible 3-13 and managing 12 points in 32 minutes.Phoenix Amare Stoudemire ? In their last meeting Amare was put into the starting line up for the 1st time of the season which resulted in mixed results. Amare responded well by becoming more aggressive scoring 16 points on 8-11 shooting and collecting 6 rebounds but only played 15 minutes due to foul trouble.X-Factor:? Boris Diaw ? With neither team having an answer for Nash/Amare ? Parker/Duncan and Bruce Bowen?s ability to shut Shawn Marion down it will be up to Boris Diaw to take advantage of Oberto and Elson out on the perimeter. If he can take advantage of this situation the Suns should come out with a win. On the opposite side if Oberto is allowed to focus completely on the offense like last time where he put up 22 & 10 on 11 for 11 shooting the Spurs will take this game. Match-Up:? Tim Duncan vs. Amare Stoudemire. With Amare no showing in the Suns loss to Minnesota and the Spurs losing the way they did to Utah I expect both of them to come out looking to make up for the lost opportunities of the past. Prediction:? I like Phoenix to win this game. They are at home and are well rested having sat around for 2 days after seeing their 17 game win streak end add that to all the talk of them not being able to beat elite teams they should be more then motivated for this game plus San Antonio is coming off a tough game in Utah last night. Suns 111 ? Spurs 104Extras:? The Suns have tied the 95-96 Bulls for consecutive games without a loss by double digits at 45 straight, ironically the Suns ended that Bulls streak in their 46th game.? The Suns 17 game win streak may be over but they still have a 9 game winning streak at home looking for yet another double digit streak.? The Spurs have won 5 of the 7 regular season match ups between the two teams over the past 3 seasons
I think the Suns will win this even though they don't have Kurt Thomas who they specifically brought to play against San Antonio in what could be a slow pace game. The team is rested and back at home after a very tough 5 game in 7 night road trip so I think they'll be ready. San Antonio did play yesterday but that shouldn't be an excuse. It wasn't a long flight and this is a very late game...I really just don't want to hear something like this from Sir Charles:"The Suns should win....the Spurs are no good. I mean their good.......... just not good like the MAVS and the Suns. If the Suns............ had lost this game............... it would mean that the Mavs....are the best team.......like I have been sayin."
This is an important game for both teams as they both look to get back on track and don't want to lose 2 games in a row which the Suns haven't done in a long long time. The Suns streak ended against Minnnesota in a close win and also the Spurs lost by 4 to the Jazz in a game that they had many chances to pull out the victory. Tonight though the Suns will not have many players to come off the bench only Barbosa and James Jones will most likely play while the Spurs have about 5 or 6 that can come off the bench and this might be an advantage because the Suns starters will most likely get tired at the end of the game. Last meeting Oberto had an amazing game with 11-11 shooting and 22 points but he won't have that kind of performance again as that was his best game of his short career. Tonight I think the Spurs will put out a close victory because I think Pop had something to say after that Jazz loss that will pump this team up.
Well, if the Spurs can somehow win this game, I will totally change my views on their season so far. I know that they Spurs havent played the best throughout the season, but the Suns and the Mavs are the only teams that I think would beat the Spurs in a 7 game series. This is a very big test for the Spurs.If I had to pick a team to win tonight, I would go with the Suns. They are arguably the best team in basketball right now, and they have been playing great ball all year. I dont have to go in to depth....you people know how good they are.
Ugh, that 9-2 deficit looked bad to start off the game. I hate when you miss half a quarter of your team's game because of another game going on...
Ugh, Amare can't jump so Duncan is owning his ass, at least that's what it's looking like. He's actually having a pretty good game but he's been blocked a few times by TD already.
The Spurs are up by 7 points right now which is a little surprising but the Suns are shooting a low percentage from the field and Ginobili is having a good game off the bench with 18. A weird stat I saw about the Suns is that they are 0-6 against the Jazz,Spurs,Mavericks, and Lakers which are the top teams in the West.
That's because 5 of those games were during that 3-6 start.53-50 Spurs at the half. It has been pretty entertaining so far. Amare is at 11 and 11 already and good to see James Jones shooting well after 2 bad games. Duncan has been great for the Spurs. 10,7,4 and has been a monster on defense with 4 blocks.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ASUFan22 @ Feb 1 2007, 10:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>That's because 5 of those games were during that 3-6 start.</div>They still lost and you can't really make excuses I mean the Spurs are 11-14 playing teams over .500 this year but I could say they have been inconsistent all year. But anyways for the game it has been a very entertaining one and looks like it will be high scoring as well. The Spurs in the past usually don't play well in high scoring bouts as they are more known for their hard-nosed defense then keeping up with high powered offenses. If San Antonio keeps playing like this and Manu keeps up his great game the Spurs will win.
Raja Bell with a no show does he realize the reason Phoenix went after him was to defend Ginobili Amare improved defense in the 2nd quarter is something he needs to keep building on
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Diawsome @ Feb 1 2007, 09:47 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Raja Bell with a no show does he realize the reason Phoenix went after him was to defend Ginobili Amare improved defense in the 2nd quarter is something he needs to keep building on</div>Well there's the problem...he's injured and out of the game...Moses, all I'm saying is that that was not the same team. They were trying to get Amare situated, still had to figure out that Banks wasn't working, James Jones was having major composite ball issues, Diaw was overweight...they are a totally different team than the one that went 0-5 against those teams, this team is just 0-1, hopefully 1-1 after tonight. I'm glad they finally get to prove themselves now against San Antonio.The defense is really active tonight, getting lots of steals.
Regardless if they win or lose the 1st thing D'Antoni needs to study from this game is Popovich's usage of timeouts. He still doesn't understand how to use them properly :no1:
Ya ASU fan they definately have matured a lot since the beginning of the season I'm just saying they're still 0-6 but Diaw really needs to get his act together last year he had a great year and this year he comes into training camp considerably heavier than last year.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (moses2121 @ Feb 1 2007, 10:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Ya ASU fan they definately have matured a lot since the beginning of the season I'm just saying they're still 0-6 but Diaw really needs to get his act together last year he had a great year and this year he comes into training camp considerably heavier than last year.</div>Well he's alright now. His rebounding has been down more than I like and he's just so much of a finesse player and I'm not a fan of that at the PF position, but he has been pretty good...Great defense by the Suns in that 3rd quarter. That was the most impressive defensive quarter I've seen so far this year considering who they are playing and the players that they are missing in this game(not an excuse, just pointing out that it is our defensive players that are missing the game).Why was Manu coming off the bench though? He's looking like his normal self....
BOOOOOOOO, how do you call a f*cking technical on Amare for being kneed in the balls? Psh, I wouldn't have minded a 15-game suspension if Amare could've had a crack at Gino. :boxin:
No defense my hairy, slightly tanned ASS! PWNT like a cat at the pound. This game really pumped me up, such a great performance, Amare did an outstanding job defensively, 23 rebounds and really didn't let Duncan do anything at all after that first quarter. What a beautiful game.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Diawsome @ Feb 2 2007, 01:35 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>how bout that, Amare takes a knee in the sac and its a foul on him </div>It was a foul on Amare and he deserved the technical. Manu went up for a shot and he happenned to knee him in the balls. It didnt look intentional to me what so ever....Spurs played a terrible game tonight in the 2nd half. Tim couldnt make sh*t around the basket. I am getting sick and tired of our role players on the Spurs. Nobody on this team is worth a sh*t besides Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili. f*cking trade them all....I could care less.
