Suns @ Clippers <font color="Orange">Phoenix Suns</font> (11-20) @ <font color="Red">L.A. Clippers</font> (12-14) Monday, 10:30 P.M. Eastern Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA Previous Games: <font color="Purple">Raptors</font> 94 <font color="Red">Clippers</font> 88 <font color="Orange">Suns</font> 100 <font color="RoyalBlue">Philadelphia</font> 92 Probable Starters: <font color="Orange">Suns</font> C- Jake Voskuhl PF- Donnel Harvey SF- Shawn Marion SG- Joe Johnson PG- Stephon Marbury <font color="Red">Clippers</font> C- Chris Wilcox PF- Elton Brand SF- Corey Maggette SG- Quentin Richardson PG- Marco Jaric Players to Watch: <font color="Orange">Suns:</font> Donnel Harvey is going to have the task of trying to guard Elton Brand. Last night Harvey did extremely well in his first start with the Suns by getting rebounds and hitting whatever shot was given to him. He can get his hands in the passing lane and does a fairly good decent job of altering/blocking shots. If he is able to limit Brand's impact and helps keep the high-flying Maggette and Richardson from having too many points in the paint then the Suns will be looking good for the "W." <font color="Red">Clippers:</font> The last time the Suns played the Clippers, Chris Kaman played a huge role. He just might be put in a situation to make a similar impact this game. Kaman crashes the boards and already has some nice post moves for a rookie. He can also hit the mid-range jumper to force out the Suns frontcourt defenders which will hinder the Suns' already poor rebounding ability. Best Matchup: Quentin Richardson and Joe Johnson going up against one another might be the matchup to watch. Johnson has scored twenty points in three of the last four games, including a season high twenty-three last night. Johnson's defense isn't too shabby either and he'll need it against Richardson who has the ability to score 30+ on any given night. Keys to the Game: <font color="Orange">Suns:</font> Rebound, rebound, rebound. The last game against the Clippers the Suns were out-rebounded 53-36. Everybody on the Clippers is a very good rebounder for their position which is why everyone on the Suns will need to crash to boards. Last night they lucked out by playing a weak 76ers frontcourt who themselves brought down only 39 boards. Tonight they won't be so lucky as four of the Clippers' five starters bring down more than five rebounds per game. Also anothey key is, you know, not giving up a big lead. That might cause some problems. <font color="Red">Clippers:</font> There's just something about the Staples Center that Marbury loves. So far this season he is putting up averages of 30.5 points, 10 assists, and 6.5 rebounds in Staples. Knowing that Jaric isn't exactly a defensive juggernaut is going to force the Clips to create a sheme to lessen Marbury's impact. If Marbury can't get things going then it is more than likely the Suns won't get anything going so stopping Marbury should be the focus of the Clippers. Outcome: Last time the Suns got blown out by the Clippers. This time the Suns might come out more alert as to what happens if they play with no energy against this team. The Suns are also trying to put together consecutive wins for the first time in a long while, and they would be the first time the Suns pull off two straight wins under Coach D'Antoni. For that I think the Suns are going to come out ready to play and ready to keep a lead. Suns by 6.
If Suns were at home, I would go with them, but I cant see them getting the win in LA. Clippers by 3+
Suns have no answer for Brand, slightly different story with Amare in the lineup, but w/o him - No Dice.
Suns got a big confidence booster against Philly. Maybe this could finally jump start the Suns. I say Suns by 7+
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting OgShowtime:</div><div class="quote_post">Suns have no answer for Brand, slightly different story with Amare in the lineup, but w/o him - No Dice.</div> Exactly. Right there's the answer. Brand is a beast, and despite his relatively small stature, he plays too big for anyone on Phoenix to handle. Without a power forward capable of banging with him, Brand can get his 20-10 and have enough left over to have 4-5 blocks. Since he doesn't have to focus on guarding his opponent as much, look for him to play a lot of help defense, and rack up some blocks that way. And if Kaman is shooting decently, no one on the Suns can play off their guy to help out. Sadly for the Suns, the Brandmeister is gonna eat them for dinner.
Well it's obvious that any good frontcourt player can have a great game with the Suns, but I believe the Suns can make it up at the other positions. What the Suns now have with Harvey in the lineup are three guys that can really get in the passing lanes, deny the post, and deflect balls that can lead into fast break points. When Barbosa is in the game that makes turnovers even more of a possibility has Leandro has an AMAZING ability to create steals and disrupt the opposing teams offense. The Suns can't totally stop Brand from getting the ball, but I think they can make it extremely difficult for him to get the ball. Making it harder for the Clips to enter it in the post will work to the Suns advantage as other players may take longer to get into the rhythm of the game.
So far the Suns are doing what they need to do on defense to win the game. Granted there is a high score, but the Suns are doing very well on defense. They have forced the Clippers into several bad plays by disturbing passes into the post and making the post players work for their points. By watching or listening to the game you'd think that Richardson was winning the deul with Johnson, but Johnson has scored a silent 11 points to Richardson's 13. Brand is doing his thing, but Harvey is doing a decent job making Brand work for his points. Harvey is also making Brand work on defense by crashing the boards and getting litte putbacks here and there. What isn't so silent is what Maggette is doing. He is basically playing how the Suns have wanted Marion to play all season long, and last season, and the season before, etc. Maggette is attacking the basket and by doing that he is opening himself up for midrange jumpers that he has been hitting all night. He has 17 points, but luckily for the Suns, Marbury is keeping up his hot streak at Staples. He has 22 points, 4 rebounds and 6 assists at the half. There's just no stopping Marbury right now. The Suns are only being outrebounded by four at the half, which isn't bad at all considering how they got killed the last game. The Suns are giving the Clippers too many free throws, as they have twelve attempts to the Suns' six. The Suns have retaliated for the free throw disparity by taking advantage of the Clippers getting lazy on defense. A couple of times the Suns were able to throw the ball full court and get some easy points. Hopefully the Suns can keep it up into the second half. Suns lead 58-51.
Marbury scores 40, Suns win. That's basically how the game was carried. Marbury would stop anything that the Clips would try to put together by making a big three, dishing out a key assist, or making a big steal. The Suns started to get into some major foul trouble in the third quarter. Voskuhl got his fifth in the third quarter, and White picked up four fouls in the fourth quarter. Voskuhl gets a lot of offensive fouls off of trying to set a screen and roll. Coincidentally, his defensive fouls seems to come the same way. That allowed Brand to do some damage throughout the remainder of the game. Brand ended with 24 points, 11 rebounds, and 5 assists. The Clippers had three guys with 24 points or higher, which to no surprise were Maggette, Brand, and Richardson. The Suns had four guys with 14 or more points led by, of course, Marbury's 40. The Suns' defensive effort was superb. They forced 21 turnovers, with 11 of those being steals. The made it difficult for the Clippers to go into the post to Brand, Kaman, and Wilcox. The Clippers still managed to get a lot of offensive boards, though. They pulled down 20 offensive rebounds as they outrebounded the Suns by 15, 48-33. Marion really struggled with his shot tonight. Atleast three of his floaters rimmed out, but he ended with 17 points anyway. At times the Suns started to get addicted to the three point line, but they didn't get too carried away tonight. At times the Clippers went to a zone, but it was a real soft zone that the Suns were able to attack. The bench did a very good job as well. Penny scored 18 points, the bench as a whole scored 20. The most important thing about the effort from the bench was that they didn't give up the lead like usual. When the Clippers tried to double team Marbury, Marbury did a great job of kicking it out to the open guy who would proceed to hit the shot or rotate it over to someone who was open for an easy layup. As mentioned in the game preview, Marbury loves Staples and he kept up his efforts tonight. The Suns win two in a row for the first time under D'Antoni. Nice way to go into the new year. Also, another neat little stat, the Suns are 3-0 whenever I make a game preview .
