Suns pulls through the OT win of 99-97 it with clutches of Marion's three and Joe Johnson's sweet jumper. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">HOUSTON (Ticker) -- Joe Johnson's baseline jumper with 1.4 seconds to go lifted the Phoenix Suns to a 99-97 triumph over the Houston Rockets. </div> ...More Recap Joe Johnson captures the game with a round 19, 7, and 7. Shawn Marion has 29 points, 4 from 6 from the 3, and 8 rebs. Although Amare Stoudamire did not score for the first half (was drought of 0-9), he nevertheless pulled a 24 and 15. Leandro Barbosa pulled 14, 5, 5. Meanwhile on the Rockets, also had a productive night...having a run of 20 pts. over the Suns. Before they finally had a tied score at the end of the 3rd quarter. Like usual, Cutino Mobley had a productive game, 20, 9, 6. Steve Francis with 12, 5, 5. Jim Jackson with 23, 5, 8. Yao Ming with 29, 19. And Scott Padgett with 5 and 9 rebs. It was an interesting game...
Great game by the Suns, Amare started off real bad 1-11, and went 6-15 the rest of the way. He had some nice throw downs on Yao, and was a beast like always. Needless to say Yao dominated this game on the Rockets side, but Mobley and Franchise forgot to show up. Yao scored 29 points (11-16 FG, 7-9 FT) and pulled down 19 rebounds. Yao also rejected 6 shots, and was just a beast tonight. Jim Jackson scored 23 points (8-18) for the Rockets, and had 5 rebounds and 8 assists. Marion aka The Matrix scored 29 points (10-23) for the Suns and went 4-6 from long range. He hits all his throws (5-5), and had 8 rebounds, 3 blocks and 2 steals. Barbosa also had a good game scoring 14 points (5-11 FG 3-6 3PT), gathering 6 rebounds, dishing out 5 assists, and picked up 5 steals. JJ also had a good game with 17 points (6-13), 7 rebounds and 7 assists. Even though we shot a measly 35.2% as a team, and got out rebounded 55-48 the Suns we still able to win. We went to the line 40 times to the Rockers 25 times, and picked up 14 steals while forcing 22 turnovers to the Rockets 4 steals while forcing 15 turnovers. Grea game and we can just hope for some more wins in the season.
But Yao got at least three good blocks on him... PRetty fantastic otherwise. Through about 6 of Amare's first quarter misses to other players and the distribution of scoring would be great. Leandro had a fine game though his defense was playing with fire for 5 PFs. Zarko looked like he was working hard and had good moves, but his shots just aren't falling... once he gets his confidence fully back (my bet is this coming summer leagues as he clocks major minutes) he'll be deadly. Casey sure plays with guts but he doesn't seem like the offensive threat he should be. Marion and JJ were outstanding (though JJ could have used those touches that Amare wasn't making). Imagine if we had a scoring center he could dump the ball to when it got hairy. Voshkul had a few good put back attempts. The commentators were talking about the dual objective of staying competitive and getting experience for the rookies and this game really showed that when they were 21 down they were still in it to win... you gotta feel bad for Lampe and McDyess (as far as him showing other teams he's a good acquisition next year) in this one but whatta you gonna do. It's cool that Zarko and Barbosa were coming into the league with pro experience (imagine how many years vujanic has been playing over there). I think Lampe played pro out of sweden but he's just so young. Overall I'm really excited they kept it together, after shooting like 25% in the first quarter, enough to outscore houston in the next two quarters. That was something you'd have expected from last year's team. I remember the suns led last year in coming-from-behind wins. It helped massively that Marion was having a good night. In the next game on I was excited to hear that Dampier has opted out of his contract and will be a free agent next year. Forget Marcus Camby or anybody else, we need to grab Dampier with our money. Imagine the starting lineup of Marion Amare and Dampier in the front court! Anybody know someone that can make me a Voshkul avatar? I like him because he isn't especially big, he isn't especially talented or athletic, but he plays with brass clankers in a lightning storm and could make a big difference (though they've been cutting back his minutes of late) as one of the best hustle backups in the league. Bo Outlaw was my favorite but they traded him much to my chagrin. I honestly think we'd have won more games with him Voshkul and Casey as energy guys who keep the intensity rather than letting talented scorers get in slumps and slow down when they have a bad night (though, much to his credit, Amare didn't). If we got Dampier and had Vujanic Casey Zarko and Voshkul coming off the bench we could be a team that never slows down. We'd be awfully pale too, but as long as they get the job done who cares. I'm rambling... that's what happens when I get to witness a sun's win from up here in WA. Exciting game!
