What's Wrong with the Suns?

Shapecity · Dec 3, 2009

CLEVELAND -- Regression to the mean, or something much worse?

In the wake of blowout losses to the Knicks and Cavs that sullied a league-best, 14-3 start, the Suns find themselves asking whether this was just a road-heavy, early-season schedule finally getting the better of them, or whether something more nefarious was at work.

Phoenix fell behind by four touchdowns in the first half of Wednesday night's 107-90 defeat to the Cavs; combined with Tuesday's 27-point defeat in New York, the Suns were beaten 183-117 over a period of six quarters. Ouch. The stumble dropped Phoenix from first in the Power Rankings on Tuesday all the way to 12th Thursday morning and from the league's best record to a tie for fourth best.

Certainly the Suns were due to see a dip in the scorching shooting percentages they posted in the early part of the season. As recently as last week, their 3-point percentage was better than 10 teams' field goal percentages, but after shooting 14-of-40 from distance in their past two defeats, they're at a somewhat more realistic 43.6 percent from downtown -- now ahead of only two teams' field goal percentages.

Additionally, they've hit their first patch of health woes. Losing Leandro Barbosa to an ankle injury that will keep him out until around Christmas has taken some of the steam out of a surprisingly productive bench. That was particularly noticeable Wednesday with Jason Richardson laboring through a scoreless first half and Grant Hill looking, well, like a 37-year-old on the tail end of a back-to-back.

Perhaps that's why Steve Nash spent part of his postgame comments on couching expectations for the surprising club.

"We're a team that was picked out of the playoffs," he said -- three times -- "and we have to keep building. If we get 50 wins, it will be a phenomenal season."

All that is true (well, sort of -- six of 10 of us picked Phoenix to barely slip into the postseason), and that's why the Suns' 14-3 start came as such a surprise. It was inevitable that they'd fall back to earth a bit.

And while nobody was making excuses, there was a pervasive sense in the Suns' locker room that road weariness might have caught up to them. Phoenix is in the midst of playing 17 of its first 26 games on the road, with no homestand longer than two games, and 12 of its past 16 games were away from home. In that span, Phoenix had the misfortune of playing the Lakers, Magic and Cavs on the second night of back-to-backs, and was blown out of the gym all three times.

"We need to get home and get a little time in the gym," Nash said. "We've had one practice in the last six to eight weeks. The home games feel like road games because you're just stopping in for a day or two. But if we can just get through the 17 of 26 in decent shape, it will set the table [for us]."

Perhaps that's why the reaction to Wednesday's defeat was more muted than the one after the Knicks game. Nash said he was "embarrassed" after the loss to the Knicks; this one, he said, was merely "disappointing."

Nonetheless, the Suns walk away from the two defeats -- their two lowest-scoring games of the season -- with one very important tactic to address: what to do when teams switch against their high pick-and-roll.

The book on defending the Suns long has been to make Nash a scorer instead of allowing him to get his teammates involved. Adding credence to that approach, former Suns coach Mike D'Antoni used that tactic to generate a surprisingly strong defensive effort from his woe-ridden club in the New York game. Cleveland followed that game plan to a T as well, holding the Suns to a mere 28 points in the first half.

That partly was a matter of missing open shots -- Richardson in particular had several open looks from outside that he'd normally put down. It partly was due to carrying road-weary legs and missing the one player, speedster Barbosa, most qualified to offset that.

But the other part of the equation is the Suns need to get better at attacking switches.

"They did a lot of switching and created some havoc for us," Amare Stoudemire said. "We couldn't figure out how to keep our style of play going. That's the last two nights. Teams switch, and we have to figure out how to counteract that switch."

"We just get stagnant," Nash said. "We were indecisive. ... We haven't found a place we can attack them that other guys can get opportunities. Right now, it's more of a one-on-one situation for me. We don't want to turn it into [that] because it often means a lack of opportunities for my teammates."

The Suns still walk away from their two-game losing streak with the league's top-rated offense, and they'll benefit hugely later in the season from all the road games they're getting out of the way early.

So while they head home -- ever so briefly -- for Saturday's game against Sacramento, the Suns still feel pretty good about their first quarter of the season.

"It's a blip on the radar," coach Alvin Gentry said. "We're struggling right now. It's things we've got to get corrected, but it's not anything we can't do."

Many of those things will correct themselves. The Suns play 10 of 12 at home starting just before Christmas, when Barbosa is set to return. And there's no chance they'll miss as many wide-open jumpers as they clanked in the first half Wednesday night.

Attacking the switches, however, could prove more trying. They should get plenty of practice. With this being the only tactic that has slowed down their offensive juggernaut, the Suns are likely to see more of it in coming games until they prove they can solve it.
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Source: ESPN

DaRizzle · Dec 3, 2009

nothing is wrong with the Suns, they are just coming back to reality. Most every team has a hot streak during the season, theirs was at the start.

Moo2K4 · Dec 4, 2009

I know what's wrong with them.

It's called they were overachieving. Plain and simple. They don't have enough talent on that roster to keep up that kind of play for long.

They could also help themselves by at least trying on the defensive end. I don't see how that could hurt your cause.

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What's Wrong with the Suns?

Shapecity S2/JBB Teamster Staff Member Administrator

DaRizzle BLAKER

Moo2K4 NBA West Producer

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What's Wrong with the Suns?

Shapecity S2/JBB Teamster Staff Member Administrator

DaRizzle BLAKER

Moo2K4 NBA West Producer

Share This Page

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