I can honestly say after tonights game that the Spurs and the Mavericks are better than the Suns. The Spurs held them to like 20 something points under their average. Steve Nash wasnt the same as he always is, and the Suns shot terribly. Mavericks, Spurs, Suns. That is the order of the best teams in the NBA.
Yeah, because of one win over the Suns, the Suns 3 wins over those teams, 2 blowouts, after the all-star break are just thrown out the window? You used the excuse that your team just wasn't making shots the last time when we whipped you guys...well I doubt the Suns will ever shoot 18% from the 3-point line again and I doubt Amare plays like he did tonight against the Spurs again. San Antonio has great defense, but those two things won't happen. You guys played an unbelievable game at home and the Suns were with you guys all the way.
Those things will "obviously happen" when the Suns play the Spurs. It happenned this game, and during the last game, it was a very good defensive performance before the 4th quarter. The suns just dont match up well against them. Their only defender that can stop Duncan is Kurt Thomas, and when he is in the game, he isnt able to run as well up and down the floor. Tony Parker does whatever the hell he wants, Manu Ginobili plays well, and even our bigs do well. We are shooting well from the outside as of late, and they have been the best team in the league after the All-Star break. They are a better team than the Suns...Period.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ballerman2112 @ Apr 5 2007, 11:01 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Those things will "obviously happen" when the Suns play the Spurs. It happenned this game, and during the last game, it was a very good defensive performance before the 4th quarter. The suns just dont match up well against them. Their only defender that can stop Duncan is Kurt Thomas, and when he is in the game, he isnt able to run as well up and down the floor. Tony Parker does whatever the hell he wants, Manu Ginobili plays well, and even our bigs do well. We are shooting well from the outside as of late, and they have been the best team in the league after the All-Star break. They are a better team than the Suns...Period.</div>Amare always, ALWAYS, kills you guys. He won't be held to under 40% shooting again. He hasn't been stopped by the Spurs for a very long time so I don't see why it'll start now. You guys can guard the 3-point line well, but not enough to hold the Suns to 18%, probably double that. The Spurs played the best possible defensive game against us and we still were with you at home. In head-2-head games we are 3-1 against the top 2 after the all-star break. One game doesn't put you guys ahead. You played great and the Suns missed shots that they would usually make and Amare always plays better than he did.
To be fair, I actually think it goes in a bit of a circle with each team having a small advantage over another match-up wise. With this win I would bump up San Antonio to the 3 amazing, untouchable teams in the league. I think it's kind of like Suns>Mavs(defense has no effect on us), Spurs>Suns, Mavs>Spurs(have the bigs and halfcourt game as well as an explosive offense to beat San Antonio), but each one of those teams can beat the other so I wouldn't put them in a list and I think all of those series would go to 7. It's all great basketball, but unfortunately it could lead to Detroit winning it all which'll piss me off. To me it is 1abc. Those teams2abc. Utah, Houston, Detroit3. Lakas4. Some East team...You can list it how you like if it makes you feel good to put San Antonio ahead. I just know that I'm still very confident in the Suns chances, but home court is important! San Antonio is not a good place to play in, but Phoenix would also be really bad in a game 7.
The suns do matchup better with the mavs but saying they are better than the mavs is a little premature. The mavs were without a key defender in Dampier and Buckner and George have yet to get back in the flow after knee injuries. Hell even Howard and Dirk were playing right after an ankle injury. The suns caught the mavs at the right time. What's the suns excuse though? They were fully healthy against the spurs.
If you guys think that you guys were seriously better than us last year when our injuries were twice as bad then you give credit to the Suns for winning. The first game your injuries weren't that bad, especially since Stackhouse had his best game of the season replacing Harris, who struggled anyway in the next game. You guys were home too. And in that next game Dirk and Howard didn't seem to be affected at all. Dirk had that sprained ankle a few days before and players usually still play very well with that injury, and it was a blowout anyway. I think we'll be okay in a series against the Mavs, but with 2 straight 7 game series, and then going against a tough team like Detroit, I'm not really liking Phoenix and San Antonio's chances but we'll see.
But yeah, I do think the Mavs are the best team in the league and could beat us. Just saying that I love the match-ups.
Yeah, and ASUFan, even though Amare kills the Spurs everytime, the Spurs seem to come out on top alot. Look in the playoffs a few years ago...He averaged like 37 a game and the Spurs still won that series. Amare had a worse game than normal last night, but you have to give credit to the Spurs defense...They played great. Guarded the 3 ball well, the bigs played physical, and they didnt allow Nash to get in the lane to make his great passes. The Spurs just match up so well against the Suns IMO..Spurs > SunsMavs > SpursMavs = Suns (maybe head to head)
The Suns were a lot worse 2 years ago though, not nearly as good offensively and only had 3 good players in the first 2 games of that series, and I'm saying if Amare was even close to what he usually does we would've won. I think it's stupid to put the Spurs ahead after 1 game when the Suns have been better over the season and just whooped them a little over a month ago. If you can suddenly do that then I'll put the Suns over the Mavs because they just had their way with them last week even though the Mavs were better during this season. I do give credit to the Spurs defense, but it seems that if the Suns even get half a quarter of good offense they would win.Edit: And I'm also going to add that they didn't shoot their free throws as well as usual either, at least Amare didn't. So that also would have put us in a better position late.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ASUFan22 @ Apr 6 2007, 12:57 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Yeah, because of one win over the Suns, the Suns 3 wins over those teams, 2 blowouts, after the all-star break are just thrown out the window? You used the excuse that your team just wasn't making shots the last time when we whipped you guys...well I doubt the Suns will ever shoot 18% from the 3-point line again and I doubt Amare plays like he did tonight against the Spurs again. San Antonio has great defense, but those two things won't happen. You guys played an unbelievable game at home and the Suns were with you guys all the way.</div>Dude everyone said the same thing about Dirk's MVP chance Dallas lost against the Suns...
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (dirkenator @ Apr 6 2007, 07:12 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Dude everyone said the same thing about Dirk's MVP chance Dallas lost against the Suns...</div>I'm pretty sure that Dallas is still the favorite. Nash didn't do too much better than him in that game and Dirk's team's record is pretty amazing right now.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ASUFan22 @ Apr 6 2007, 11:05 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>The Suns were a lot worse 2 years ago though, not nearly as good offensively and only had 3 good players in the first 2 games of that series, and I'm saying if Amare was even close to what he usually does we would've won. I think it's stupid to put the Spurs ahead after 1 game when the Suns have been better over the season and just whooped them a little over a month ago. If you can suddenly do that then I'll put the Suns over the Mavs because they just had their way with them last week even though the Mavs were better during this season. I do give credit to the Spurs defense, but it seems that if the Suns even get half a quarter of good offense they would win.Edit: And I'm also going to add that they didn't shoot their free throws as well as usual either, at least Amare didn't. So that also would have put us in a better position late.</div>The Spurs have always matched up well against the Suns and they still do. You keep on saying that "If the Suns did this better", but you cant use that. They didnt shoot as well because the Spurs played great defense. Amare didnt do that great because he had good bigs playing well against him, and Nash didnt do crap the whole night because he had a quick guard in front of him, and the help defense was amazing. The Suns are a terrible defensive team still IMO. Parker did whatever he wanted, Duncan did mostly what he wanted, Ginobili was unstoppable, and even Michael Finley had his way with the Suns. They dont have an answer for Duncan, they dont have an answer for Parker, and they are just a bad defensive team all around. You are acting like the Suns have been SO much better than the Spurs this year which isnt true. Only two games seperate the two teams, and the Spurs have been the best team in basketball since the All-Star break.
The Spurs won't hold the Suns to 18% 3-point shooting. They can hold them to the low 30's because they are good but the Suns still are better than that. The Spurs have only stopped Amare this one time in the last 8-10 match-ups and they didn't force him to shoot 20% on free throws when he usually gets 80%. He just didn't play well. I don't think this one game puts the Spurs ahead. They played great but the Suns also weren't as good as usual. And I think it's kind of funny when a team plays their best possible game against us and we were still only down 4 in the end on the road. Kurt Thomas did a fantastic job on Duncan during the game and I expect him to play more in the playoffs.
First things first I think that the Suns are a better team. The Suns might be giving up 103.2 points per a game but they still score 110.7 points a game. They playes like Steve Nash, Shawn Marion, Amare, Raja Bell, and more. The Mavs have Dirk, Terry, Stackhouse, and a few more. Their season series is tied at two, and they are pretty much an even team. Though overrall I would choose the Suns as a better team.
You don't even mention Howard and Dampier. You obviously don't watch much mavs basketball so your opinion really doesn't have knowledge to it.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (mavsfan1000 @ Apr 7 2007, 12:24 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>You don't even mention Howard and Dampier. You obviously don't watch much mavs basketball so your opinion really doesn't have knowledge to it.</div>Howard is a stud. I love him, except when he tries to trip our guys. :beee:
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Their season series is tied at two, and they are pretty much an even team.</div>And season series winners prove what exactly? Look at Warriors/Mavs, does that mean Mavs are below the Warriors?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Rok @ Apr 7 2007, 04:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>And season series winners prove what exactly? Look at Warriors/Mavs, does that mean Mavs are below the Warriors?</div>During Mavs/Suns games, both teams are giving it their all, and each game was basically a mirror of what we have seen from both teams the past few seasons in the playoffs. I'd say what you have seen from both teams during the season is pretty much what you will see in the postseason.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>During Mavs/Suns games, both teams are giving it their all, and each game was basically a mirror of what we have seen from both teams the past few seasons in the playoffs. I'd say what you have seen from both teams during the season is pretty much what you will see in the postseason.</div>What does that have to do with the records?
