link Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash will be inactive for tonight’s game at Portland due to right shoulder inflammation. Guard/forward Eric Piatkowski (pie-it-COW-ski) will take his spot on the Suns active roster. Nash, who earned his fifth NBA All-Star berth on Feb. 1, did not play in the second half of last night’s 113-108 victory at Denver after tallying nine points, three rebounds and a team-high seven assists in the first half. The reigning back-to-back NBA’s Most Valuable Player (2004-05, 2005-06) is averaging career-highs of 19.3 points and 11.8 assists, the most in the NBA since John Stockton (12.3 in 1994-95), in 46 games played this season. The 6-3, 178-pound playmaker is on pace to become the first NBA player to average over 19 points and 11 assists in a single season since Magic Johnson and former Sun Kevin Johnson did it in 1989-90. The Pacific Division leading Suns, who have won 37 of their last 42 games after a 1-5 start, travel to play the Portland Trail Blazers tonight at 8 p.m. Phoenix time at the Rose Garden. The game will be televised locally on My45. ------------------------------------------------ now's a good chance to see how Phoenix (most notably Amare and Marion for me) will fare w/o Steve Nash. They are going against Portland though which isn't really that formidable of an opponent. i've (and i'm sure many others) always thought Amare and Marion were a by-product of Nash's play making abilities. i hope i'm right. although, Barbosa isn't a scrub himself at the point.
At first I thought it was saying Piatkowski was taking his spot in the starting rotation. I immediately thought... OOHHHHHH. TRAIN WRECK. Pity.
Not really a big deal. Phoenix can still do a good job for the next 3-4 games with Nash out, but after that is when we start to see the limitations without Nash. Kind of like when McGrady went out last year, we did well initially then could not stop losing.
Lol. The mental image of Piatowski trying to run the offense and make flashy passes like Nash is hilarious.
Ouch! NBA Coast-2-Coast just had a chart showing wins/losses for the Suns with and without Nash...the header was, "The Real Stevie Franchise".
the cover picture on nba.com is funny. if u quickly look it looks like marion and amare is playing 1 on 1...on the rockets court.
Without Nash, Amare and Marion will still get their numbers but the most significant difference will be without nash to set them up, their FG% will drop! Mark it! Without Nash, against crappy Blazers, the suns will still walk away a "W". If they happend to lose the game, is just prove Nash is on his way to third MVP!!!
Amare without Nash for 2 games in a row, has scored over 30 points.. He's putting up monster numbers the last month. Looks like he is getting back to his best..
They also took the Nuggets to OT in Denver a couple of days ago. If Zach Randolph hadn't got his shot stuffed by Camby 3-4 in the last 2 minutes they may have pulled out that game. Fortunately for the Blazers, wins and losses aren't the only thing right now.
man, i knew Barbosa wasn't a scrub, but dayum! 25 pts, 7 assts, 6 rbs, 4 steals. that's all-star numbers.
