Mediocre was the call before the season started. Probably best team outside the playoffs in the West. It's not so much being embarrassed by 40 pts by a bottom 5 team in Detroit. That can happen (although rarely to even mediocre teams). Do you know which teams Phoenix's wins have been against? - Detroit - Charlotte - Cleveland - twice - Denver - Portland - New Orleans (OT) Denver is the only winning team in that group (8-7), and that was a home game for Phoenix. Phoenix is looking worse than mediocre.
For one, I don't understand how PHO has 13 guys on the boxscore. It's still the case, isn't it, that you can only have 12 players active for a game. For two, I think the Suns must have serious lockerroom problems. They completely melted down in the 3rd quarter, with 4 techs and 0 assists. Gentry tried to replace all 5 guys at once at one point in the 3rd. I could easily see Gentry getting fired and the team doing a firesale. Can we get Dragic back?
I know they bumped the limit up to 13 last year because of the shortened season and all the back-to-back-to-back games. Maybe they didn't lower back down.
Dragic and PHX had a horrible game, but the guy is still averaging: 16 points and 7 Assist...there is nothing to hate about there.
It's obvious they are resting their starters for the playoffs. Kinda like the spurs when they sit Manwho and Duncan. Smart move Phoenix.
The 19-18 pre-shotclock game (that led to the introduction of the shotclock). Not sure waht the post-clock record was. Edit: here's the box from that game: http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/195011220MNL.html
Regarding what's going on with the Suns, there are rumblings coming out of Phoenix that Gortat is disgruntled with Gentry not using him as much as he'd like on the offensive end. There's just no way a guy goes from collecting 26 blocks in the first 6 games to getting 9 in the next 10 games unless he quits trying. Not to say that's the entirety of their problem, but it figures to be a good part of it. Edit: Just look at his game log before 11/10 and after. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3983/gamelog;_ylt=ArYHER13FO295R12VHCp7Os.PaB4
Good pick-up, rebounds went down also. Minutes down, but adjusted for minutes, still a significant drop!
Scola was moved to the bench to appease Gortat. As I've posted before Gortat's game has a bit of Dalembert in him.
Who would've thought that Asik is averaging effectively the same number of points as Gortat, but only half the number of blocks. Not to say Gortat is playing better defense ... just the numbers, ha!
IIRC, Detroit during Larry Brown days had Rip Hamilton with the leading scorer as 11 pts as well, however he had no FGs made that game, all were fts. LOL!
