Beating Phoenix Style Defense (Let's come up with some ideas)

I don't know what it is...but Barbosa is only effective against certain teams. If you have good defenders at SG you have nothing to worry about.

We are the only team that has extreme difficulty beating the Suns or staying in the game. Most of the other playoffs teams are better at exploiting their weaknesses. I think the 22 pt and 31 point blows out, along with their win of Mavs, last Wednesday speaks volumes about the Suns.

Some nights they will be so hot, but other they will not and will give up a bunch points.

This is why the Suns will struggle in the playoffs against teams with great balance (O/D), depth, and capable scorers.

The Spurs - Balance (great defense/good o) and capable scorers (Duncan, Ginobili, Parker) with depth

The Pistons - Balance (great defense/good o) an capable scorers (Hamilton, Billiups, Prince, Wallace, Webber, McDyess, Murray, and Delfino)

The Lakers - Even though their inconsistent, they seem to do well against the Suns because nobody on their team can slow Kobe down he can pass/ shoot jumpers, control the pace of the game or drive to the basket. Whatever he feels like doing, and this gets the rest of team involve. They also tend use their big alot against the Lakers, Odom has tremendous success against Marion and Diaw, because they are not big enough to guard him and on defense he is quick enough to get out to the perimeter. Put this with fact the Kwame, Bynum, Turiaf, and Mihm are all taller and bigger than Amare will definitely give him match up problems he cannot run over two or three guys who much bigger than him.

You see times in the game where Phil will use Kwame/Bynum or Turiaf/Kwame on the floor at same time.

The Nuggets - They've got two of the best scorers in league Melo and A-I with good shooters like Kleiza and Blake, they can score points, too. They're big men are probably among the best set of rebounders in the league - Nene and Camby and they play defense. They don't give up easy points going to basket, but Denver is prone to bad perimeter defense. But they can match the Suns point for point and don't mind going into a shoot-out.

The Mavs - are great offensive team with defensive discipline

 

Even the grandma of my buddy next door knows what the Suns are going to do when they play us again in the future. They will double Yao with or without the ball, and may be even when he goes to bathroom in the halftime break. It's up to our coaching staffs to figure out how to counter it and get the ball to Yao. It will be interesting to watch.

 

You must have been reading my mind. I've said it a million times. Let nash go off and have everyone else standing idle. Make nash the primary scorer, also attack the basket. Also letting Tracy make entry passes to yao would get rid of yao double teams. Another thing would be run pick and roll with the whomever nash guards to force a switch. Rafer pick and roll with mcgrady and or Battier that would put nash on the bigger player.

 

Nash loves to drive and dish.

The key to beating the Suns is to either prevent Nash from driving (forcing him to pass to the perimeter) - or by preventing him from passing once he drives. It's amazing how many times he gets into the paint, pulls up, and then passes out for an open trey.

But when Nash is on the court, the Suns play with gusto and move the ball well. This is the key - you can't double the Suns - they are adroit at exploiting defenses. It has to be grueling man on man defense. If a guy gets beat - so be it. You can't help too much, or collapse - the suns know to pass to those lurking 3-point shooters - like vultures waiting for the kill.

When the Rockets are on D. We have to move the ball fluidly. The SUn will leave Alston for the open trey. If he's not hitting it - then we need to move to JL3 and Synder and drive the ball inside and set up Howard and Shane for open jump shots. They will double t-mac and yao and prevent them from beating them one-on-one....so really it's up to other Rockets to do something to punish the Sund for doubling. Simple as penetrating and dishing.

The Suns will double T-mac and Yao so long as the other Rockets do not force the Suns D to rotate.

 

lol
that must be really awkward

Yao: Umm Steve...Amare...its kinda hard to do number two w/ two guys hovering over you...

 

IMHO, having Barbosa go off for 30+ is what really did us in. I think Snider on Barbosa is a much better match-up, as well as John John on Nash (he was very effective). Starting Juwan in lieu of Hayes could also force the Suns to re-think their swarm Yao defense, because Howard can light them up with those 14 footers.

 

Hah, I know what to do to win. All the previous posts are good. Ya play Novak some, play Yao at the high post and run cutters in down low. All good points. But here's the easiest and best way to beat those guys. Take a page out of the Detroit Pistons playbook when they were the Bad Boys of the NBA.

HURT THEM

Put Jake Tsladakis in and have him play like Bill Lamibeer. Anyone drives the lane, make them pay dearly for coming in. When they come into the lane, and get their bell rung it'll throw off their offensive rhythm. The rest of the team still has to play solid lock down defense to slow them down. Big Jake can be the enforcer. Once you knock em around a bit, they'll think twice about coming into the lane again. Rockets Win!

LOL

 

Take out Nash and we beat them by 20+.

 

play a halfcourt matchup zone
worked for the bulls in 91 against LA
ps. i know the zone was illegal back then but everyone knows it was a matchup zone.

 

Right now we have some serious issues when playing against the Suns. We need our Pf to guard Marion. When we throw McGrady or Battier at him we leave guys like barbosa bell jones or whoever just wide open for that three point shot. The guys on the wings just torture us. We need each player to be able to play their man. Nash will kill us whether we like it or not. It's just letting him kill us instead of the whole Pheonix Suns team. Yao needs to hold his own against Amare. Mcgrady needs to be watching the perimeter. Battier needs to watch the perimeter. Juwan or Hayes needs to stop Marion. Raefer just needs to help double whoever has the ball if nash doesn't have it. We then need to make nash work on the defensive end. Raefer or whoever is playing point has to be able to score. No ifs or buts.... If we can't wear nash down on both ends of the floor we're just finished.

 

why do ppl think nash will kill us? he hasn't all yr.

he was contained pretty easily last game.

just hold off barbosa esp. that's the guy that killed us. his speed kills us.

 

Diamond and One or Triangle and Two at least for a few sets to confuse them?

 

never double team nash.

when nash has the ball the other defenders should not even look at the ball, just focus on their man and deny. Nash kills you when you leave your man (or sag off of him) to help. then nash makes a great pass to the open guy and boom, game over. By not doubling, or even helping, on nash you prevent the other players from getting those easy shots. Nash becomes a scorer and i'd rather face him as a scorer rather than a distributor.

OR

just put vspan in the game and have him tackled nash and drive his shoulder into ground...then jump on it for good measure.

 

I don't think this is it at all. I don't think anyone can check Barbosa. Sure, some guys like Hinrich, Artest, Bowen, Wade and Kobe can make him work, but they couldn't control him in isolation. LB has a combination of quickness and length where no defender can match. It is more about whether his game is on and whether he is playing smart (he is still a very young player). When on he is on unguardable the way other superquicks like Arenas and Parker are unguardable (but at least Tony doesn't have LB's 3 point range).

I am not sure what you are saying. 1) they have blown us out and their two games at Dallas have been down to the wire (won by 2, lost by 2)--which shows they are very very good and very very formidable, or 2) we are the only team that has extreme difficulty them.

Seems to me the best team in the league (Dallas) has completely had their hands full with them and the #4 team in the league (US by differential) has been beaten badly. Also, the #3 team (#1 by differential) the Spurs havn't faired that well, Phx below them out at home and the Spurs needed OT to beat them at their place. Seems to me Utah has had success (3-0) versus the Suns, but the way the Suns play us, Dallas and SA makes you think maybe they didn't see Utah as a real contender and go all out for. The NBA regular season is still a lot about motivation, witness the Suns going into Dallas and winning than following with being blow out at home versus Det followed by being blown out by Denver.

So I think every team should be concerned with the Suns, if you asked Dallas and they were honest, who needed 6 games last year to beat them w/o Amare or KT available to provide some size, I suspect they would say the Suns are their biggest concern.

Now it doesn't mean Dallas or SA couldn't beat the Suns, but nor does it suggest the Suns are sitting ducks for them. But I think if the Suns came to play they would wipe the floor with Utah. In fact over a 7 game series we are much more threatening to them IMO than Utah.

 

1. Walk the ball up and use 20 seconds of the 24 second shot clock. This forces the Suns to use energy on defense. You let them off the hook shooting quickly (Tmac, Luther, and Rafer). The Fakers kill them with this strategy, if Kobe had help the Lakers would give them fits

2. Start Juwan at PF for the short jumpers they will give up for doubling Yao with Marion.

3. No standing around on offense, constant moving

4. Chase them off the 3 point line and make them put the ball on the floor shoot midrage or try drving to the bucket.

5. Get a tape of the Detroit defense, which shut down the pick and roll and lobs to Stoudemire.

 

We pray that San Antonio beats them OR we pray that T-mac steps up.

 

Beat the Sun:

1. D their ball handler very hard and from the moment he got the ball or even befor he got the ball.
This will slow them down a bit.

2. adjust our D system, not all five run back to wait them come to O but always leave at least one man stay with their point guards
This will slow them down a bit.

3. let yao stay one side and mainly attack other side cuz they always pay more attention on Yao.

4. when we O keeep our own normal pace, when we D run a little bit faster than normal.

5. use vspan or even lucas to chase and front Nash all the time.