Next time we play the Suns we'll pwn them. Ditto for the playoffs. I'm not sold on their style of play. Last year Detroit came out firing on all cylinders, both offensively while at the same time playing lockdown D. IMO they were playing better than either Phoenix or Dallas this year. And they beat Cleveland by the Grace of God in the 2nd round.
I'd like to see a team keep the ball out of nash's hands as much as possible and rely on his teammates to move the offense without him, if he does get the ball then you let him become a scorer and stay home on the perimeter, do not give up open threes. I also believe that this is a beatable team. Show no fear, Rockets.
well we have to make our shots on the offensive end to keep up with them...defensivly try to defend the 3 as good as possible, and just hope someone doesnt luckily go off...like raja bell did the first time we played them...i think as far as nash goes u dont let him or the suns get into cruise control,
IMHO, I would take a page out of the Rockets past in playing the Suns......when the Rockets upset the Lakers in 1986 they stopped their break by guarding Magic Johnson BEFORE the pass. They denied the outlet pass all series long. As soon as the Rockets shot the ball, whichever guard was closest to Magic got on him......DURING THE SHOT....they forced the Lakers to use someone else to bring the ball up, or at least stopped him from breaking.... And, on defense they played him straight up, not doubling him, the idea was to make him score all the points and make his teamates stand around. It worked, I would do the same to Nash....honestly, other than Nash the key to beating the Suns is Raja Bell, he is NAILS with those 3s.... DD
LOL ... that pretty much explains why the Suns are hot. Not in a millennium will Rafer come close to those numbers.
i agreed with all of you guys on stopping the suns, and just want to add another advise. Slow them down. Suns are a running, guning, shooting team. They need to make shot attempts in high numbers in order to get their shooting groove on. If we can slow down the pace and limit their attempted shots. They would be easy to beat. We limit nash's passing, force nash to make those shots and pretty much limiting the number of touches by other players. If the suns players not getting the touches they will go cold and out of syn.
Generally people BS about Suns defense, but I have to agree with you. Their defense are improving, esp with guys like Bell. I watched their game with SA and they really made TD work for those points and TD were clearly frustrated and finally ran out of gas (so as the entire SA team). About beating the Suns, here is one thing. When Barbosa is on the floor, only put 4 players in the offense. One stands close to Barbosa. Without fastbreaks, Suns isn't really that unbeatable.
Their defense is predicated on a good offense. They'll run run and run some more forcing you to play their game on the offensive end. It's amazing the number of mornic guards I see launching ill advised shots because they let their emotions get the better of them.
I'm in the limit Shawn Marion crowd. If you have to leave one Suns player open on the outside, make it him. Of all their players that shoot a lot of 3's, he is the worst. Sometimes he gets on, but he can be way off, too. He's a great slasher...without the ball. Give him the ball open or semi-open at the 3 point line, he is going to shoot or pass, he won't drive with the rock. Make Steve Nash beat you? This won't work. Why? Two reasons. First, Steve Nash WILL beat you. He's their leading scorer, has a ridiculous FG% from everywhere (almost...see the chart) and will still get 6 or 7 assists even if you are trying to make him do the scoring. Second, and more importantly, the Rockets are the good defensive team they are because of their help defense. Changing their entire style for one game won't work....maybe if you have a week to practice leading up to ap layoff series, but not for one game. Why will it work on Marion? Beacause Shane is guarding Marion. If there is one guy on the Rockets you want to tell to adjust his defense both individually and how he helps, its Shane. Other than that, trying not to get beat by the Barbosa's, Bell's of the world, and rebound.
True. All in all, nobody can stop Nash and Tmac (if they are healthy), I think the battle finally comes down to Yao and Amare. Whoever put the opponent in foul trouble wins. We need to control the tempo, and we need to work around Yao, as great as Tmac is, we are not gonna win the game against the best shooting team with jump shootings. So feed the ball to Yao, force Amare to foul, let Yao and Tmac do the offense and one player take care of Barbosa exclusively, we are gold.
