I'm in a bit of a rant mood right now, but it's been a while since I've been as disgusted with a team as the Suns. Why? When the game is on the line, you can absolutely count that they will do something wrong. Sometimes it's a coincidence, like maybe a bad ref call or something, but after a while, this is just a very obvious trend. One question I have... why does Amare never get the ball in crunch time to ISO? He is a great free throw shooter and their most lethal scorer. Why doesn't Phoenix simplify things by just giving him the ball and letting him isolate his defender? I am sick of Boris Diaw having the ball for every single crunchtime shot!! I realize it's a mis-match, but I still wouldn't give the ball to Luis Scola if he had a smaller person on him. The thing that sticks out the most is when Bowen knocked the ball out of Nash's hands at the end of the game (ref got the call wrong, it never touched Bowen's knee), I wasn't surprised... at all. I EXPECTED the Suns to screw it up somehow. Low and behold, even though it probably wasn't their fault, they were on the receiving end of a screwup. Why make that semi-risky pass to Nash in the first place? Why not pass it to a wide open player at the top and then let him hand it off to Nash? I'm not saying it's Phoenix's fault that they suck in the clutch, but whether they are the "victims" of the universe's plot against them or not, it is pathetic.
As I see it, these are some of the reasons they've struggled so badly in the clutch: -D'Antoni is a strong freewheeling coach that isn't as strong prepping his guys for halfcourt situations. -Shaq is inherently unusable in the clutch because of his inability to deliver on the free throw line. -Amare is pretty low in terms of bball IQ, and is not good at finding the open man if a defense collapses around him (assist to turnover ratio well below 1). He's also much more of a scorer when a lane is opened for him, not as much of a guy that creates for himself (or others). -Diaw wasn't a terrible choice to get the ball to late, he's not a terrifying scorer but he is normally very good at finding the right guy to deliver the ball to (4 apg guy) - usually a cutter. It seemed as if there was a miscommunication with Amare when he threw the ball into the stands. Of course, they were also playing a very good defensive team in the Spurs. They really don't let you get away with any mistakes late in games. Be interesting to see what Phoenix does this offseason.
The Suns are stupid. If they ran pick and roll EVERY play, they'd have more success. Nash to Amare is damn near unstoppable.....but for some reason they feel like they have to dump it down to shaq. milk the pick and roll. make someone stop it.
95% of this board thinks the Rockets are "victims" of the refs' plot against us. and if and when we lose, we must be pathetic too right? i mean, we haven't been worldbeaters in the playoffs for over a decade.
Again, the Spurs surrounded Amare everytime Nash would go to the basket. This resulted in key turnovers down the stretch in game 5, as the passing lane from Nash to Amare was cut off.
AMARE HAS NO ONE ON ONE GAME! He's gonna pick up the offensive foul then the technical. He is why he's always in foul trouble cuz he tires to run over people. He cant dribble. He can shoot cuz he got hurt. He's a great finisher, but he has no back to the basket game. he's a product of steve nash so there is no "give it to Amare and let him go to work"
i wasnt talkin about the spurs. i know the spurs shut that down. thats why they're a championship team, but there's not excuse for not doing that against us. we cant stop it.
I agree, Amare is overrated by so many people who just look at his stats, but not the way he plays. He gets so many points off that Nash PnR and a lot of his points are either off jumpers or when hes moving toward the basket. Unless he works on his back to the basket game, hes going to be exposed once Nash leaves.
