Warriors are the new Suns
I used to envy Phoenix for their excellent blogger corps and its most
exciting NBA basketball team. Tonight's Warriors vs. Suns game was an
offensive blast - the Bay Area now boasts a faster, younger, better
passing, more combustible heir to the Suns - so now I can finally say our local team is the most exciting game in America.
I love the way the uber-quick Warriors can make the last two MBA MVPs
, look like defensive liabilities. During the 4th quarter, the whole offense was posting up Nash.
Blogging at night becomes more difficult during basketball season. And Phoenix is still the RE.net hub.
I love the way the uber-quick Warriors can make the last two MBA MVPs
, look like defensive liabilities. During the 4th quarter, the whole offense was posting up Nash.Blogging at night becomes more difficult during basketball season. And Phoenix is still the RE.net hub.
It was one game. Neither side seemed to play much defense, particularly in the first half.
The Suns didn't shoot as well as they had in previous games and they lost. Not because of great defense...they had open shots, that simply didn't go down. The Warriors made more of their open shots, and so they won.
Posting up Nash, particularly by Baron Davis is a very good strategy. Not many rosters can pull it off, but the Warrios can. One thing Nelson is very good at, is exposing any weakness in a team. You have to give him credit for game planning the Suns so well.
To counter, the Suns need better weak side defense and defensive rebounding.
As to the RE.net epicenter, yeah, we have it good here in Phoenix.
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Hey Steve,
You can't rebound a made 3! Weak side rebounding is the last of the Sun's worries.
The fact is that the Suns are less talented than in past years. The depth issue will be your biggest problem.
Posting up Nash is no strategy it's a given. Nash plays defense like a lamp post that's no mystery.
The problem both the W's and the Suns face is trying to figure out how to reverse the NBA referees' biased during the playoffs aka slow-down basketball.
Neither team is equipped to deal with the Spurs or a team with a Sky Scraper half court based offense.
It will be the same as usual for the Suns 2nd round and out.
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I leave it to my bball analyst Dean to lock down the details. The Warriors are like the first date we've had in a long time...
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GO GOLDEN STATE
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I didn't say weak side rebounding, but weak side defense and defensive rebounding. The weak side defense needs to be there to help the posted up player (aka the lamp post), after he gets beat. And the rebounding needs to be there, to make sure the glass gets cleaned up, when the weak side player forces a tough shot.
It's no secret that the Suns have been a dismal rebounding team the last several years. A lot of that falls on the unorthodox style of play from Marion at power forward. He doesn't know the meaning of "box out".
As to talent levels, I think this Suns team is more talented than the 2 previous years - at least for however long we have a healthy Grant Hill. Once he goes down (and sadly, there's no reason to believe he'll be healthy for the entire season), the absense of Kurt Thomas will be felt. The defense that Hill is playing at small forward is a huge bonus that I certainly didn't expect. And even if Hill does stay healthy, the absence of Thomas to help defend against Duncan will make getting beyond the conference finals extremely difficult.
What's for sure, is that the Warriors and Suns are playing a fun and exciting brand of basketball. One that the rest of the NBA owners are slowly taking notice of, and hopefully will be the model for the next generation of NBA teams.
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Steve,
Defensive rebounding can't happen when the shots are falling for your opponent as they were for the W's the other night.
As for weakside help defense, the entire NBA has this problem. The majority of players, who should know better, do not have "Man-Ball" vision. To compound the problem many defenders deny the passing lane effectively BUT they they fail to open up when their man makes a cut to the hole.
I see more defenders turn to look at the cutter losing visual contact with the passer. The result is usually a "posterizing" moment as a background clown to somebody elses dunk!
Great point on Marion. He is a small powerforward to begin with and he plays even smaller.
For historical perspective in understanding just how great the Showtime Lakers and Boston Celtics actually were check out their lineups.
Showtime had Kareem at 7'0 running the break and Boston had the Chief at 7'1 running the break. Included were 6'11 Bird and 7'0 McHale getting up and down like guards. Add Worthy at 6'10 and you see my point.
Today's W's and Suns play 80's fastbreak basketball with one major missing component--great centers and powerforwards that can and WILL run the entire floor.
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Felicidades por vuestro blog. He visto en un blog en español que estáis entre los primeros blog inmobiliario de habla inglesa.
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