PHOENIX — Eight minutes into the game, Steve Nash had already dished eight assists and the Suns were steamrolling the Heat 21-10 the way they always used to jump on teams at the Purple...

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I said before the game that if we were to get blown out by the Heat again I would be surprised (because I figured the Suns would come out pumped up to play with their new guys). but I also said that if we were to get blown out by the Heat again I wouldn't be surprised (because it's the Miami Heat).  So I think you can understand when I saw that It's hard to curb the emotions after a game like this -- but somehow I've managed to make 'it' go numb without the help of pharmaceutical assistance. Maybe it's because I've immediately changed the channel from TNT and popped in Talladega Nights.

Well we got blown out by the Miami Heat again - even with Dywane Wade "injured" (A.K.A. resting for the Lakers game on Christmas) we lost in embarrassing fashion. 

But guess what?  My name is Eutychus and I'm okay with it.

Have some of what I'm having after the jump.  SUCKAZ.

Maybe what I'm having is a little bit of apathy and patience.  But to embrace that we've got to vent a little frustration I suppose.

First off - we had a blockbuster trade last weekend that sent Hedo Turkaglu and our leading scorer in Jason Richardson to the Magic for Vince Carter, Marcin-Man-Hammer-Gortat, and Mickael Pietrus and we've had to wait nearly a week to see our new players in action, so naturally the build-up was big.   Then, we get news Vince Carter has problems with his knee and won't debut tonight - so we ask, "Who's going to be our scorer?".  Add to that the fact that we're on a stretch where we're playing what seems like 10 of the top 10 teams in the NBA... and yeah there's been a lot of emotional tension in this Suns fan right here.

The Heat came into Phoenix here ready to roll over a sub-.500 team just like all the other scrub teams they've pummeled up to this point.  They sit Wade - they take questions from the media about Saturday's game - they look uninterested on the court, and they still win.  What does this mean? 

It means the Heat are pretty good right now.  It also means the Suns are pretty bad right now.

I'm going to give away some of my much coveted Euty-Awards tonight, so lets go - I won't waste anymore time:

First things first - the MVP of the game goes to....

Jared Dudley = Euty-MVP

Congrats to Jared Dudley for stepping up and being our leading scorer for the second time in two games.  Also for the second time in two game Jared Dudley has exploded and set career highs for himself.  Tonight it was both in points (33) and rebounds (12) and he also had 3 steals.   The guy has been absolutely in the zone for the last few weeks.  He also made many hustle/brains plays that allowed the Suns to take an early lead in the 1st quarter and also tease us fans with hope in the quarters to follow. I love you Dudley.  No Homo.

2nd Unit = Euty-FUGLY AWARD

CONGRATS DUDES!  YOU LOOKED ABSOLUTELY FUGLY AS ALL GET OUT TONIGHT!

Usually I throw Scott Howard under the bus, but here I'd like to acknowledge a good tweet from him,

That's the truth.  They were out of sync and looked frustrated, they looked like maybe they had only 2 practices to incorporate some new guys.   When Goran Dragic was on the floor in the first half the Heat pushed full court pressure and trapped the young lad at the 3 point line on every possession.  He got frustrated - he made turnovers - he played awful.  This needs to improve and I have confidence it will. He has shown he can come back from bad performances in the past.

The rest of the bench was just as awful with the exception of Gortat who showed signs of good things as he set STRONG screens and moved to guard the PnR very easily, he also showed nice hands and touch around the rim (even if he was being blocked?... ) Pietrus couldn't hit a shot,  Channing Frye was sporatic on both ends of the floor, Josh Childress couldn't get his mojo flowing, and Warrick... well congrats you earned the -

Hakim Warrick = Euty-Defensive-Liability Award

Congrats man!  You made your poor defense look even poorer tonight! 

He did have a sweet monster jam in the 3rd quarter... but the entire 1st half he was blowing defensive assignment left and right and it was costing the team easy buckets on the inside and out (with Bosh hitting his mid-range jumper, as usual, imagine that)

Steve Nash = Euty-Assist Award

Great work steve you had 1 million assists and 4 points!

Can't blame the whole 'not scoring' part entirely on him.  As Steve Kerr said during the broadcast, the Heat have some of the best PnR defense (especially when Erick Dampier isn't in the game) in the league and that definitely prevented Nash from getting good looks at the rim. 

But the whole 'no offense' problem also stems from the fact that Suns players set up by Nash or whoever had good open looks and just bricked away until they had a gingerbread house.  Grant Hill you played great defense but I'm looking at you and your streakiness. Frye, don't you look away from me son!  You hear!?

Carlos Arroyo & Mario Chalmers = Euty- Random Obscure Players who Light Up the Suns.  EVERYTIME Award

Yo dudes good work!  You two managed to be the random sleepers on the opposing team that always seem to hit the big shots that aren't supposed to hit!   Maybe it's because we leave you wide open.  Or maybe it's because we double guys that we don't need to double team in the paint.  I don't know but congrats anyhow - you shouldn't feel proud because you're not special.

LeBron James = Euty-Dunks Award

Nice dunks man.  Business as usual?  I thought so.

Referees = Euty-You Are the Best Award

Merry Christmas dudes - you watched the game.  If you didn't and you're reading this - don't watch the game.  Enjoy your Christmas and family activities this weekend.

Well Bro-hammad Ali's - I'm all awarded-out and sick of thinking about this game.   What do I take away from this game?  Nothing really except that it's going to take some time to incorporate our new guys into the system just like we thought it would.  It doesn't help that we play the best teams in the league to start working things out... but hey - at least after this stretch everyone else will seem easier right?  Right? 

Just check out our boys with the Magic - they sucked hard in their first two games with the Magic this week and then tonight they went on to embarrass the team with the best record in the league.   Have patience and try not to get too worked up either way with our losses and our wins over the next few weeks - building and cultivating MOJO takes time.

Peace out - and to all a very merry Christmas!

 

Oh yeah - check out that other blog in case you want to rub salt in your open wound you sicko.

Peninsula is Mightier

 

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Oh yeah again - just for fun I'm going to give out another Euty-Award -

Omaha Sun = Euty-Comment-Whore of the Game Thread Award

Congrats Omaha Sun!  YOU ARE THE MAN with a whopping 143 comments totaled in the thread.  NashMV3 was a close 2nd place with 137 and Bkj earns a bronze with 120!  You guys rocked it tonight - keep up your diligent fan-hood. You make us all proud.

For everyone else's competitive humor - here's a final roll call and a tally for how you performed tonight on the threads.  Who will earn the Euty Award next time?

Roll Call: Eutychus, Aztiramtempe, Beavis 25, Suns13fan, jc79, Seth Pollack, Bkj, Will Slaven, hcblankscreen, sqloudane, Jaxis, shawndy, Michael A. Xidis, KnowGood, Smoooth Criminal, sonicking, sunsfanfromchicago, Omaha Sun, NashMV3, blank_38, suns68, Dantre, the_real_MikeT, BattleMoses, haremoor, WaveOcean, lux200, SUNS PORTUGAL, Dragic_is_Magic, Joe Kleine, quixilver, waxmonkey, u_must_chill, The Suns, Migonads, ArizonaCactus, MMotherwell, abohmer11, NashtySUNS, Reelsht, the new Bradfather, troglodytes, cryogenic_tone, 8472species, Alex Laugan, iceythril, tuck321, 7footer, Spit_Fire, BringBackBarkley17, André Pierrot, Stanley B, SunKing, The Solution, perep, Guitarzan, ryansunsfan, N8lol, SteveNash, QuantumPhysicist, blanke, East Bay Ray

Total Users: 61
Total Posts: 1652
Total Threads: 2

Name	# of Posts
Omaha Sun	143
NashMV3	137
Bkj	120
Dragic_is_Magic	99
waxmonkey	76
Beavis 25	67
Aztiramtempe	59
Smoooth Criminal	53
haremoor	52
jc79	51
Eutychus	50
Alex Laugan	49
WaveOcean	47
BringBackBarkley17	46
hcblankscreen	40
Stanley B	36
ArizonaCactus	35
Joe Kleine	33
sonicking	30
the new Bradfather	28
Reelsht	27
André Pierrot	26
Jaxis	25
blank_38	25
iceythril	23
Dantre	23
ryansunsfan	21
suns68	18
Spit_Fire	17
sqloudane	17
8472species	14
Michael A. Xidis	12
SUNS PORTUGAL	12
N8lol	11
quixilver	11
shawndy	10
perep	10
u_must_chill	10
the_real_MikeT	9
MMotherwell	7
lux200	7
The Solution	7
Guitarzan	7
Migonads	6
Suns13fan	5
Will Slaven	4
SteveNash, QuantumPhysicist	4
7footer	4
cryogenic_tone	4
NashtySUNS	4
tuck321	4
BattleMoses	3
blanke	3
The Suns	2
troglodytes	2
sunsfanfromchicago	2
East Bay Ray	1
KnowGood	1
SunKing	1
Seth Pollack	1
abohmer11	1

 

[Note by Seth Pollack, 12/24/10 12:16 AM MST ]

After some games there's lots of insightful quotes and thoughts and discussion. This wasn't one of those games. The most important thing was this:

 

Miami Heat Snuff Out Non-Offensive Phoenix Suns, 95-83 - SB Nation Arizona
"They were trapping me the whole game. Double-teaming pick and rolls and every time I went to the basket they over rotate to me so my teammates were open, we shot 40 percent. Most nights I think we shot 50 (percent) on the looks we got and we win. Tonight we just didn't shoot the ball that well," Nash said after the game, adding that he felt fine physically.

 

I tend to agree. Defensively, there were some break downs of course and Warrick is getting painful to watch at times but overall, there were a lot of missed shots against a very smart game plan from the Heat. They wanted the ball out of Nash's hands and they wanted to pack the paint. They did and without Hedo and Jason's shooting to help spread the floor it worked like a charm.

The second unit obviously needs to get better too.

Game Notes

1^st Qtr

• Big crowd, very pumped.
• Jordin Sparks sang the National Anthem. Killed it. I went to high school w/ her dad. Panther Pride! Westside homie
• Mohamed Ali in the house along w/ Darnell Docket and Larry Fitzgerald. I guess Gortat brings ‘em in
• Well, Bosh just went right around Frye and drew the foul. Defense!???
• Dudley w/ the rebound, hands it off to Robin who gets stripped trying to go up. He gets stripped more than a stripper at a strip club
• Steve Nash gets to guard Carlos Arroyo. That must make him happy
• Suns have to take advantage of Big Z...he can't defend anyone
• Grant Hill does a lot of work on D before LeBron even catches the ball
• Gortat draws a foul on Bosh on his first touch
• Nice start for Suns. 21-10, 4:01
• Channing is a pretty good passer from the perimeter
• Pietrus in for Hill. Hello MP
• You have to laugh at some of Nash's reactions to calls that don't go his way
• Gortat boxing out Joel Anthony and drawing the foul....hmmmm nice
• No way was LeBron giving up that ball to Miller on the fast break...nor should he
• Channing telling Gortat and Pietrus where there should be on the floor...lol
• Gortat setting man screens
• Not surprisingly, the second unit w/ Gorat and Pietrus looks like a mess on offense
• LeBron with the up and step through in the paint. 22-19
• Frye played the entire quarter. Wonder if Warrick is gonna play at all?

2^nd Qtr

• Garret Siler can sing...which is good b/c he's not all that good at basketball
• Warrick in the game to start the quarter
• Pietrus feeds Gortat for a nice little jumper in the lane
• And Bosh rebounds over Hakim...
• Suns need to do some work here w/ LeBron on the bench but can't stop Mario Chalmers
• If you want to know why I bad on Hakim's defense, watch that play. He didn't show on the screen and he didn't stay with Bosh. He basically guarded no one and so Chris shot a wide open shot. 9:20, 24-27. 17-3 run for Heat
• Suns have all this depth but the bench continues to struggle...hopefully will find itself
• Wow, Suns not getting much hometown love from the refs
• Pietrus with nice move to drive and finish on Bosh
• Josh Childress drive and finish on Mike Miller
• Suns basically given up running plays and just playing iso ball...it's working for now
• Horrible, lazy closeout by Bosh on that Dudley three
• Nash back in, 28-32 Heat
• Warrick missing those mid-range shots. He can't stay on the floor w/ Robin if he can't make that shot
• LeBron steal and wide open dunk...that's what the people pay to see
• Heat moving the ball and hitting their open shots...that's not good
• Good defensive team (Heat) plus out of whack Suns offense = 40-34 Heat lead
• Dudley hitting his shots and playing within himself
• Nash can get anywhere he wants on the floor
• Robin beats Dampier for a 50/50 rebound
• That was SICK, LeBron
• 45-39 at the half

3^rd Qtr

• Fairly good defensive numbers in the 1^st half but 39 points ain't enough
• Some shots going in and out for Phx
• Oh fun, the LeBron stand and hold the ball and jack up a fade away approach
• Gortat in a little sooner. Gentry probably wants Robin in with Dragic
• Shit, well if Bosh is going to hit those shots
• 4^th foul on Frye...ugh. Warrick in...double ugh
• Nice high-low from Warrick to Gortat but James Jones came over for the block
• 4^th foul on LeBron...that sort of negates Frye's foul trouble. 65-53, Heat. 5:32
• Grant Hill can't find his shot tonight (3-10) and Nash only has one FGA. ONE
• First Gortat pick and roll with Nash. Suns play MC Hammer "Stop, Hammer time". I would have hoped for something more original like a polka
• Warrick does a little bit of nothing on defense but at least he does it poorly
• Dragic in, 59-69 Heat. 2:45
• Gortat only has one foul...he needs to start hammering people
• Pietrus plays with an edge to his game...too bad he can't hit any open threes
• 72-59 Heat. Heat 7-6 since LeBron went out

4^th Qtr

• Jared is the Suns offense tonight. 23 points
• Suns in the zone
• Well, the Suns have now made LeBron mad w/ Gentry chirping at him from the side line
• Dudley 9 rebounds, 26 points. Vince who?
• Nash back in at 7:00 mark. 81-72, Heat.
• Dragic with just 1 point and 1 assist in 16 minutes. That won't do.
• Chalmers and Arroyo with 20 so far
• 74-85, 77-89, Heat
• JChill in for Marcin to go small and fast and hope for some steals or something
• Gortat, 4 pts and 4 reb in 17 min
• Nash's 2^nd FGA is the hook shot in the lane...
• Saw a dude with a Stoudemire #1 jersey with duck tape over the "Stoudemire" and "Childress" written on the tape

Roll Call: Eutychus, Aztiramtempe, Beavis 25, Suns13fan, jc79, Seth Pollack, Bkj, Will Slaven, hcblankscreen, sqloudane, Jaxis, shawndy, Michael A. Xidis, KnowGood, Smoooth Criminal, sonicking, sunsfanfromchicago, Omaha Sun, NashMV3, blank_38, suns68, Dantre, the_real_MikeT, BattleMoses, WaveOcean, lux200, SUNS PORTUGAL, Dragic_is_Magic, Joe Kleine, quixilver, waxmonkey, haremoor, u_must_chill, The Suns, Migonads, ArizonaCactus, MMotherwell, abohmer11, NashtySUNS, Reelsht, the new Bradfather
Total Users: 41
Total Posts: 781
Total Threads: 1

PHOENIX — Miami Head guard Dwyane Wade will sit out tonight’s game against the Suns with a sore left knee. Former Sun James “Junior” Jones will start in his place, which...

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Here we are - the much anticipated debut of a couple of our new players, Marcin Gortat and Mickael Pietrus, we'll have to wait for the Vince Carter show to start until Aaron Nelson gives him the green light.

Can now Co-Captains (the Tri-Force has been broken) Steve Nash and Grant Hill commandeer this team with new faces to a higher level?    We're about to find out, and we shall all be witnesses.  

I'm throwing this bad-boy up here a little early so we can chat about the Orlando Magic / San Antonio Spurs game and watch Hedo and Richardson play and Earl Clark sit on the pine.

Lets Keep this thread a little more PG-13-ish and not so much X-rated like the Game Preview comments.  :)

NOW RELEASE THE HAMMER!

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Heat vs Suns coverage

Heat vs Suns preview

Peninsula is Mightier

[Note by Seth Pollack, 12/23/10 8:16 PM MST ]

• Wade's a scratch due to the knee and so James Jones will start for Miami at the two. Jared Dudley could be heard screaming in delight from across the arena. 
• Gentry once again said that  it was very important that his team not turn the ball over. They are going to try and keep LeBron out of the lane and off the line...good luck.
• Gentry also said that we shouldn't make too much of the results of this game.  "If the Suns win, don't ask where the Larry O'Brien trophy is and if not, the season isn't over."
• Basically, Gentry repeated the same talking points he's been saying for the last few days so you know, nothing new
• Pietrus has taken Amare's old locker. I mentioned that to him and he smiled and said that he hopes he has Amare's career also. Gortat's locker is next to Frye's and Carter is in the corner