| 03 December 2009
A couple of decades ago there was a British comedy curiously called "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin" that poked fun at the life of an advertising executive who became an industry leader after having a nervous breakdown. Well after this evening's - admittedly not unexpected - defeat at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers we can only hope that the Suns revival starts soon.
Maybe we are just jaded by our earlier headline loss to the Knicks in Madison Square Garden but going down to the Cavs by a 17-point margin (107 - 90) has left us with a bad taste in our mouths. How else are we supposed to react when our guys are scoring the fewest number of points all year - and doing so while hitting only 32 shots from the field.
Yes - there is good news to report on the Channing Frye front - he hit for 22 points including shooting 45% from 3-point range. But if you take Frye's effort out of the mix - the Suns were able to knock down just 23 for 63 from the field. Try that on your shooting percentage calculator.
Especially when it comes to a Suns team that was hitting better than half their shots before this game began
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Throughout the game in Cleveland, the Suns offense was essentially inverted and - when it all wound down - they hit 43.5% from the longer range 3-point area but went just 22 for 57 from closer in. That's about 39% for those who are statistically challenged.
A prime example of the Suns high flying offense coming to ground can be seen in the performance of Jason Richardson - a mercurial scoring fiend when his baskets are falling - with when being the operative word. And when wasn't happening in Cleveland with J-Rich nailing a mere 2 of 6 from 3-point range and none of his 2-point attempts. So that's 6 points in 31 minutes on the court.
Talk about throwing-up your bricks.
The team's bad aim led the Suns to trail by 57 - 29 at half time. Remember that song lyric "Ain't no mountain higher" ? Does it ring a bell now?
Our starters made-up some of that ground by winning the third quarter by a 29 - 22 margin but the Suns were still left trailing by 79 - 58 when the final twelve minutes started. The Suns roused themselves and pushed the pedal to the floor in the fourth quarter knocking down a respectable 32 points - but the Cavs were ready for the run and Cleveland hit for 28 of their own in the quarter.
We'll dig through some more embers on Thursday and put up more soon.
See ya'.
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