| 04 November 2009
Looking forward - and what else can we do after the 122 - 100 beatdown the Suns suffered at the hands of the Magic - there's a real bright spot in the quality performance of Amar'e Stoudemire and the team's lesser known guys.
To start with Stat had his best game since leaving the court last season with some serious eye trouble. Sure it is a contract year for the dynamic forward - and we've all expected the $$$$ issue to be inspirational - but Amar'e waited to this away game at Orlando to show his true spark with an explosive performance racking-up 25 points and 14 rebounds.
Yes - dear readers - Amar'e grabbed 14 boards. It was enough to make Aunt Nellie bubbly for hours - she even forgot her Grant Hill crush. Oops - so much for the free food
And the second team - sorry guys - proved that they can show respectable firepower when the going gets tough. It was led by Jared Dudley with 17 points in 23:18 minutes and Goran Dragic who nailed 15 points during 30:26 minutes of play. The Tale of the Tape also includes Earl Clark hitting for 9 points and grabbing three boards with Louis Amundson clocking-in at 8 points and 5 rebounds.
The upshot of those numbers is that - if we put Amar'e aside - the Suns benchwarmers outscored our vaunted starting line-up 49 - 17.
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No - you haven't gone blind. It was that bad.
Grant Hill and Jason Richardson dragged down the numbers by missing all of their nine shots and scoring a combined total of zero points in more than 39 minutes on the court - ugh, talk about your cold hands. Steve Nash hit for only 12 points and Channing Frye dragged along by racking-up a full five points from the field. Apparently yesterday's vitamin pills - you know the ones they popped before taking on Miami - had worn-off by game time in Orlando.
As you may remember - we've given mixed reviews of the Suns second unit. That's included a "Tale of Two Gorans" that sniped at Dragic and questioned what he was doing in a Phoenix uniform.Well our mea culpa goes out to the Big B-Baller from Slovenia because tonight he turned the corner. And it wasn't against some European backwater in the summer league. It was in a showdown against the big name Orlando Magic.
Dragic showed poise and a degree of self-confidence that has been the missing ingredient since he took the NBA courts as a rookie last year. Let's spell it out - Goran hit 50% from the field against one of the best teams in the league. That's 50% shooting overall and 50% from 3-point range while playing more than 30 minutes in a high pressure game.
And he didn't just chuck it in from the field. Goran Dragic also fed the ball to his teammates for 6 assists as the Suns desperately tried to generate some offense.
On that happy note we're going to call it a night. See ya'.
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