| 22 November 2009
We know that many people out there in blog reading land thought it was crazy when some of us Suns fans genuinely believed our guys could win more than 60 games this season. They said Shaq was gone, Steve Nash and Grant Hill are getting old, and Amar'e just can't cut it. Bring on the Kleenex because the Suns are all washed-up.
Supposedly loyal fans stopped buying their season tickets - it was time for us to enter a rebuilding death spiral and hope for the best. Such a typical outlook - and so hopelessly wrong.
We admit it - we were CRAZY - because we cast our lot with those who believed the Suns could get 60+ wins this season. Yep - we had an Obama moment with our Suns - and walked around saying "Yes, we can".
Had our medication run out?!? Was there a sudden impact to the forehead?!? Or just a minor chemical imbalance due to a lack of alcohol?!? Aunt Nellie didn't know - and she didn't believe.
Suffice it to say - the big Vegas casinos where the high rollers hang-out - had a hard time suppressing the giggles when we plunked down our money on that diehard bet and took the Suns to win the NBA crown or at least the Western Conference title. We were out-of-town rubes - the kind that have kept the lights on in Vegas for decades.
And now - almost a month into the season - our Suns are in a tie with Dallas for the best record in the Western Conference. And we are facing the struggling Detroit Pistons on our home court. Gotta' love it.
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Despite being stacked with some quality veterans - the Pistons aren't close to perfection. Their offense has stalled with a points per game average of just 93.66. That's almost 18 points less in offensive production than the Suns - per game. And the Suns league leading 46.2% from behind the 3-point line - compared to Detroit's meager 33.3% from long distance - is the reason behind the numbers of that scoring disparity.
But when it comes to overall shooting percentage from the field Detroit is nearly competitive with our guys (Suns 49% vs. Detroit 45.7%) and that closeness could make this evening's game much tougher than Phoenix fandom expects. That's especially true if our 3-point efforts become a virtual exercise in futility as they did against New Orleans on Thursday - with Channing Frye hitting just 1-7 from long distance and Jason Richardson going 2-6 from behind the line.
Looking at Detroit we expect Grant Hill to take command in this contest against a former team and nail some impressive numbers as further proof that being 37-years old doesn't mean you're at the end of the line. As you will remember, Hill was particularly explosive in the initial games of the year but he has since cooled his jets scoring just 10 points against New Orleans in 34 minutes.
Some of that scoring decline has been the result of Hill just not getting the ball. The best example of Grant's hot hand not being rewarded is the Houston game on Nov. 17 when Hill had the hottest shooting percentage on the court for the Suns at better than 83% but only took six shots all game. So the man with a blazing hot hand ended up with just 11 points because we were pushing hard for those 3-pointers.
Our heavy reliance on nailing buckets from way outside has taken some of the balance out of the Suns offense. Tonight may be the ideal time to put it back into the mix.
See ya'.
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