| 20 April 2010
I suppose that is the question that will get answered tonight. For those history majors out there, a little research suggests the Suns are mice when it comes to the playoffs. I won't rehash all the drubbings we've gotten over the last decade (particularly from the Spurs) but it is almost as if the Suns never learned the "race pace" of the NBA playoffs. They never learned that the game elevates in the post season six-million dollar man style. You have to be better than you were before. Better, Stronger, faster.
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Whenever you see interviews from the big players throughout the league, the Kobe's, the Pierce's, the Wade's, etc. they all speak of this magical "playoff basketball" as though it is basketball 2.0 or something. An panacea for the fans who want to see basketball at its most gritty. Players no longer playing for millions of dollars, okay they're still playing for tens of thousands of dollars. More than I'll make in a year, but the money is nothing to them. They're playing for pride and accomplishment. The goal is to win. Play each game like it's your last, kind of basketball.
I don't hear these types of things from the Suns players when they get interviewed. It suggests they treat the games like regular season games to me. Almost like they play each game saying, "well, we can lose a couple as long as we win four first." I'm sure they don't, but there's definitely something lacking in the Suns organization when it comes to the post season. It breaks my heart to see them playing flat much more often than not once the playoffs start.
Fortunately, this is not exactly the Phoenix Suns of old. I still think they play loose and they may not have the mental toughness I would like them to have, but they are different. Hopefully, this first game loss to the Blazers is a bit of a wakeup call. A bloody nose with a touch of smelling salts to get them to open their eyes and realize they are no longer playing regular season basketball. They are playing playoff basketball.
All that said, I guess I can point fingers at individual players and no one would get a pointier thump to the chest than Amare Stoudemire. He crushed the court the last two months of the season and in game one was stopped, maybe not cold, but fairly luke warm, scoring 18 points on 19 shots before fouling out. If he wants to sell himself as a top power forward in the league and grab that max contract, he needs to keep the pressure on. A poor showing in the first round of the playoffs, showing that he cannot step up when needed, could very well negate that two months of effort.
Another finger gets pointed at the three point shooters as a whole. The suns hit 11 for 32 in that first game. A mere 34.4% when they average over 40% for the season. Had they hit their expected total they would have made 13 or 14. Clearly the difference in the game and you could see it at the end of that first game. The Suns whiffed on several threes and it cost them the game. I know Jamie was complaining that the Suns kept trying for threes rather than going for easier twos toward the end. I don't disagree with him, but if you decide to go for threes at the end, don't let the pressure prevent you from hitting your due. If you can't hit them under pressure, go for the twos. I'm just sayin'. If you want to live by the three, you will often die by the three.
If there was one bright spot in that first game, I think a nod goes to the second team once again. They played in their usual tough and tumble style. I honestly felt the starters, sans Nash, came out flat and never recovered. The second team played well and you can see it in their +/- stats:
Barbosa +9
Amundson +4
Dudley +7
Dragic +3
The only four players on the team with a positive in that stat. Frye was the next closest at -2.
So it seems the bench knows how to play playoff basketball. I can only hope Stat puts himself back on top and the rest of the starters take a page from the bench's playbook and learn to play a bit tougher.
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