The Post Up: Nasty Nash
Ginobili is so over your bat jokes.
Another day another W for the Phoenix Suns.
Also another 20-point, 20-assist performance from Steve Nash.
It’s like they heard about the praise we were giving them in here or something. I didn’t get to catch the game because Canada decided to show an old Raptors game instead –yeah, wasn’t so psyched about that decision– but the boxscore and tweets about the game told a pretty picture. Hitting 6-for-8 from beyond the arc for J-Rich to finish with 29 points, Jared Dudley coming off of the bench and adding 18, Amare Stoudemire with 17 points and of course, the ridiculous 21-point, 20-assist performance from Nash that came on just nine field goal attempts. With 32 team assists on 41 made field goals, a 7-1 start has the Suns looking really good as they lead the NBA with 109.7 points per game and have Leandro Barbosa back. It’s good to love the Suns.
Because this is the Post Up and most of you will get this, I’m interrupting the flow of this post to mention, Azubuike’s 31 points. Also, the Warriors had 111 points through three quarters. I know the Wolves are shorthanded and all, but damn.
The Jazz were in New York to face the Knicks and controlled the game early on until the fourth when New York came blazing back, outscoring Utah 27-19 and giving the Jazz a scare, before falling just short, 95-93. With the loss the Knicks fell to 1-7. Wilson Chandler had 15 points and 10 boards for New York while Toney Douglas scored 21 off of the bench. Deron Williams had an off-night from the floor, connecting on just 2-for-10 field goal attempts to finish with five points, but he dished 16 assists for his squad as Andrei Kirilenko and Carlos Boozer each scored 23 points, with Boozer also grabbing 14 rebounds. Mehmet Okur had a double-double with 18 and 12 and my undrafted Marquette rookie, Wesley Matthews got 18 minutes in the game, scoring six points.
The Raptors were in San Antonio to face a Tony Parker-less Spurs team and then found out before the game that SA would also be without Tim Duncan. Should have been an easy game for them to steal after getting smoked in Dallas, right? Not quite. Toronto shot 59% for the game, while giving up 48% shooting to the Spurs but still lost, 131-124 as Manu Ginobili was all over the place, finishing with 36 points and eight assists on 8-15 shooting. The Raps got burned badly on the boards, with SA outrebounding them 41-29, including 16-5 on the offensive glass. After letting the Spurs hit a couple beyond the arc, they couldn’t miss, finishing 14-28 from deep. Despite the absence of Parker and Duncan, San Antonio’s efficiency was impressive, with 28 assists to just six turnovers for the entire game. With the loss the Raptors wasted another 32-point, 10-rebound effort from Chris Bosh.
Bosh also hit a three on the night, his sixth make in six attempts this season.
Ugly moment of that game: Matt Bonner not only hit 4-for-8 three-pointers, he also blew by the Raptor “defense” to get to the hoop with the quickness. Really. I’m not kidding. That was a cringe worthy moment.
Oh, quick note: I’ve got to do the Canadian spellings for “defence” and “offence” in my blog over at The Score and I’ve just gotten it ingrained into my head. Of course, now I’ve got to flip it back to “defense” and “offense” over here and everywhere else I write. #theperilsofbeingcanadian
Chris Paul rolled his ankle in the first half of the Hornets game against the Clippers. That made me feel sick for real. Especially the replay. He came back in the third though, and appeared to be fine while Devin Brown had the game of his life. Or, what felt like it, finishing with 25 points as CP3 had 24 points to go with 10 assists and three steals.
And the T-Wolves? Oh Myles. I’m glad this one wasn’t in Minnesota. Falling behind by 19 to the Warriors at the half, giving up 74 points in 24 minutes and then going down by 30 before the midway point of the third? It was ugly, ugly, ugly for Minny in the Bay as the Warriors finished on top, 146-105. Yes, 146.
Scrap basketball (perhaps the only time I will ever say that), I’d just like to see how halftime sessions work for the Warriors. With the players against Nellie, and Nellie against the world –or at the very least, determined to be against us loyal, kind and compassionate Anthony Randolph fantasy owners– the coach’s speech has got to be something night in and night out. Dysfunctional.
Randolph, though, he played 30 minutes last night –finally!– and finished with 23 points, seven boards, three steals and three blocks. Anthony Morrow scored 20 and shot 5-for-6 from deep.
Did you catch the shot of Ricky Davis in this month’s SLAM? I almost can’t believe he’s still around, cashing a paycheque and playing basketball. As the player who was the topic of the story that made me commit my life to being a writer (Much love to you, Scoop J!), Ricky’s got a special place in my basketball history.
One more thing: I’m still not used to Ramon Session in a Wolves uni. That trip anyone else out?
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Kevin Johnson had four.
Nate Archibald had 3.
Jason Kidd had two.
Gary Payton and Walt Fraizer had 0.
One more twenty assist game and he’s tied with Oscar Robertson for fifth. Awesome stuff.
@everyone else - i told you they were gonna be just like that 04-05 team. Grant Hill and Jason Richardson are a better tandem then Joe Johnson and Quentin Richardson. Amar’e is still Amar’e. Channing Frye is Kurt Thomas - Defense + 3pters. Nash is the rare PG (1 of 2) that plays more of a mental game then athletic, which is why his production hasn’t fallen off.
Nobody should be suprised at Phoenix’s regular season success
Rare?
The best point guards play a mental game. YOu telling me Chauncey isn’t playing a mental game? And JKidd definitely plays one, but his production has fallen off because everybody falls victim to father time eventually. Andre Miller plays a mental game. Deron Williams. It’s not that rare.
They also are also relatively deep, they’re playing a ten man rotation, which is insane for the Suns, since they usually ran six/seven man rotations.
Still don’t think they’re winning anything since they’re depending on Grant/Amare to stay healthy, and are going to slow down HARD with fatigue later in the season due to age… but it’s fun to watch and shove it in the face of all the haters who said they’d be out of the playoff race.
This isn’t like 2006 when you had Nash, Johnson, Q-Rich, Marion, and Amare… and if you lost one, kiss the season goodbye!
Dirk, Melo, Nash, Kobe, Jefferson
Bosh, Lebron, Rose, Wade, Howard
It will PROBABLY continue like that until the playoffs, for the exception of Bosh.
However, I’m a realist, and I know that it will -REALLY- be:
Timmy, Melo, Iverson, Kobe, Stoudemire
Garnett, Lebron, Rondo, Wade, Howard
So, blef.
Duncan, Melo, Kobe, Dirk, CP3
Duncan
DIrk
Melo
KObe
Nash E.
DaWight
Garnett
C.Bosh
LeBron
Wade (If I can’t take LeBron as a “guard” I’ll take Gilbert instead of Bosh and move LB back to forward).
Z: Is it wrong for me to sort of want AI on Phoenix? Richardson would be the bomb off the bench and AI would obliterate kids in the run and gun offense without having to worry about playing defense. Of course, I have no idea how well he’d play with Nash and how he’d do surrendering domination of the ball to Nash, but I don’t think the Suns are winning anything anyway… might as well try out that experiment. It REALLY can’t be worse than Shaq.
Bryan: What was right for AI in Detroit was to come off the bench. They weren’t winning with him starting because he wasn’t interfacing with the other starters properly. It would have made sense for him to come off the bench and take every single damn shot since Detroit had no fire power there. Of course, that’s certainly not the case in Memphis, but as it’s sort of become clear, Memphis wants to take, so…
Also, for all the people who say Shaq or Walton or Sabonis or Divac were the best passing bigmen: there is only one dude on the twenty assist list who played the center spot. That’s Wilt Chamberlain.
I ended up voting this way in the end:
STAT Dwight
Dirk Bosh
Durant LeBron
Kobe Arenas
Nash Wade
A lot of people blame Rip, but the dude, after being told by Curry he wouldn’t be benched, sucked his pride, went to the bench, and changed his game up from a cutter off the ball and screen-set shotter to a slashing, off the dribble shooter! When the team was still losing (and people starting pointing out the team did well in a stretch without AI), that’s when Rip said “hey, f this, why doesn’t AI come off the bench” and people say Rip had a bad attitude about the whole thing.
I think Iverson TRIED hard. He tried almost to have a Jordanesque change to his game, where when his team was rolling, he’d get the ball and take shots very quickly to not mess up the tempo and overcontrol the ball… but I just think Iverson expected people to just do things his way, to meet him halfway, and that never happened on a team full of egos like Detroit.
I think it was NBK who pointed out that Pistons would not be successful without running, and he was right. Unfortunately, Michael Curry was outsmarted by some random college kid.
Melo: 31.4/6.3/3.0/1.7 on 46/50/82 percent shooting… only 2.1 turnovers a game in 36 minutes
vs
Kev: 24.8/7.5/2.7/1.5 on 42/19/84 percent shooting… with 2.3 turnovers a game in 41 minutes
It’s not close stat wise. if you just like Durant better, you can just tell me to STFU though.
I agree that AI has handled this Memphis thing all wrong. Not so with that toxic Detroit situation.
How is this a recipe for a championship?
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