Kelgar wrote:Hack a Ben worked wonders. If I were Pat Riley, I'd have the guys in my 8th-12th rotation use all 24 fouls on sending him to the line while Shaq is resting on the bench.
Yeah, forgot to mention that. It's a crack up watching the east finals with both Shaq and Ben being crap free throwers. That's not going to happen vs the West where the Suns are the best free throw shooting team and Dallas is close to the top. (Phoenix shots 80% FT as a team at home) Diaw shoots 73% from the line and ranked 8th in the league in Field Goal percentage at .526. Dirk was 4th in the league in Free Throw percentage (Nash#1)
For those that don't think point differential is the key stat when evaluating a team and not how good their defense is, look at the top finishers in point differential this year:
1. San Antonio +6.81
2. Detroit +6.67
3. Dallas +6.07
4. Phoenix +5.54
5. Miami +3.86
Four of the top Five teams in point differential made it to the final four. With three of the top four being West Coast teams, at least one West coast team was going to have to be eliminated before the final four.
In some defensive areas, the Suns ranked high like Blocks per game:
1 Detroit +2.50
2 L.A. Clippers +1.80
3 Miami +1.75
4 Phoenix +1.58
5 San Antonio +1.51
6 Minnesota +1.18
7 Dallas +1.07
While in others, Phoenix was almost last like rebounds per game (28th in league) What does that say about rebounds? It doesn't matter if the team is leading the league in shooting percentage.
When Nash, Marion and Diaw are ranked in the top sixteen in the entire league for field goal percentage (Nash being 16th as a guard), good things are going to happen.
Three point shots are also another killer:
Three Point FG % rank in league:
3. Leandro Barbosa .444
5. Raja Bell .440
6. Steve Nash .439
Damn. Hard to defend against that kind of shooting while you also have Tim Thomas, James Jones .386 and even Boris Diaw (evey player on the court) that can shoot the three but both Tim Thomas and Diaw can also work the inside game using their speed along with Nash and Barbosa being able to drive to the hoop. It makes for some nasty nasty matchups once you throw Marion who can also score from anywhere.
Along with all of that firepower, you also have two ball distributers on the court almost all the time with Nash (10.5 assist per game) and Diaw (6+ assists per game as a forward/center)
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What's all this add up to? Well, so far, at least a trip to the WCF! I still think it's a coin toss between Phoenix and Dallas in the current series.
From ESPN:
By Bill Simmons
Page 2
Got a sobering e-mail from Mike in Vancouver this week: "Could you please stop the ongoing digs at Nash and his MVP award? You are starting to sound like Billy Packer railing against St. Joe's as a No. 1 seed or why there should be fewer mid-majors in the tourney. We all eventually become bitter, but could you at least wait until you get in your 40s?"
Wow. He played the Packer card. That's a wake-up call.
You know what? Mike is right: I need to let the Nash thing go. The NBA is clearly moving into a new direction -- defense doesn't matter as much, point guards matter more than they once did, and someone like Nash is twice as valuable as he was two years ago. Maybe he's not the best player in the league, but he's in the top five or six, and he's certainly one of the most fun to watch. He's also the best teammate alive -- for God's sake, he even rejuvenated Tim Thomas' career. I need to stop nitpicking with him. When Barkley gives him "that's one bad-ass white boy" status, that's saying something.
One more thing while we're here: Nash's supporting cast, even without Amare Stoudemire, is better than everyone thinks. Shawn Marion is a top-25 guy in his prime. Raja Bell is the evolutionary Bruce Bowen. Every team in the NBA would kill to have Boris Diaw, who can play four positions and doesn't need the ball to be effective; he's only 23 and getting better by the week. (He's a mortal lock for my annual top-40 trade value list this summer, by the way.) Say what you want about Thomas, but there are only a handful of forwards who can post up little guys, shoot 3s over big guys and guard both types of players. (If he hadn't been such a dog for the past nine years, he'd be in line for a $50 million contract after the playoffs.) And Leandro Barbosa is the most underrated player in the league -- he scores on everybody, heats right up off the bench (no small feat), plays both guard positions, carries the offense for quarters at a time ... and he's only 23. You're looking at this generation's Vinnie Johnson at the very least.
Here's the point: Maybe the Suns only go six deep, but they're all elite players who mesh perfectly together, and they have a world-class coach who gives his players the freedom to ad-lib (like when Thomas audibled out of the set play and passed to Diaw for Wednesday's game-winner).
I'm worried about not having Raja Bell again for game three. Barbosa is a great change of pace guy off the bench but is hit and miss as a starter.
Game three tonight has me worried. It's got upset written all over it. I don't want give up home court and be forced to win a game seven in Dallas.
