<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Diawsome @ Apr 1 2007, 11:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Two years ago it was really a lack of options for the Suns that did them in. Joe Johnson's injury depleted an already empty bench forcing Jim Jackson into the rotation and the only "average" player left on the bench was Barbosa who was nowhere near as good as he is now. Quentin Richardson never even bothered to show up in the postseason and Bruce Bowen completely shut Marion down. It basically became the Spurs vs Nash & Amare.</div>That's true too. This team has a lot more options that before and the offense is just much tougher to defend. The only team recently that has done a good job is the Lakers. I don't see an old San Antonio team keeping up with us and with Bowen showing his age a bit I don't see Marion being a non-factor again.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (mavsfan1000 @ Apr 2 2007, 01:15 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>San Antonio's bench was not that great 2 years ago either. The suns were getting killed by the double teams. They worried about Duncan too much and it led to players like Ginobili going off. Amare was not double teamed meaning there was no else getting open shots consistently. Popovich doesn't want Amare to go off but if it was between letting Amare going off and letting everyone else go off than Pop chose to just let Amare get his. You can ask most spurs fans and they would agree. The suns still scored a lot but didn't shoot as high of a percentage as usual. I think the suns have gained ground on the spurs but I still would pick the spurs to win in 6 or 7 games. Diaw is still not as much of a threat as Joe Johnson. I don't know why you think he is. He can't shoot jumpers from outside. He is like a poor man's Amare Stoudemire and did not fit in well once Amare came back because they play a similar style.</div>The bench had Brent Barry, Robery Horry contributing a lot more than he is now, and in the starting lineup they had an actual starting center in Nazr. Now the team is 2 years older, and players like Bowen will have less success guarding the extremely fast and athletic team of the Suns.As ASUFan said, Amare is a good enough defender and rebounder to where he doesn't need a ton of help with Duncan. He did a mighty fine job with this in February, holding Duncan to 20pts, while Amare grabbed 23reb and had around that many points. The one player that really hurt them, as I said before, was Ginobli.They shot 50%, 41% from 3...both higher than in regular season. What lost the series was 2 things....Joe Johnson (their 2nd best scorer) was out for 2 games, and they simply couldn't make stops in 4th. This year they have more firepower overall in their lineup. Marion never does well against the Spurs because the game is slowed down, but they have more than enough firepower around him (unlike in 04-05) to where he doesn't need to score at his season average. They also have better defenders with Raja Bell, Kurt Thomas, and Amare is now a better defender.Diaw is not as good of a scorer as JJ, but he is more important to the Suns' success. He does 2 very important things- 1) He can run the offense with Nash out, 2) He forces the other team's bigs to come to the perimeter, which opens the lane for penetration from Diaw or his teammates. How the HELL can you say Amare and Diaw play a similar style? They are NOTHING alike.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Serge @ Apr 2 2007, 04:25 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Why is this a question Dallas EASY are WAY better.</div>I know it's so obvious, just like Denver being the 4th best team.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ASUFan22 @ Apr 2 2007, 07:27 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I know it's so obvious, just like Denver being the 4th best team. </div>Suns are good, but not like Dallas. Suns are the 2nd best team in the league though.
The spurs defense will definitely bother Phoenix. Even when Amare was going off 2 years ago the spurs did a good enough job to take everyone else out of the game. Don't underestimate what a great defensive team can do in the playoffs. Especially when they have time to prepare for the suns unlike the regular season.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (mavsfan1000 @ Apr 3 2007, 03:55 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>The spurs defense will definitely bother Phoenix. Even when Amare was going off 2 years ago the spurs did a good enough job to take everyone else out of the game. Don't underestimate what a great defensive team can do in the playoffs. Especially when they have time to prepare for the suns unlike the regular season.</div>Pheonix will definetely want to impose their pace during this series. Most of the Spurs squad cannot run the floor like Pheonix. Spurs, as great as they are defensively, are stuck at a pretty slow pace on offense. Only people on the Spurs who can run a fast pace offense are Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili however 2 guys is not nearly enough to run like the Suns. Not to mention that the Suns create more matchup situations with San Antonio than the other way around. The main battle would be who imposes their pace on the other team during the series.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (mavsfan1000 @ Apr 3 2007, 12:55 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>The spurs defense will definitely bother Phoenix. Even when Amare was going off 2 years ago the spurs did a good enough job to take everyone else out of the game. Don't underestimate what a great defensive team can do in the playoffs. Especially when they have time to prepare for the suns unlike the regular season.</div>We had 3 strong offensive options in the playoffs that year in the first 2 games so it wasn't that hard to stop everyone else besides Nash and Stoudemire which was Marion, Q(who wasn't making shots anyway) and Jim Jackson...We now have over double the offensive options for the playoffs and San Antonio is older and slower.
Joe Johnson did play in that series by the way. San Antonio made everyone look very bad because of their defensive scheme. Parker gave Nash fits though Nash still put up good numbers but had to work hard to get his. Bell and Diaw will join the defensive scheme of the spurs to not let others go off. The fact is you can't win a championship with offense only. The spurs matchup very well to the suns and I'll continue to back them up.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (mavsfan1000 @ Apr 3 2007, 03:10 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Joe Johnson did play in that series by the way. San Antonio made everyone look very bad because of their defensive scheme. Parker gave Nash fits though Nash still put up good numbers but had to work hard to get his.</div>Yes, but after losing 2 at home it was over. If Joe Johnson was there with the first 2 games being so close it could have been a different outcome. Either way this team is much, much better and that spurs team is worse. Parker really isn't that good of a defender so I don't see him giving Nash any fits, he really hasn't during the regular season and Amare dominates Duncan everytime. They are slow and old, they don't really match up that well with us like they did in the past when the Suns had fewer options on offense and a much worse defense.
I think if Avery had a chance to develop a strategy in a 7 game stand ... he would be able to give the push the mavs need to win.
I do think Avery is a great coach and a bit better than D'Antoni, but I really like our entire coaching staff. There's a lot of experience and basketball knowledge throughout so we'll see.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Marvinmartian @ Apr 4 2007, 04:17 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>But then again, the Mavs coaching staff isn't a pushover either, once you get past Avery that is.</div>I know that, but I think overall both are pretty close just like the teams are. The last 2 seasons it wasn't the series that I expected but hopefully it's what I expect this year.
Not take the shine off Nash's performance but this article sounds perty interesting http://dallasbasketball.com/home_display.asp"Steve Nash-A history"scroll down to find the articleMy opinion is that everyone can be shut down on the Suns except Nash and Amare. Personally I think Amare is the better. He is perty versatile player. Barbosa got his lime light against Golden State and even pulling off a good game he still missed crucial points... if somehow Amare can be shut down effectively or at least frustrated.... I think a team can seriously torpedo the side of the Suns
Barbosa hasn't been shut down by anyone this year. Yes, any one player can be shut down besides Nash and Amare, but it's not possible to shut down all of them together. The Suns just have too many weapons.
This is such a hard question to answer. The only thing to do is to wait till the playoffs and to see what happens. This year, the Mavs are much better at grinding out games and winning ones that seem nearly impossible(compared to last season); they have the best record when being behind and coming back. Even though in the second half of the season the Suns have looked better than Dallas when the two play, I still pick Dallas because I believe they CAN slow the Suns down and get them out of rythm in a series in the playoffs.It will be a great series to see! :happy0144:
4 most deadliest on the SunsNashAmareBarbosaMarion4 most deadliest on the MavericksNowitzkiTerryHoward Stackhouse or Harris (depends on situation)
It's a good bunch of players. The last 2 years I have gone crazy saying it'll be the best series ever, but they both have been dissapointing compared to what I though. Hopefully this one goes to 7 games finally.
