# Game 20: Phoenix Suns @ Orlando Magic (12/11)



## Seuss (Aug 19, 2005)

*Phoenix Suns (13-6) vs Orlando Magic (15-7)*

*When: Sunday, December 11th
Time: 5:00 Arizona
Tv: My45*

*Dr. Seuss' Wise Words 
(original Dr. Seuss quote) *
_"I'm sorry to say
so but, sadly it's true
that bang-ups and hang-ups
can happen to you"_ 


*Previous Game Recap*


> CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Amare Stoudemire had 22 points and 12 rebounds to help the Phoenix Suns win their 10th consecutive game, 114-84 over the Charlotte Bobcats on Sunday.
> 
> Stoudemire had his seventh double-double in eight games, Boris Diaw added 17 points, Leandro Barbosa had 15, and Shawn Marion and Raja Bell had 14 each. Steve Nash had 11 points and 10 assists.
> 
> ...



*Phoenix Suns Projected Lineup:*






































*(PG) Steve Nash (SG) Raja Bell (SF) Shawn Marion (PF) Boris Diaw (C) Amare Stoudemire*

*Orlando Magic Projected Lineup:*






































*(PG) Jameer Nelson (SG) Keith Bogans (SF) Grant Hill (PF) Tony Battie (C) Dwight Howard*​

This will be a big test for the Suns. I'm glad they
got some rest against the Bobcats. Suns will be looking for some revenge after losing last year to the Magic.


----------



## cima (Nov 6, 2003)

D12 vs. STAT...it doesn't get much better than that! (except when STAT is 100%)


----------



## Dissonance (Jul 21, 2004)

With me in the building. We'll probably lose. :sadbanana:


----------



## MarshallBR (Nov 17, 2005)

Dissonance19 said:


> With me in the building. We'll probably lose. :sadbanana:


Finally, a real test (actually, that NJ was a tough one, but anyway...)!

It would be better if we could play them completely rested. Anyways, it was good to sit the starters the whole 4th quarter against the Bobcats.

GO SUNS!:clap2:


----------



## Seuss (Aug 19, 2005)

Dissonance19 said:


> With me in the building. We'll probably lose. :sadbanana:



Were you there last year when the Suns came to
town?

hahaha, you going to hold up a funny sign? 

Are you going as an undercover Suns fan? Or you going with your warrior face on screaming after every Suns shot? lol


----------



## Dissonance (Jul 21, 2004)

Dr.Seuss said:


> Were you there last year when the Suns came to
> town?
> 
> hahaha, you going to hold up a funny sign?
> ...



Nope. My first live Suns game. It hasn't totally sunk in yet. Not sure why I didn't go to others, though.



yes I will have a "Howard fears Burke" sign up. Nah, I was just messing about bringing a sign. Unless you want that Sean+Chris sign to be shown badly? hahahah



I'll be wearing my orange Matrix jersey, so I'll probably give away what team I am going for. I'll openly root for them. I'll make the sound effects out loud when they hit a 3 or dunk, things you don't hear in away games lol.


----------



## Seuss (Aug 19, 2005)

Dissonance19 said:


> Nope. My first live Suns game. It hasn't totally sunk in yet. Not sure why I didn't go to others, though.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


LOL

That would be one of the funniest signs.


----------



## Dissonance (Jul 21, 2004)

lol. exactly.

I was gonna say "Howard fears God." But then no one there would know who I was talking about.


----------



## tempe85 (Jan 7, 2005)

Dissonance19 said:


> yes I will have a "Howard fears Burke" sign up.


DO IT!!!! That or "Burke for President" lol

By the way.. you live in/around Orlando? I actually might be coming down there for a little while soon... nice place? I've never been on the east coast before.


----------



## hroz (Mar 4, 2006)

Howard is a great player both Howard and Amare could threaten Yao for best centre in the league.

This will be a huge test for him.

Yao holds the title right now for best centre in the NBA,Dwight is second. Amare's ranking is rising.


----------



## ShuHanGuanYu (Feb 3, 2005)

Well, I'm pretty sure it will be Kurt Thomas down low against Howard for a majority of the game, or Diaw with doubles coming. Amare will guard Battie.


----------



## ShuHanGuanYu (Feb 3, 2005)

Suns prediction player of the night...Leandro Barbosa! Points and assists.


----------



## Tiz (May 9, 2005)

ShuHanGuanYu said:


> Suns prediction player of the night...Leandro Barbosa! Points and assists.


*18pts and 4assts.* :cheers:


----------



## Seuss (Aug 19, 2005)

Suns 101 Magic 96

I'm going with a win. But I won't be surprised if
they lose.

LB: 16pts, 4asst


----------



## kingjack (Dec 11, 2006)

This Is Gonna Be A Real Test For Phx, The Fact They Are On The Road. On A Win Streak An Againsnt A Great Team Will Determine Whether Or Not Phx Has Wat It Takes To Be A Chakmpionship Team. There Will Be Two Matchups I Will Be Lookin Forward Too. At The Small Forward Will Be Grant Vs Shawn, Shawn Will Get The Edge Just Becuase He Can Defend, And The Other Will Be A Great One Im Talking Amare Vs Dwight. There Stats Are As Close As It Can Get But Im Stickin With Dwight, Amare Comes In At 245lbs While Dwight Is At 265lbs Thats An Extra 20 Lbs Of Muscle That Dwight Will Use To Throw Around And Block Out Amare In The Paint


----------



## ShuHanGuanYu (Feb 3, 2005)

Suns 104 - Magic 102

Leandro - 22 points, 4 assists


----------



## MarshallBR (Nov 17, 2005)

Too late to make a prediction... By the way, what´s wrong with Barbosa? His numbers are not the same these last 3 games... I hehe got injured during one of the games, but came back at halftime... So far he has only 1 shot attempt, 1 point and 2 assists? Is it a new system from Mike D (turning him into more of a playmaker than a scorer), or is it just a consequence of Amare playing better (and demanding the ball more)?


----------



## <SunsFan> (Dec 10, 2006)

My prediction:

Suns - 101
Magic - 92

Player of the game - Raja Bell


----------



## cima (Nov 6, 2003)

I <3 D'antoni for allowing Amare to create offense for himself.


----------



## Seuss (Aug 19, 2005)

Suns 55 Magic 53 at halftime.


Suns have won every game when leading after the half
in this road trip.

They seem pretty tired. No one is really hustling on defense except for Marion. He has been all over the place.

Lets hope the Suns pick up the energy and steal a win in Orlando.


----------



## Amareca (Oct 21, 2002)

Wow 8-15FG that's pretty cold shooting night for Amare still.


----------



## MarshallBR (Nov 17, 2005)

Wow, 18-point lead after 3 quarters! :clap: 

Still strange to see that Bell and Barbosa have tried a combined 11 shot attempts...


----------



## Hyperion (Dec 5, 2006)

Howard just tried to beat up all of the Suns players tonight. got 6 fouls in 10 minutes... 

4pts 3reb LOL. and fouled out! That's faster than BURKE! LOL

However, on a sadder note, Kurt Thomas had 5 fouls in 5 minutes.


----------



## ShuHanGuanYu (Feb 3, 2005)

What a win tonight! I was a little scared when the lead got cut to 11, only because guys like Carlos Arroyo are prone to infernos when the crowd gets it going.

Haha, it was hilarious how the Orlando crowd was booing Steve Nash every time down the court. That definitely made the win a hell of a lot better for me.


----------



## Seuss (Aug 19, 2005)

Lets all give it up to Amare. His first 30pt
game. Also had 8rebs, 3blcks. 

I think Joe got his money worth. Marion had a great
game and the Suns won.

The Suns have found the pattern to hold on to leads.
They did it against the Bobcats and tonight against the Magic. 

I think they could go 5-0 on their road trip for the first time since......01? Maybe farther back.


----------



## ShuHanGuanYu (Feb 3, 2005)

Yep, I'm thrilled for Joe. I kept wondering what he was thinking when they were all booing Steve Nash. :lol:


----------



## Seuss (Aug 19, 2005)

ShuHanGuanYu said:


> Yep, I'm thrilled for Joe. I kept wondering what he was thinking when they were all booing Steve Nash. :lol:



Were they booing Steve? I thought they were booing
the entire Suns squad. That's what it seemed like to me.

I was getting mad when the Orlando announcers kept saying
over and over "The Suns don't play defense." 
It pissed me off because they said that about 8 times during
the stretch where the Suns went on a 24-5 run. 
I was like "Yeah, they don't play defense. Yet they are shutting down Orlando." 
I just wanted to say "Shut the **** up and watch the game.
Because their 'no defense' is owning the Magic."


----------



## nffl (Jun 25, 2006)

Dr.Seuss said:


> I was getting mad when the Orlando announcers kept saying
> over and over "The Suns don't play defense."
> It pissed me off because they said that about 8 times during
> the stretch where the Suns went on a 24-5 run.
> ...


I hate that defensive stab. That and the "live by the 3, die by the 3." Which is true, but the Suns can run an offense without 3s. 

Nash is the best in the NBA in creating the pick and roll...


----------



## ShuHanGuanYu (Feb 3, 2005)

Well, looks like a couple Orlando fans are blaming the loss solely on the refs. Even if there were say 3 bad calls against Howard, big freaking deal. The guy is old enough to understand when to lose a little of that aggressiveness when he's in foul trouble. He's not going to get away with anything because the refs are watching him closely. One Magic fan said that the refs clearly wanted Howard out of the game, and therefore did what they had to do to make that happen. :lol: Hilarious.

I'm going to watch this game again just because of the whining I've seen. I bet I find two questionable calls and nothing more. He shouldn't have tried to all-out battle for the rebound on his 5th foul. Jockeying for position and pushing arms away and putting your arms in front of the other player to force contact and steal position on a rebound is not smart when you are in foul trouble. He shouldn't have tried jumping over Raja's back, knowing that with contact Bell would eccentuate the contact to get the call. That's just not smart.

I love Howard and his game, and this in no way takes away from what he's done. Amare could just as easily have just as bad a game coming up soon, and it wouldn't take anything away from what Amare has done.


----------



## Lukasbmw (Jul 30, 2004)

There may have been a few bad calls, but I saw lots of plays where Howard would throw people out of the way to get to the ball. If he normally gets away with pushing people away from the ball, no wonder he leads the league in rebounding. 

The Suns won tonight because Marion played great D on Grant Hill, and the Magic made lots of stupid mistakes. During the Suns 3rd quarter run, the Magic made a lot of bad passes that got picked off. After cutting the lead to 11 in the 4th, the Magic again took some bad shots and made some stupid passes that resulted in turnovers.


----------



## Jammin (Jul 3, 2005)

I was bored.​


----------



## ChristopherJ (Aug 10, 2004)

ShuHanGuanYu said:


> Haha, it was hilarious how the Orlando crowd was booing Steve Nash every time down the court. That definitely made the win a hell of a lot better for me.


Why on earth would they boo Steve Nash out of all people?

These type of people are probably the same people that kick puppy dogs and hate peace.


----------



## Hyperion (Dec 5, 2006)

KidCanada said:


> Why on earth would they boo Steve Nash out of all people?
> 
> These type of people are probably the same people that kick puppy dogs and hate peace.


A bunch of KG wannabe's because you know, KG eats kittens. One before every game for added agility and defensive intensity.

Dwight Howard got his last two because he threw Nash to the ground. Nash gets respect from the officials by them calling 2 fouls on a player from the opposing team! Look at the tapes, two quick fouls when the opposing team "lays the wood" on Nash.

I gotta reiterate what I've been saying about the Magic for a while now, Grant Hill is the head of this beast and Howard is just the muscle! Marion shut him down and therefore shut down the Magic.


----------



## ShuHanGuanYu (Feb 3, 2005)

Indeed, Marion's D was huge. Hill tried to take him three times on one play, only to have it sent out of bounds while Shawn had this awesome "The hell you thinkin'?" look on his face.


----------



## Hyperion (Dec 5, 2006)

ShuHanGuanYu said:


> Indeed, Marion's D was huge. Hill tried to take him three times on one play, only to have it sent out of bounds while Shawn had this awesome "The hell you thinkin'?" look on his face.


I'll take you word for it because I don't have a Def TV. By that I mean I can tell that the white guy in the dark jersey has the orange blur... It's seriously like watching an Atari game!


----------



## Dissonance (Jul 21, 2004)

Dr.Seuss said:


> Were they booing Steve? I thought they were booing
> the entire Suns squad. That's what it seemed like to me.
> 
> I was getting mad when the Orlando announcers kept saying
> ...



Man, we looked kinda sloppy, and yeah Marion seemingly did a lot. I was surprised to see Amare had 30 cuz I wasn't sure of scoring till I looked at the boxscore. That 3rd qrter, the defense played better, and their offense looked out of sync. But wow, that was an awesome experience, and I had some good seats too behind the back backboard just above the middle level kinda. I think I was in the "Phoenix Suns section," because there were quite a few around me haha. All over the building, they were Suns fans scattered around too.

As for the booing, yeah, the fans started getting sick of the calls, so they started to boo the entire Suns team when they touched the ball. But I think right after that last foul they really didn't like, involved Nash, so they booed louder at the start when he touched it. They would've done it to anyone. Nothing to do with Nash. Then they just did it to whomever had the ball as loud as they could. One fan kept heckling ref #45, even though, I'm sure he didn't hear him. 

But the people in Orlando, seemed nice who I came in contact with, though. Just they didn't like the calls. I only had one fan say anything to me because I had the Marion alternate jersey on, and it was when my friend and I were walking to the car in the parking garage, and they drove by saying, "Suns suck!" And I said right back, "Check the scoreboard!" I only got a glimpse of his face, it happened real quick, but I think he sort of baffled. Probably didn't expect it or had nothing to say, because it's true haha. My friend was cracking up when I said it.


----------



## MarshallBR (Nov 17, 2005)

Apparently, the drop in Barbosa´s numbers is a combination of not playing well enough lately and the fact that the starters are really shining now.

I just hope we don´t get caught in the trap of having the starters play heavy minutes night in, night out. It´ll take the confidence out of our bench (which is already shortened, because only 2 guys - Barbosa and Thomas - are contributing regularly), and we need a deep team when we get to the playoffs.


----------



## Lukasbmw (Jul 30, 2004)

I hope Junior gets his stuff together. He does play really good Defense and we could use another lights out shooter. Anyone remember how he tore up the league in preseason two years ago after we got him from Indiana? He was getting 20+ a game!


Barbosa needs to keep his confidence up. His playmaking skills have gotten much better, but he has not been as aggressive lately. We need his penetration but he must remain under control.


J Rose needs to get more PT in blowouts. This guy still has game left, but he needs to play so he can learn our play.


M Banks needs to realize that with no outside shot, he is useless to us. He needs to develop 3 point range. Until then, Banks needs to bring the ball up court, pass it as quickly as possible, and then set screens for our other shooters on the perimeter. If we play Banks and Diaw together, I think we can give Nash a rest without sacrificing playmaking ability.

Add in KT and our bench is really 5 guys deep. They just need to learn their roles and get some PT.


----------



## Hyperion (Dec 5, 2006)

The East Coast version to stop the Suns is a zone defense. That neutralizes most drives to the hoop, except for the exceptional like Nash. Barbosa will get back in the swing once this trip is over or even tonight against Miami


----------

