Preview: Suns vs Nets; A Battle of the Five and Sixes

8:30pm vs. Nets TV: ESPN RTVHD, FSN AZ

Tonight the Suns matchup against the skidding New Jersey Nets who have dropped three in a row. The Suns on the other hand are looking to extend their two game winning streak to three and right this ship with an even record. Whenever scouting the Nets you must focus on the big three, Vince Carter, Richard Jefferson and Jason Kidd. Now this is not the most consistant team but they have the ability to win against any team, any night. You're not going to be able to take all three out of the game but you must try and limit their impact.

First we've got to slow down Jason Kidd. The best way to defeat a team that has one of the top point guards in the world is to slow him down and limit his effect on enabling the team to score easy buckets. Jason Kidd isn't the best shooter so I would like to see each Suns player lock down on his man and make it difficult for Kidd to toss easy passes for his teammates to finish. We can let Kidd shoot jumpers if he needs to, he won't be able to carry his team for the entire game. I would like to see Marcus Banks come in and play some D on Kidd, he might be able to pester him into frustration. This also is a good way of slowing Vince Carter down too.

If Vince doesn't get good shots in rhythm his fg% goes dramatically south because he will still take a large number of attempts. He is the main scoring option for this team and Raja Bell needs to get in his face. Vince is in a contract year so I imagine we will see Carter firing away. You are not going to shut him down, he is far too good, but we want to get him shooting under 50% to have a chance at winning this game.

Boris Diaw should be the main defender on Richard Jefferson, the final member of the big trifecta. Diaw is strong enough for Jefferson and quick enough to stay in front of him. Marion would give up some weight on that matchup and I think Richard could overpower him. This could be a good game to start Marion at PF and Diaw at SF. We need to make sure the rest of the team doesn't have any breakout games either if we want to continue our winning streak.

Nenad Krstic is having a great year too so we need to make sure and body him out of the paint the best we can. Kurt and Amare should be able to knock him out of rhythm. I would like to see a zone defense part of this game because New Jersey isn't the best shooting team and they would struggle with a zone. Marcus Williams is another young player to look out for, he is arguably the best point guard in this past year's draft and under the tutelage of Kidd, he should become a great guard.

I want to see some of the D we displayed against NOOCH tonight and hopefully we can improve our offense and maybe get our first blowout. We haven't put together a complete game yet, only flashes of great offense and then flashes of great defense, not simultaneously. This could be the game we put it all together.