Suns on a Roll Baby: Suns 92 NOOCH 83

The Suns finally escaped their early season funk to the tune of a two game winning streak with a win over the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets last night. The Hornets were without starting forward David West and were searching for a way to defeat the Suns. They then announced that they would get away from the game they usually play and attempt to run with the Suns. Well they went small and the running lasted about a quarter, from both teams. After the first quarter the Hornets were out-NOOCHed by the Suns who finally played defense in an, as nice as I can put it, ugly ugly game. Not quite as heinous as Desmond Mason's shot but bad nonetheless.



The Suns were not exactly lighting it up on the offensive end but their defense got NOOCH out of rhythm early in the second quarter and that was the trend for the rest of the night. The Suns finally had control of a game for the entire 48 minutes. Chris Paul did not dominate the way I thought he would and Peja's shot was out of sync. Tyson Chandler continued his solid defensive streak but he is a major liability on offense. The Bulls are probably lamenting his trade and Big Ben's large contract about now because Chandler is essentially the same type of player that Wallace is but he is actually playing much better than Ben is right now.



Steve Nash led the way in scoring for the Suns but it was a balanced effort that got us the win. Amare was way out of rhythm, coughing up balls about every time it was in his possession. He just couldn't hang on to the ball. He only played 20 minutes and was completely inneffective the entire time. I have faith that he bounces back strong. It's nice to see that Coach Mike now has a handle on his rotations enough to be able to make up for bad play from a starter and get a win. Boris Diaw has actually shown up for the last two games and left the Krispy Kreme's at home. Diaw was nice last night and even had a highlight dunk. The highlight of the night, though, goes to Leandro Barbosa before he rolled his ankle.

The Suns were on the break and Barbosa beat everyone down court and received a LONG outlet pass where he barely got the layup up before his speed, and the defender, took him into the crowd. The ball went high off the glass and the little bit of English the Blur put on the ball helped the bucket drop. It was very nice especially for all the heartbreakingly close layups Leandro has missed early in the season. If anyone finds video of this before I do, please hook a brotha' up.

Leandro went out shortly after with a sprained ankle which sucks because he was our top scorer and one of the most consistant players early in the season. Hopefully his absense helps to get the other guys going strong and improve court chemistry. Leandro always seems to hurt his ankle early in the season. He must not have had many sprained ankles this far in his life because once you do it enough the tendons and ligaments get stretched out and you can bounce back quickly from a rolled ankle. My ankles are so stretched out and mutilated that I can roll an ankle, where most people would be out at least six weeks, and five minutes later be right back to normal. Barbosa will get there soon enough if he keeps on going down like this.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Update: Does anyone else think Shawn Marion's shot looks like a dolphin jumping out of the water? No? Come on people. Well that's the conclusion we came to watching the game last night. Shawn, love your game, but please, stop shooting threes, and greatly limit your other jumpers. Dolphins are not meant to be on the court.