The Suns are Steamrolling

Somewhere, Charles Barkley is not happy. This weekend the Suns tied up the franchise best, 14-game winning streak that had been set in the 92-93 season with Sir Charles at the helm. This feat came as a result of two unlikely wins at the hands of the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings. The Suns are now looking at pushing this streak to the brink with a potentially easy game tomorrow vs the Raptors. The streak shouldn't stop there as the next four games should be easily winnable and would put their streak at 18 straight wins.

The games, first vs the Raptors would have got more difficult with the following evening at Denver except for that little skirmish that done got five Nuggets suspended and took all the media thunder away from the Suns rediculous winning streak. Now I really don't mind a little scrap once in a while. It seems to happen at least once a year and it adds to the drama and excitement of a game. And it basically gives the Suns a free game. I'm just glad it wasn't Raja and Ron Ron going at it, thank god the guys were professional and didn't get intense.

The Golden State game was odd. The Suns came out crushing the Warriors who couldn't buy a bucket. It looked like they were new to this running game. Then mental fatigue set in on the Suns and gave up a 20 plus point lead to make the game exciting, but ultimately won 105-101. But the man who made this game happen was Boris freaking Diaw. The Zone Buster. It was the Warriors suffocating zone defense that almost took the Suns completely out of this game but Boris' post game routinely collapsed the Warriors zone. He ended the game with his season-first triple double. Amare, meanwhile, dominated the paint and scored at will, again. I guess it's routine now and we don't really have to check up on his comeback. With such a balanced team effort and Amare doing whatever he wants in the paint, this team is having no problems closing games out. Oh yeah, I would just like to add, the Suns won the rebounding battle once again.

Fast forward to the next evening and the Suns look even worse. They don't even start out good like the night before but somehow pulled out a win 105-98. Yet, when you get seven players scoring in double figures, you always have a chance. The Kings couldn't focus on one person defensively and had them scattering. But it was the Suns defense that won this one. The Suns held the Queens to 40% shooting from the field and an anemic 28% from downtown, and they took 25 of these shots. I wasn't overly impressed by Kevin Martin, who has been their star and high scorer for the season. His shot is ugly but he manages to put them in. He's not overly quick but real lean. He tried to come in with a killer instinct and put on a show but Leandro was not having it. After burying a three in Barbosa's grill, Leandro came back the following possession, pulled up, and dropped a pull up jumper right back in Kevin Martin's face.

These two were jawing at each other for a while and just going at it. At one point I think Leandro was talking smack in Portuguese. This was just pure entertainment. Two rising stars scrapping. The Kings played well but got a little lost later in the game when the Suns defense picked up intensity. If this was last year we would have lost these two games.

This is a new year. We are rebounding much better, defending much better, we're going to the charity stripe and we aren't dying by the three. We are officially an elite team. One that can win against all odds. We truly have a pure team effort with someone different stepping up when we need it the most. We have a dominating presence in the paint and three all stars playing their hearts out. I think we have the best team in the lig and I think we can go for 20 straight wins. Who knows, maybe this is a 70 win team this season.