Suns Show Power, Defeat Magic

The Suns cruised to a 103-89 win as they locked down the Orlando Magic, and the latest NBA power rankings. It was to be Amare vs Dwight, superstars of the future, battling for respect and power rankings and once again Amare shows he's having no problems with his rehabilitation. After taking out Okafor and Howard in as many days, on a back to back nonetheless, Amare not only proves that he is back but that he is one of the most dominant and unique athletes in the NBA. He just has so many moves around the hoop and the dexterity to finish in even the most unlikely situations. His conditioning is much improved since the start of the season and he's looking healthy and making lots of noise at the rim. Enough so at least to dominate tonight, and now, 11 in a row. Oh, and those other guys help out too.

Shawn Marion was on point all night tonight on offense but it was on defense that the Matrix, and the Suns as a team, really put this game away. Shawn was swatting Grant Hill's jumpers and playing the passing lane for easy break aways. He just has this jump to everything he does that's quicker than what the others are doing. Tonight that jump was blocking shots and altering everything and snaring rebounds. His defense has gone from solid to all-star during this winning streak. And then there was the alley oop pass from Nash in the fourth that broke their cold spell and effectively put the game away. Nasty dunk Shawn.

The Suns clamped down in the third again, just like in the Bobcats game yesterday, and Amare was going at them the whole time. Steve Nash was quietly asserting himself threading passes to finishers in the most unlikely spots. Give Dirty Kurt some credit too, he was a major part of keeping Dwight Howard out of this game. He's very strong and has great post awareness. He can keep the best guys out of good position and really limit their impact. Until, of course, he gets in foul trouble. The only reason I can see why Kurt gets the worst calls against him is because he's got that dirty player moniker and doesn't really finesse anything. Except those nimble layups that Steve helps him out on.

Yeah we've now won 12 of the last 13 and it is not going unnoticed. We're rolling and some of that can definitely be attributed to Coach D'Antoni who received a very flattering compliment by one of the Lig's greats, Pat Riley:

you have to have Mike's mind. I mean, Mike's got a mind unlike any other mind. People say, `Well, let's go out and do it.' But you have to know how to do it. And you've got to know all the nuances to make it really effective, and there isn't a coach in the league that has that...He's brought a system into the NBA unlike any one I've seen ever. And he has it down to a science. So you can copy him, but you still have to have all the nuances about all the things they get off of it...

I think they always want to get out and get easy ones (baskets). It's not that easy. You've got to be totally committed. You've got to be committed to it. You can't be half in and half out. Now, Mike's committed, really committed. He's not committed to it out of a lack of respect of defense. He's just committed to pushing the pace to a very high level and he gives players great freedom and gets great confidence... When you've got Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire, you've got two very unique players, and Mike picks the right guys to do it, You can't just run. You've got to be committed to it roster-wise, philosophy-wise and freedom wise.

Coach Mike knows what he is doing and evidently I do too. Or at least thats what NBA dot com is leading me to believe by quoting me in their most recent press page. And to think, all it takes is an internet connection and some loud fingers.