Patience Paying Off

Are you liking the Shaq trade now?

The Suns have strung together five straight wins and are showing the versatility we were hoping the trade would bring. Things started to turn in the loss to Utah. That loss really was the last straw because the bad defense hit bottom giving up 41 in the fourth quarter to blow the game.

The national TV game against the Sp*rs was awesome. I live in Texas so I catch crap from Spurs fans all the time. It was nice to hear them whine about the refs for once. The Suns where gritty and shutdown the Spurs in crunch time. The intensity and desperation were awesome. The highlight we all remember is Shaq diving into the stands for a loose ball.

The blowouts against nonplayoff teams are nice but the win against Golden State was impressive. The Warriors were hot and jumped out early but the Suns eventually played some defense and out-executed the Warriors. I liked all the technical fouls, the team is edgy and tougher now. It showed the team wanted the game more. Shaq was limited with fouls but the team played like the Suns of old and were much quicker with their cuts, dribble attacks and didn't hesitate on good looks in the second half.

The Seattle game tonight should be over early. The Rockets, Pistons and Celtics are next up on the schedule. The team is getting hot at the right time and the tough opponents make for entertaining basketball because no one in the West can afford to lose. It's bananas how tight the West is. The Spurs have lost four straight games are only 2 games back of first. The Suns win tonight and Saturday, they could be in first. The seeds don't matter but matchups do. So it's encouraging that the team is coming together and getting some nice wins. The playoffs are going to be brutal.

Things I'm noticing
1. We regularly outrebound opponents now.
2. Turnovers. They've been lower during this run but that has to remain a focus (BORIS!!!).
3. Gordan Giricek was a good find.
4. Raja finally looks like himself.
5. Beast may not be a strong enough word to describe Amare. The lame MVP talk stories floating around totally take his recent comments out of context. He was asked how he felt about not being included in MVP talk after winning the Player of the Week award.

"I don't know what it is," Stoudemire said. "I hear everybody's name mentioned as far as the top players in the league. My name is never up there. It definitely hurts because I put in the work and the time and the effort to be an elite player. But my thing is just to keep improving. Whether they notice it or not, my teammates notice it, my coaching staff notices it, and we're winning ballgames."

Coming into the season, I committed to supporting Amare after being critical in the past. The guy brings it every night and should be 1st team All NBA again. He probably won't because he's no longer considered a center and KG has been awesome in Boston. Whether or not he gets MVP recognition, he becoming a great player and continues to improve year to year. The people comparing him to Marion are dead wrong. Answering a question honestly is different than constantly complaining about a lack of recognition. Reporters ask this stuff to get good quotes and then craft those quotes into a story. Amare is damn good and we all know it. Whether he gets the pub or not, he'll go all out to get a championship and that's all that matters to me as a fan. Finals MVP is the award to get Amare.

Suns Pursuing (Player Name)

The Phoenix Suns are reportedly pursuing (Player) who was recently waived by the (City) (Team) in an attempt to add depth to their bench. Steve Kerr is said to have personally visited (Player)'s house and bribed him with large sums of candy and prescription pain killers. The Suns need a player like (Player) who can add (shooting/rebounding/toughness/defense) coming off the bench.

When asked for a comment, Suns general manager Steve Kerr said, "Yeah, any time you can get a guy like (Player), a guy who brings (shooting/rebounding/toughness/defense) to the table, not to mention his playoff experience and high character, it's really a no brainer to at least tell people you're interested in him."

When Mike D'Antoni was asked about the rumors, he gave his trademark smile and said "I hope we do get (Player). I'm sure he'll love sitting next to Sean Marks and Eric Piatkowski while wondering why he's not getting any playing time."