Depressing Fact Matt

Aaron just sent me an e-mail with the subject "Depressing Fact Matt". His e-mail reads:

Matt,

I had to share this depressing stat with you that my co-worker found today:

Phil Jackson teams are 45-0 in game five when they have won game one. The Lakers are 18-0 in game five when the series is tied.

Please write an article on DICKSIX refuting it. Thanks

-Dickman

Well Dickman, the numbers get worse. We haven't beat the Lakers in Los Angeles since January 2008. That means since the Grizzlies gave the Lakers Pau Gasol just weeks later, the Lakers are undefeated against us at home. History and statistics are a funny thing. A couple weeks ago the pundits said the Spurs were going to beat us, citing history as their best argument against us. We were down 2-0 against this Lakers team and reporters began asking what their game plan was going to be against Boston. Last I checked you have to win four to advance to the Finals (something that Boston is finding out). The fact of the matter is (oh Accounting 200) the Phoenix Suns have momentum. Since when does Steve Nash care about statistics? He doesn't. He cares about his team and they have an entire TEAM that is finding a way to win.

We are going to win tonight. I am looking forward to seeing ORNG tarnish Phil Jackson's perfect record. Beat LA!

Team Basketball

Last night after the game (which you all know was a win much in part thanks to this guy who had 8 points and 8 assists) I went to go play some basketball at the church. While playing, I missed a call from Dickman and he left me a message; he was laughing as he said him and Bater noticed there haven't been any blog posts since before the series started! I wonder why!

I'll be honest, after game two last Wednesday I was not excited about Suns basketball. I was very disappointed with the way our boys played (mostly by Stoudemire and Nash that had 5 turnovers each that game, although Channing Frye going 0-5 didn't help). It seemed like we hardly put up any fight! For the next few days I didn't want to talk about the Suns but wanted to get some time away and figure out what was wrong with the team (you know you're obsessed when you take a loss like you are actually the one playing or coaching haha). Suns fans were rewarded in games 3 and 4, but this series is far from over.

Seth Pollack from Bright Side of the Sun wrote a great article about our team win last night:

http://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2010/5/26/1487899/team-suns-vs-team-kobe

17 years between 1976-1993. 17 years between 1993-2010. Beat LA!

Thinking Beastly

First of all, please read this article:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-plaschke-lakers-20100511,0,1540646.column

“The Lakers swept this doubter completely off his feet, reduced me to a pillar of salt, knocked me directly into a setting Suns.” Are you kidding me? This guy Plaschke gets paid to write for a newspaper? This is all I am going to say about his horrible grammar. I daresay his basketball analysis is even worse:

“The Suns probably walked away from Monday's game thinking beastly,” he says. What in world does “thinking beastly” mean?! I have a pretty good feeling that the Suns were not surprised when the Lakers dismantled the Jazz on Monday. I mean, everyone knew the Lakers were going to win the series after they went up 3-0. The Suns are well aware that the Lakers are going to be a lot to handle. I sense that they have been “thinking beastly” about the Lakers for a while now.

I love how he quotes Artest not knowing about our team. "It's Stoudemire and Frye ... is it Frye?" asked Artest. I guess Artest hasn’t heard about how Frye has fit in with our team so well this year? I find this hilarious. Reminds of me of when Kobe didn’t know who Raja Bell was…

Plaschke goes on to say: “yeah, not much strength there, it will basically be Stoudemire matched against Gasol, Odom and the rested knee of Bynum, and it won't even be close.” Two things here: Number one, if you know anything about the Phoenix Suns, you know a huge reason their season turned around was because of the 7’ center Robin Lopez. This guy is not soft. Number two, if they think they don’t have to guard Channing Frye outside, they are in for a rude awakening. I am quite certain that they will know to guard Frye outside and when they do, Frye will bring defenders such as Gasol, Odom, and the rested knee of Bynum out of the paint to allow Amar’e to have more room.

“The Suns don't have the kind of power that can overcome a defense that held the Jazz to three baskets in 19 attempts in a first-half stretching, the Lakers outscoring the Jazz by 21 points during that time, stealing it early.” If there is one thing that the Suns have, it is offensive power. They have one of the best offensive teams in NBA history and they have been an offensive juggernaut since 2004. That is all I am going to say about this.

His last line reads, “Oklahoma City reminded them what it was like to play desperate. Utah reminded what it was like to play strong. Phoenix can do little to make them forget.” He must not know that the Suns thrive when they’re counted out.

Let’s play ball Phoenix.

Grant Hill - Joe Dumars NBA Sportsmanship Award

I didn't see this till now, but Grant Hill was awarded the Joe Dumars NBA Sportsmanship Award for the 2009-2010 NBA season. This is now his third time winning this award. Man I love this guy. Here is another great article on how awesome Grant HIll is.
http://www.nba.com/2010/news/features/fran_blinebury/05/06/grant.hill/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt1

In the article they also had a video on Grant Hill's NBA career. I thought I'd put it on for all to see.



Grant Hill drinks sprite... what more can we say.

I got SUNS fever!

First of all, a little more history: Home teams win the series 97% of the time (84/87) when they go up 2-0 in a seven game series!

Dude, Bater, both those articles are awesome! Grant Hill is the man. They need to be featured in the main blog, not just the comment section!

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2010/columns/story?columnist=adande_ja%26page=granthill-100428

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100507&sportCat=nba

This paragraph stuck out to me in the Simmons article:

"The Phoenix crowd is wired differently from a typical NBA crowd: more urgency, more unbridled excitement, more vitriol for the refs, more hatred for their opponents, more everything. It's like a college atmosphere, only angry and more desperate. Everyone wears orange, everyone screams, everyone seems hopelessly tied to the ebb and flow of the game. When the wrong call or break goes against them, 40 years of torture quickly bubble to the surface and every defense mechanism kicks in. It's tangible. You can feel it. They totally believe in this team ... only they totally don't. If that makes sense."

I love it. He nailed Suns fans. We are extremely loyal but we can't help being a little up and down. Who can blame us, we've been so good for so long but never won a championship! (Get ready for my motivational sports speech) I love the Suns fever this season because we didn't expect a championship. All of the focus wasn't on it and we didn't demand it. Instead, we stayed loyal and are now enjoying a great ride. We have enjoyed an entertaining team that wins not only on finesse plays, but also by grinding it out. We are happy to be the third seed in the second round whereas in years past we (the Suns and their fans) felt entitled to win it all. And that is why I legitimately think we have a shot at the title. These Suns (and their fans) don't take anything for granted. They fight hard and that's what championship teams do. Am I saying we are going to win the title this year? Maybe I am!!

Let's go SUNS! No mercy against the Spurs tonight! Let's make Timmy cry again!

The History of the 7 Seed

Lately there has been a lot of talk about history. People have said: "Oh, the Suns can't beat the Spurs, there's too much history against them." While the Spurs have been our crux in recent years, history is actually against them. Let me explain.

In 1984, the NBA changed up its playoff brackets to allow eight teams in each conference to participate. Since 1984, the number 7 seed has only made it out of the first round five times including the San Antonio Spurs this year. The results are as follows:

1987 - The number 7 Seattle SuperSonics went up against the number 6 Houston Rockets and won. They were subsequently swept by the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals.

1989 - Our number 3 seeded Phoenix Suns went against the number 7 Golden State Warriors and won in 5.

1991 - The Warriors once again made it to the second round as a 7th seed and this time fell to the number 3 Lakers 4-1.

1998 - Number 7 New York takes on number 3 Indiana. Pacers win the series 4-1.

2010 - Spurs vs. Suns. Suns lead 1-0 so far.

As you can see, the number 7 seed has only made it to the Western Conference Finals once and that was against a number 6 seed. All three times the number 7 has faced the number 3 seed, the number 3 seed has not only prevailed, but dominated.

Let's not let the Spurs in on the history stacked against them, instead, let's let them believe history is on their side. We play better as underdogs.

Why the Suns Are Going to Beat the Spurs

As you are all aware, our beloved Phoenix Suns will be facing the evil San Antonio Spurs in the second round of the 2010 NBA Playoffs. This is not the first time we have seen the Spurs on the playoff stage, as we all know the Spurs have sent us home fishing FOUR times since 2003 (2003, 2005, 2007 and 2008). The Suns certainly have their hands full if we look at it from a historical perspective. It is, however, going to take more than history for these Spurs to beat us. These are the reasons why the Suns will triumph.

1. We owned them during the regular season. Sure, we didn't sweep them, but the two games we won we were in control most of the game and won by double digits. In the one game we dropped to them this season, we only lost by three after a missed JRich dunk in the final minute.

2. This is a completely different Suns team than those that have lost to the Spurs. Only three players remain on the Suns from the 2007 team that was hip-checked out of the series: Steve Nash, Amar'e Stoudemire, and Leandro Barbosa. We all know Nash and Stoudemire play very well against the Spurs and that Shawn Marion always choked. (To give you an example, in 2005, Marion averaged 19.4 points in the regular season. During the series with the Spurs? Only 7.8!) This Suns team features a hungry Grant Hill (who was on the 2008 team but did not contribute because of injuries) and an extremely confident Jason Richardson. He was an absolute nightmare for Portland in first round! Although Richardson's playoff experience is limited, he was on the 2007 8 seed Warriors that ousted the number 1 Mavericks. His playoff numbers in both 2007 and 2010 are better than his regular season numbers for each respective season. In other words, it looks like he is not a "Shawn Marion".

3. Robin Lopez is scheduled to return. While it has been determined that he will sit out at least game one, Robin should be back at some point of this series! I don't mean to bag on Jarron Collins, he is doing his best, but he is no Robin Lopez. I am looking forward to have Lopez back and I feel that a rusty Lopez is still better than Collins (again, I am not taking away from Collins, I do not feel he hurts our team, he does what he is supposed to do, he just doesn't help much either).

4. We have a real bench. In the D'Antoni days, the Suns bench ran seven deep. Eight deep tops. These days, it is ten deep with Dragic, Barbosa, Dudley, Amundson and Frye coming off the bench. This bench brings the defensive tenacity the Suns have always needed and is also known to build leads at times. In the past, the Suns would fall apart when Nash was off the floor but that is no longer the case. We finally have a dependable backup in Goran that allows us to not depend on Nash for everything. In my opinion, this was the biggest hole in teams past.

5. We have home court advantage. This may be an obvious one. We may not be the most raucous crowd in the National Basketball Association (I spelled it out this time so as not to be confused with Nathan Boyd Anderson) but we tend to win at home. This is just one more edge that we have.

6. The Suns play awesome as underdogs. Even though the Suns have home court advantage, they are underdogs to the 7 seed Spurs. I am totally fine with that. I actually wouldn't have it any other way. The Suns have been written off this entire season starting last Summer. Few people predicted them higher than a number 8 seed and many experts felt that the Suns wouldn't even make the playoffs. They did more than just make the playoffs and performed well enough to secure a number 3 seed in the wild western conference that featured EIGHT (yes you read correctly EIGHT (8)) teams with 50 or more wins. Now, even after owning, nay, pwning the Blazers in three of their four victories in the first round, eight out of ten experts on ESPN say the the Spurs are going to win. The Suns can't wait to once again prove these experts wrong.

7. Charles Barkley isn't talking crap about us this season! In fact, he is on the Suns bandwagon and going with his heart and picking the Suns!

http://www.nba.com/video/channels/tnt_overtime/2010/04/29/20100429_inside_5.nba/?ls=iref:nbahpt1

While this Spurs team does still have Duncan, Ginobli and Parker, I feel that we finally have a complete team that can defeat our dreaded foes.

What'd I miss?