You and me could write a bad romance.

The Suns
First off, the (kinda old) video that brought me back to the blog:

As this person says, the Phoenix Suns are probably the most fun-loving team in the NBA. Hence, my love for them.

Amare on kids radio!

Maybe Goran can be the Point Guard of the Future!



Lakers v Suns
Tonight is making me hate the Lakers even more. Fouling Grant Hill so hard that he loses his contact and requires stitches. Lou Amundson getting flagrently fouled and not getting the call, causing Alvin Gentry to be ejected. Evil usually wins, I guess.

As a pick me up, have a picture of a napping Earl Clark:














(Courtesy of Jared Dudley's twitter account.)


Mystics News
It's not actually news yet, but on Tuesday the Mystics are having a press conference to announce an apparently awesome new signing. My guess is Katie Smith, which would be super good, but I'm also holding out hope that it's Deanna Nolan (even if she's not a free agent). I don't think it could possibly be Penny Taylor, and she's the only other option of this magnitude.

So I guess we'll see...

I'm 6-10, I'm in the lane!

Dear LeBron,
Your team just swept the first round of the playoffs against a very depleted team. The God pose might be a bit much. Just maybe.
Trying to be helpful,
Jean

I have been having a bit of trouble thinking of things to say about the playoffs lately. Mostly I just want to say that I so totally called the Warriors playing the Mavs hard and maybe even winning the best of seven. Everyone's acting so surprised about it, and I don't really know why. There are so many reasons that the Warriors can play so well against the Mavs.

The other thing that I want to say about the playoffs so far (that I have said and will say again long after I click the "publish" button) is "Eeep, Spurs!" Why can't Denver cooperate and just beat them for us? It's really scary.

I think it says a lot about the Lakers and how they're playing that I'm more worried about the second round than I am about the rest of the first. I just strongly feel that we'll win it even if the Lakers win tomorrow night (knock wood).

Oh, and I've decided that I'm not a Smush Parker fan. Not as though I was ever cheering for him, but he's pretty much sealed my opinion of him. Last Thursday, at the end of game three, he had that ridiculous dunk attempt. If you're up by six and there's a couple seconds left, you dribble it out. You *do not* run the fast break for an easy dunk. You just don't. It's rude and bad sportsmanship.

And then on Sunday he fouled Barbosa hard twice. Both times he basically grabbed him and took him into the stands. It was bizarre and unnecessary. And of course had me yelling at the TV. Because a) that's what I do, and b) I'm oddly protective of Barbosa.

One last thing about the Suns podcasts, and then I'm off to bed. It's mostly stuff (or maybe even all stuff) from the multimedia section on suns.com, but I love it! I've been having a ton of fun watching and listening to things that I never would have otherwise. Especially this.

Enjoy!

Here come the Suns

The Suns play game two with the Lakers tonight. I'm very excited, although apparently we haven't won a game two in the last five series that we've played. That's ok, I have faith that today they'll pull through with relatively few headaches.

And then tomorrow it's a double header of games that I care about (even if mostly marginally). First up Denver will hopefully beat San Antonio's ass again. Although I don't know how likely that is with the full court press of doom and the ability to completely control the tempo of the game. The Spurs defense has been written about by much smarter people than me, but suffice it to say that San Antonio worries me more than any other team in the playoffs, even Dallas.

Speaking of, in the second game tomorrow night we get to see if Golden State can win two games in a row in Dallas.

TNT is running a short little ad that makes me very happy. In it they call the team "Leandro Barbosa and the Suns." I know it's because of his team high 26 points, but still to have a bench player be treated by the media like he's the star of the team? Very cool. Also indicative of the way this team works together.

And! Indicative of the fact that Barbosa just got the 6th Man of the Year award. I suddenly can't remember if I had previously capitalized that or not. But whatever, I'm just so very excited that he got it. As a result, there's all sorts of press on him right now. He seems to have appropriate perspective on it too. He still has his focus on the Championship where it belongs.

I've recently started getting Suns podcasts from suns.com, both video and audio. So far they're very good. I may talk about them more later, I may not--but right now it's way past my bedtime. Goodnight, and good luck to our heroes.

Look at that, a power I didn't even know I had!

Last night's games could not have gone any better for me.

Golden State buried Portland guaranteeing that they make the playoffs. The Lakers beat Sacramento, meaning that Golden State gets to face off with Dallas in the first round. (Note this date, I was rooting for the Lakers.) And then the Clippers lost to the Hornets, which just reinforces the other two outcomes and gives the Hornets a nice win at the end of the season.

I'm not too worried about taking the Lakers in a best out of seven. I'm even going to go out on a limb and say that with the way things sit this year, I think it won't even get as far as seven games like it did last year.

The thing that really excites me though, to get back to the games last night, is Golden State versus Dallas. The Warriors have gone 3-0 against the "unbeatable" Mavericks this season. I'm hoping this means that they can translate that kind of play to post-season wins, and eliminate Dirk et al in the first round. If it doesn't mean that, then at the very least I think they will wear the Mavs out, and maybe even take it to seven.

I cannot wait until Sunday. (Yes, I know that the playoffs start on Saturday. But that's not so much true if you're a Suns fan.)

One, yeah, it's the magic number

So now the magic number is one. Well unless the Spurs lose to the Mavs today. In which case the magic number is two. As in the number two seed clinched.

The game last night against Utah was so much fun. I love seeing them just take over a game. I also love when Barbosa is the top scorer off the bench.

I'm also amazed with Nash's 18:0 assist to turnover ratio. There's a math geek imaginary number joke to be made there, but I don't feel like thinking of it. The night before versus the Lakers it was 14:1. That's what I like to see.

It's what sets the Suns apart from the rest of the West. Everyone else gives something important to the team, but there is no other player like Nash in the NBA. There are other amazing 6th men (well hello, Manu), other versatile big guys (how are you, Dirk?), other 3 point sharpshooters (sorry, I didn't see you there, Jason), other guys who are even better at defense (use your words, Ron), but there is no other player like Nash at point. No one who is that deadly a shot, but has that kind of court vision and generosity.

I am in no way trying to say that the other guys are disposable, they very much are not. But they aren't on a different plane with their individual skill levels like Nash is.

One final note, and then today's edition of "How Many Games Does He Play?" In the game on Friday versus the Lakers, there was a brilliant camera shot in the fourth quarter that started with Raja grinning from ear to ear and then shifted focus to the foreground where Kobe was scowling. It was something I wish I had on tape. I don't know what I would do with it, but that was how beautiful it was--I just want to watch it again.

So, how many games does he play?