[hroz]

Suns and Mavs appeared to be effected by their double OT game this is not a big deal to the Suns.

NOTE: I have always said that the EAST champ has a good chance of getting rings beause of the dogfight that will occur in the West.
If they did W1vE8 W2vE7.....W7vE2 W8vE1
You would get good odds for a WEST clean sweep and I wouldve put money on it. Beating the Pistons would have been the hardest.

[Fray]

The Suns play no defense and rely too much on their offense. Their style of play will never win a championship.

[Pioneer10]

Detroit has an ideal team makeup to take on Phoenix. Billups is a good defender who can physically push around Nash when the Pistons have the ball into the post and so make it difficult on both ends for the two time MVP.. Detoit bigs (i.e. Rasheed) has the size to match up with Amare as well as good mobility unlike most big men who have only one or the other. Add in Webber, McDyess, Maxiel to exploit the weak Suns interior and you have a tough matchup for the Suns.

[Helvius]

Attaboy, Fray. Maybe you should join Hollinger "To win 70 games, you have to win by an average of 10 points each game" the Magnificent.

Maybe you should coach the Suns too. You seem to get it.

[ChristopherJ]

Originally Posted by futuristxen

Detroit showing why they are perenial title contenders, and the Suns perenial title pretenders. Definitely a statement game. Detroit is so different with Webber there. You almost have to throw out their record going into the playoffs.

With Detroit playing like this, Miami on fire, and the Lebron playing amazing for the Cavs, the east playoffs are going to be a lot better than eastern conference haters think. And the NBA champion could once again reside in the east come next season.

Your eastern bias is embarrassing. The Suns had an off night, simple as that.

[croco]

Flip Saunders is still the Pistons head coach and as long as that's the case I doubt that Detroit will get to the Finals again.

[Zei_Zao_LS]

Some interesting stats.

Rip Hamilton- 6 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 3/12 FG
Flip Murray- 25 points, 12/16 FG, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 6 steals, 1 block in 32 minutes.
Carlos Delfino- 13 points, 5/6 FG, 2/2 3PT, 7 rebounds, 24 minutes
Shawn Marion- 6 points, 3/5 FG, 2 rebounds, 3 TO, 2 blocks
Leandro Barbosa- 3/11 FG, 1/6 3PT, 4 assists
James Jones- 1/6 FG, 3 rebounds

Nash and Amare played well for the Suns... and that was about it. Oddly enough, Rip had an off night, and seemed to be the only guy the Suns were really intent on guarding properly. I, personally, don't read too much into this (having watched the game) in that the Suns looked sluggish, the bench was basically non-existant, and Shawn didn't even seem to be in the game on the offensive end. (Played very well on defense though. Every time they iso'd against him, he forced a horrible shot.)

Also of note, James Jones and Leandro were both getting very good looks, they just weren't dropping. The 50% FG is very decieving, as the Suns went 2/15 from 3PT and really weren't connecting on anything that wasn't in the lane. (A bad sign when playing a team like the Pistons that packs it in the paint.) I've always found that looking at the Suns turnovers pretty much shows you how well they were playing that night. If they have only 7-8 TO, it's rarely a close game, if they put up 22 TO's, they'll get their asses handed to them.

On that note, the Pistons should definitely try to keep Flip Murray (not just because of this game, mind you). He provides a scoring punch, can shoot, and is one of the few guys on the team that doesn't require his teammates setting him up to be effective on offense.

[BG7]

Originally Posted by futuristxen

Detroit showing why they are perenial title contenders, and the Suns perenial title pretenders. Definitely a statement game. Detroit is so different with Webber there. You almost have to throw out their record going into the playoffs.

With Detroit playing like this, Miami on fire, and the Lebron playing amazing for the Cavs, the east playoffs are going to be a lot better than eastern conference haters think. And the NBA champion could once again reside in the east come next season.

In your typical fashion you try not to mention the Bulls. Your bias is so bad.

Tyrus Thomas is averaging 7.8 ppg 5.8 rpg 1.0 spg 3.5 bpg as a starter so far.

Ben Wallace has picked up his play lately, but I guess you'll be content with getting sent home in he 2nd round by Detroit.

[streetballa]

Wow, Phoenix only scored 83 points.

[JasonKidd5]