03-24-2008, 09:33 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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Veteran
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: 4 Corners of the World
Age: 22
Posts: 1,172
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Suns Seeking Unprecedented Wins
Suns Seeking Unprecedented Wins
Quote:
Suns Seeking Unprecedented Wins
Paul Coro
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 23, 2008 08:30 PM
The Suns are going where no other NBA team has had success this season.
Phoenix opens a four-game, six-day road trip with Eastern Conference powers Detroit and Boston. Six other teams have faced the Pistons and Celtics consecutively this season, and none beat both. Chicago and Dallas were the only teams to go to Detroit and Boston successively and come away winless, with Dallas averaging 83.5 points in the games.
If the Suns still are the NBA's hottest team after Monday's game at Detroit and Wednesday's visit to Boston, they surely will have earned the tag.
"It's definitely going to be a tough trip for us," Suns guard Leandro Barbosa said. "It's going to be a good test for us, especially for the Finals. We've got to be ready and prepared for those kind of games and play tough no matter what."
Phoenix struggled to score when it faced Detroit and Boston at home Feb. 22 and 24. Those were Shaquille O'Neal's second and third games with the Suns and came prior to the team's offensive alterations.
The Suns beat Boston with defense 85-77, but were outscored by Detroit 39-11 in one stretch of a 116-86 loss early in the "Shaqlimation" process.
"We feel better as a team," Suns forward Amaré Stoudemire said. "We're playing better, so it's going to be an interesting game in Detroit and Boston.
"From a team standpoint, we can still get better and we know it. From a defensive end and also offensively, we've just got so much upside. We've got to keep striving for greatness."
The Suns are averaging 117 points during their current seven-game winning streak on 55.7 percent shooting. Phoenix has scored at least 110 points in six consecutive games for the second time in Mike D'Antoni's 4 1/2 seasons as coach.
"We were a good offensive team before the trade," Suns forward Grant Hill said. "We weren't a great defensive team. I think defense is the big thing."
Phoenix is pulling away each game on the merits of its defense, which has allowed 42.3 percent shooting during the run.
"It's a smart group of guys that I'm playing with, so I knew at some point that we were going to get to this level," said O'Neal, coming off a 23-point game that was his high with the Suns. "Now we just have to bottle this formula and just go with it."
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Lets see how they do on Eastern Road Trip. This will tell us a lot about how capable this team really is.
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by rainman
Does this board just time out if someone doesn't make a Kobe thread every 24 hours?
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LOL ^_^
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Suns Seeking Unprecedented Wins
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