Game Thread: Los Angeles Clippers @ Phoenix Suns

Very disappointed but I think it's needed before going to the playoffs. This may hurt Nash's chance of getting MVP but just to think he can repeat the MVP is already over-achieving.

To sum it up:
1.) Our offense is being exposed. We are great when we hit long jumpers but we totally suck when we can't hit anything. A few things I want to bring up is ... Diaw. I know he's had a terrific game but he DOES NOT run pick&roll well with Nash. Several times Nash wanted to pass to him so he can go inside (which Nash wants him to for obvious reasons) but there was no passing angle at all. Diaw actually popped OUT waiting for Nash to pass to him so he can create. Well, this worked in 1q when Clippers' defense hadn't waken up and when we were hitting our shots. In 2nd, 3rd and 4th, this did not work. Nash CAN pass inside if you run the pick&roll with him. We did not have that at all. In fact, when KT was playing, he did run good PR with Nash.

What has changed?

2.) Diaw is becoming more of a play maker now. While this looks great on stats sheet, I believe this is not the direction the team wants to make. I can see it in Nash's playing and I believe even Nash talked about it in interviews where Nash wants Diaw to go inside and stop passing out so many times. We have NOBODY that can go inside. NOBODY. This is not even funny. Marion would ONLY go inside when there is a super obvious mismatch or when Nash drives in and he cuts in to do a little layup/jumper. That's it. Marion has no inside game at all. I am not complaining about Marion because he does every other things so well but this team has no inside presence. There is no secret why we have on pace to break the LOWEST FT attempt in NBA history.

3.) Because we are passing so much (mainly Diaw), Nash's assist went down. This doesn't look good on stats sheet for Nash but at this point, I think Nash wants more wins than his MVP chance.

4.) Bell, House and James Jones all live on outside shooting, mainly 3pt shots. They've gotta react to defense better and realize that they can't be hot all the time. Pistons and Clippers' defense were so tight that Bell PANIC. Bell can get frustrated so easily with his shots. He needs to go inside a bit more to break up the defense. Our long jumpers will only result in defensive rebounds for the opponent. We can't hit 45-50% on 3pt all the time.
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I know this may sound weird but Diaw's improvement in stats is actually pulling the team down. Let me explain:

When we had that 11 winning streak, Diaw and Kurt Thomas both played a huge part in our defense. Both are not terribly tall but at least we didn't give up easy layups and we fouled A LOT more. Now that Diaw is becoming a "star", he becomes TOO IMPORTANT on our offense to the point that he's becoming last year's Amare, who refused to foul and gave open layups. We are actually going BACKWARD the way I see it. I saw ZERO hard fouls tonight when Brand was killing us inside. Both Grant and Burke played ZERO mins. I blame this on D'Antoni. He needs to get it out of his sytem and adjust. He seems to fall in love with Diaw's offense contribution when our inside presence dropped to hell.

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To be honest, when Nash said he doesn't want Diaw to pass out that much I thought Nash was jealous of Diaw's contribution. It was actually quite funny. However, I can TOTALLY see it in tonight's game. We are not drawing ANY FOULS because nobody is going inside. I don't know how many times when Nash penetrates and passes it out, our shooters just shood there and wanting to pass to the open guy, when they are not open, they get panic and wanting Nash to bail them out. Nobody really goes inside besides Barbosa who has moderate success with it.

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Solutions:
1.) Kurt Thomas's job wasn't all that special. Play physical and give hard fouls when the opposing big guy gets too deep. He is not saving his fouls for Christmas. KT was never a big part of our offense anyway. Grant can hit that little jumper and I believe even Burke can do so. D'Antoni MUST train one of our big guys to play inside when we face team that has huge inside presence like Spurs/Clippers. Tim Thomas is not going to cut it. He is so soft and slow and his outside shots are very inconsistent.

2.) Nash has to turn into an offense machine now. Forget about being the assist leader. Look to score EVERY TIME he gets the ball and run pick&roll as many times as possible. Try to get their big guys in foul trouble. Run this with Marion and Diaw more rather than rotating the ball so many times and nobody wants to shoot. This will only work sometimes.

3.) Diaw has to go inside and draw fouls. I know it may not be in his nature but he has to do it. Diaw had a great offense night but his defense was bad. It's not really his fault because he is not supposed to guard such big guy. If Diaw can't do it, then we have to train Tim Thomas. He is taller and looks stronger. We can't shoot 3pt shots all game long.

4.) Play with pride baby.

Man, it's so late here... 1:44am!!! Damn.