If I grant everyone that defense will win championships.
... you need to tell me: WHICH DEFENSE can stop Phoenix?
NOBODY has done it yet, so ...
... and NOBODY has enough scorers to keep pace either. Only the Heat have a chance and that will be a matchup for the ages.
A Suns-Heat will be better than having slow teams like Detroit and the Spurs and Indiana in the finals.
... you need to tell me: WHICH DEFENSE can stop Phoenix?
NOBODY has done it yet, so ...
... and NOBODY has enough scorers to keep pace either. Only the Heat have a chance and that will be a matchup for the ages.
A Suns-Heat will be better than having slow teams like Detroit and the Spurs and Indiana in the finals.
Looks like five down, eleven to go...
arty:
Still Dallas worries me almost as much as Spurs. Teams that give us trouble are offensive minded. Defense doesn't bother us as much as having to keep up with teams that get aggressive on offense. Spurs will have to run with us at some point to beat us. They certainly can do that, but don't think just a slow paced defensive effort will stop us. Charles has said that many times on TNT and it is very true.
arty: Still Dallas worries me almost as much as Spurs. Teams that give us trouble are offensive minded. Defense doesn't bother us as much as having to keep up with teams that get aggressive on offense. Spurs will have to run with us at some point to beat us. They certainly can do that, but don't think just a slow paced defensive effort will stop us. Charles has said that many times on TNT and it is very true.
The Suns can look very good against teams that don't have either an inside presence or a defensive scheme. Memphis and Dallas fit that mold. San Antonio will be a much different animal as they not only have both but also have players that can create on their own offensively and the Suns are like a sieve defensively. The tempo will be contol by the Spurs. Phoenix will go no further then this round at best.
oldmanTED said:
I have to disagree with you on this one OMT. Suns have played fine against top teams in the league who play this defense first style. The key in each case was Nash. He missed a loss at Detroit and got hurt in a game at Indiana. He ran out of gas in the game they blew against the Spurs, his first back from injury. The teams that have given them trouble have been the likes of Golden State. The losses to the Spurs came from giving up 115 and 128 points. The Heat beat the Suns by scoring 125 points.
If the Spurs intend on playing a deliberately slow game they will lose. If Dallas thinks they will win by just playing a slower style they will get killed. The way to beat the Suns is to outrun them. I have no idea why people don't look at the season log and see this obvious issue. In a game against Dallas at home the Mavs played a slower deliberate style for the first half and found themselves down 10. In the second half the Mavs just ran like the Suns and put up 74 points and won the game.
Just being brutally honest about my team here. Dallas maybe scares me more than they should because it appears new coach Johnson has no intentions of getting into a running style. Maybe Popovich is smart enough to realize the style his team needs to play to beat this team, but the Suns just have too many weapons and too much of an edge with Nash to have another team stop them from playing an effective offensive game. If they will be beaten it will come from rebounding deficiencies which are amplified by a team willing to run a lot. If a team gets those boards but then looks to slow it down, a team with more weapons will beat them over time.
