Phoenix Suns

["hironaka@xxxxxxxxx"<hironaka@xxxxxxxxx>]

It pretty much came out of the blue, but Joe Johnson had 
season highs in points (16) and rebounds (5) last night 
against the Nets, along with four assists. He's having a 
miserable year, but is shooting 10-17 in the last two 
games ahead of the Boston game.

The Suns have lost five straight road games, but are 
still 10-10 overall and have played a stronger than 
average schedule. 

In the past two weeks, the Suns have notably defeated the 
Spurs, Indiana and New Jersey. But they lost a rematch to 
NJ last night, after holding them to a season low 75 
points two weeks ago.

M&M.

Stephon Marbury is averaging 20.5 points and 8.5 assists. 
Shawn Marion is averaging 19.3 points and 10 boards. 
Neither guy has missed a game.

Penny is the only other Suns player in double figures 
(10.7 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 4.4 apg). 

But Amare Stoudamire has been the story. He's averaging 
9.9 points and 8.3 rebounds, no doubt one of the best 
rookie years of a prepster in NBA history. The Suns seem 
to have a knack for finding these forces of nature. He'll 
be another building block along with Shawn Marion.

They use Amare with some other big bodies in the rotation 
like Jake Tsakalidis, Scott Williams and Bo Outlaw. Goog, 
the team's fourth max contract player, is on the injured 
list.

Another rookie, Casey Jacobson, was drafted, I believe, 
in Boston's slot this year. 

He's a designated shooter who lately gets around 15 to 20 
minutes per game, and he scored 10 points last night 
against the Nets mainly in garbage time.

The Suns do not shoot well from the field. They are at 
only .410 from the field and .293 on treys (12 attempts 
per game) this season. They got blitzed by the Nets last 
night in the 3Q, getting outscored 25-5 to start the 
period.

Among the Suns' 8 leading (healthy) scorers, 6 shoot 
below .411 from the field. Marion is their most efficient 
scorer at .427. Not that Boston's captains can brag, but 
Stoudamire is at .401 from the field and others in the 
rotation are even worse.

The Suns allow .430 shooting from the field, so they are 
very similar to the Celtics in defensive prowess. On 
average, they hold opponents to under 90 points per game. 

The Suns also get 14.6 offensive boards, giving them a 
huge +2.7 advantage. 

The Celtics gave up 51 boards last night, for a minus 9, 
so that's one thing Obie is certain to stress during 
practice. 

Obviously, the Celtics need to be prepared to keep their 
complete focus for 48-minutes even in a potentially ugly 
game. 

Comparing the schedules last week, it occured to me that 
the Celtics could well find themselves alone in first 
place before tomorrow night is through, with Philly 
playing Seattle. The Celtics rebounded well from the 
Philly loss to move right back in the race. So basically, 
games like tomorrow night have some significance.

In a way, this season is vaguely starting to resemble the 
early 1980s again, with both clubs over .700 and playing 
tough, in-your-face defense.

Joe H.


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