By Randy Hill
FOXSportsArizona.com
While still searching for solutions to his team's latest predicament, Alvin Gentry should be saluted for nailing the proper analogy.
Now checking in at 14-18, Gentry imposed upon the legend of Hans Brinker to describe what coaching the Phoenix Suns has been like this season. You know, plug a leak in the dike here, another leak springs up over there. Finally play better defense over here, your offensive rhythm is disrupted over there. By the way, that rebounding hole remains a real gusher.
"We've got to get the water stopped," Gentry said the day after the Suns collapsed late in the fourth quarter of a tiny-momentum-trashing loss to the Kings in Sacramento.
OK, so here's the bad news: With the Suns reeling (seven losses in 10 games), a potential tidal wave of hype-compatible basketball is scheduled to hit town this week. The first stab at redemption comes Wednesday night when the L.A. Lakers roll in. On Friday, Mike D'Antoni and the New York Knicks arrive on the main stop of the Amar'e Stoudemire Five-Year-Guarantee Cruise.
Staggering into Tuesday's date with the Detroit Pistons, the Lakers (23-11) have lost four of their six previous games. The setbacks included a home loss to the Milwaukee Bucks and Sunday's Staples Center rout administered by the Memphis Grizzlies. To make things even edgier for the two-time defending NBA champs, coach Phil Jackson took a couple of verbal shots at Kobe Bryant, who's been breaking ranks and firing several rounds off at some innocent rims.
So, with yet another crisis to propel them, the Lakers also may still be smarting a bit from their last game with the Suns, who made 22 3-pointers while winning in L.A. Then again, Kobe and his pals haven't seemed all that gung-ho about stepping up to recent challenges. Perhaps they'll flex some muscle against the Pistons and be relatively mellowed out when they show up in Phoenix.
We do know they'll have a dandy opportunity to kick-start the engines of lanky low-post threats Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.
Yeah, that's where the Suns come in. Even when Gentry fields an NBA orthodox lineup (two alleged bigs and three perimeter players), defending the post often results in catastrophe. But, in an effort to have enough quickness to make rotations out of pick-and-roll blitzes and provide backup point guard Goran Dragic with a suitable playmate in Channing Frye, Gentry has started four perimeter players the past two games.
The Suns responded with a premium defensive performance in the New Year's Eve wipeout of the Pistons, but they frittered away Sunday's should-have-been win by folding -- at both ends of the floor -- in Sacramento. In the process of focusing on not being the worst defensive team the league has seen in many years, the Suns and their historically efficient offense have been lacking in tempo and ball movement. They also have been up to their ears in well-meaning newcomers who aren't bashful about shooting because they probably have mistaken themselves for Dell Curry.
The fair-to-middling gang rebounding that accompanied a stout defensive effort against Detroit was a bitter memory in Sacramento.
While not exactly upset that his defense has rallied (against two weak teams) for nearly two entire games,Gentry knows there is no stat-manipulating website offering a column for moral victories. Well, not yet.
"If you look at the big picture," Gentry said after Monday's practice, "we have to have tangible things to show for it ... and that's wins."
Looking at the little snapshot for this week, Gentry must decide if still going small is even reasonable against the Lakers, who now are starting their two 7-footers, with 6-10 Lamar Odom subbing in. Gentry has acknowledged that asking 6-8 Grant Hill to deal with someone like Gasol seems nutty.
But Hill didn't do so badly defending the post against Blake Griffin in the second half of a loss to the Clippers in L.A. On that occasion, a Suns teammate was dispatched to double down on Griffin as soon as the ball left the hands of the entry passer. The Clips did manage to make a few open shots on passes out of the post into ball reversal, but the inherent spacing in Jackson's triangle offense makes this a lot more risky against the Lakers.
So Gentry could go back to starting the 6-11 Frye or use Marcin Gortat -- who's been coming off the bench and playing enough to put starting center Robin Lopez in a cameo situation -- at power forward.
The Lakers will show some pick-and-roll action involving Bryant, but that portion of the Suns' defense really will come into question when they meet up with D'Antoni and Amar'e.
Since the start of the Detroit game, Gentry's defenders have blitzed -- or were supposed to blitz -- every pick-and-roll play run by the opposition. The results weren't textbook perfect against the Pistons, but the tactic served to keep the Suns moving and attacking at the end of the floor where they've been horribly vulnerable.
Against the Kings, the Suns usually were extremely late rotating to the slip-screener, because Sacramento was using its power forward to set the screen, leaving Lopez or Gortat to handle the roll. Lopez was awful; Gortat was more on time. The Kings also adjusted at halftime, often fanning three potential shooters along the 3-point line on the opposite side. This made rotating over to take the slip-screener a lot more difficult.
The biggest problem, however, has been the Suns' mediocre level of aggression when blitzing ball screens. Sure, the ballhandler's forward progress has been somewhat muted, but with little pressure applied, opposing guards are making quick and proper first passes out of the would-be trap. This leads to open shots behind the arc or rim-crushing slips to the basket by the screener.
It wasn't a total breakdown against the Kings, who managed to shoot just 40 percent and failed to reach triple digits. But against New York, it'll be interesting to see if Gentry avoids attacking a team that thrives in screen-roll or sticks with blitzing long enough for his team to actually become good at it.
Oh, yeah. Another crisis is deciding who in the heck will guard Stoudemire.
How about Frye isolated with Amar'e at the elbow? Or Hill with immediate double-team help against a team that loves to burn threes? Give Gortat an opportunity to show how much lateral movement he has?
By the end of the week, Gentry may think he's trying to plug all possible leaks in Hoover Dam.
