By Randy Hill
FOXSportsArizona.com
December 10, 2010
GameTrax: Stats and more
As unwitting subjects of mangled poetry, the Portland Trail Blazers and Phoenix Suns have been like two leaky, barnacle-riddled ships passing in four nights.
OK, so it's more like 72 real-time hours and the Blazers have patched part of their hull. Anyway, from Tuesday evening in Portland through Friday night in downtown Phoenix, the Blazers and Suns traded places over three treacherous (for the Suns) NBA shifts. When this little tiff began, Portland was two games below the break-even mark and Phoenix was two above.
With a Blazers triumph over Orlando and a Suns home loss to Memphis stuffed between, Phoenix whiffed in two dates with Portland.
Despite leaning on the caveat that any early December setback just can't be fatal (can it?), Friday's home loss certainly smells a lot like the harbinger of rough days ahead. More on that in a moment. Right now, let's throw it over to Suns coach Alvin Gentry.
"I don't think we should panic or anything," Gentry said after his team lost to a team that played the night before, "we just have to continue to find ways to get better."
While remaining positive is in Gentry's job description, you should feel free to get a little panicky ... yeah, even knowing that an NBA season seems to last longer than your mortgage.
Before performing an autopsy of a three-game losing streak that followed a modest three-game winning streak, let's review how tricky things have become.
When the week began, the Suns -- with the alibi of that dastardly season-opening schedule behind them -- were about to embark on a 26-game stretch featuring showdowns with only 10 teams that (at the time) checked in with winning records. It was the start of certified hay-making time. The above .500 list did not include the Blazers (who are on it now) or the Grizzlies; for the record, the Suns are a combined 1-5 against these heavyweights, with the lone victory achieved when Memphis went comatose on a back-screen lob to Jason Richardson that created the predicament of overtime.
The Suns' next playmates will be the Minnesota Timberwolves, who feature rebounding monster Kevin Love. Now that Phoenix is 11-12, it's safe to insist that no opponent qualifies as a lightweight. The T-Wolves (currently 6-17) are legitimate threats to run into town (they lead the league in pace) and run out with a win.
After that, the Suns are obliged to dive into the real deadly portion of what was supposed to be that reasonable 26-game haul. A three-game road trip takes them to Dallas, followed by back-to-backs in Oklahoma City and San Antonio. Their return is marked by a Christmas Eve party with the Miami Heat. Talk about discomfort and joy.
"No one ever said it was going to be easy," Gentry said.
I certainly didn't.
With their bad timing for a losing streak established, let's take a look at a few reasons why the Suns are struggling.
* We'll start with Richardson, who had been playing like a guy worthy of another fat contract (somewhere). Now chew on this: J-Rich missed 22 of his 28 field-goal attempts this week. This rim-bruising is the main reason why a team that was leading the league in scoring has failed to reach 100 points in these three defeats.
Although Richardson clanked a few pristine looks in those 28 attempts, Gentry reminded us that early scoring success has inspired opposing defenses to spend more time in his grill. With harder close-outs, the Suns' two-guard has attempted to counter with drives to the rim. Unfortunately, Richardson's explosive athleticism can't hide his inability to maintain any shot-making balance off the dribble.
* After a swell 3-0 beginning, the Earl Barron Experiment should end. Even though the recently acquired 7-foot center has provided considerably more defensive effort than most of his teammates, his offensive limitations prevent the Suns from taking advantage of the rare, first-quarter stops they do make.
"We'll revisit that and see if that's the way we should go," Gentry said of starting Barron in a desperate attempt to generate some defensive resistance early in games.
* Gentry could go with Hakim Warrick, the wiry run-and-dunk specialist, who still looks lost when the opposition has the ball, or Hedo Turkoglu, who now seems content to go wild (in a good way) when the team is in a gaping, fourth-quarter hole.
"The only thing that's a little disappointing is that we wait until we get down 15 before we start playing the way I want us to play at the start of the game," Gentry said of the team, but this issue has been underscored by Turkoglu's last two performances.
* With Richardson's shooting woes and Gentry's inside-rotation dilemma on the table, we now acknowledge the continued freakish generosity of the defense. Still registered as the league's worst in stopping the other team, the Suns allowed the Blazers to make 64 percent of their shots in the opening half.
"It's very frustrating," Richardson said. "We did everything we were supposed to. I don't know what it is. It wasn't like they were getting layups."
J-Rich also claimed the Suns were contesting perimeter shots and so on, but that's a reach. His inability to guard Brandon Roy one-on-one and his teammates' inability to defend the low post caused Gentry to send double teams that invited quick ball reversals and open shots that any NBA team can make.
Evidence that they weren't doing nearly enough was provided in the fourth quarter, when the Suns finally felt good and ready to contest all shots, close out on shooters with energy and make an effort to stay in front of ballhandlers. It resulted in a 22-percent shooting effort for the Blazers, who managed a skinny 14 points.
Before we officially declare that the Suns have gone from roller-coaster ride to free fall, let's find a silver lining. Ah, here's one. With three practices scheduled before meeting Minnesota, Gentry has time to find answers for some of these weaknesses. The last time they had a similar gap between games, the Suns mustered a three-game winning streak.
But with Alvin questioning his team's sense of urgency, we're left to wonder if questions about effort and determination are issues that can be solved by just practicing.
