Suns won Game 3 pretty easily. Very impressive considering the fact this was on the road. As expected, the Grizz came out hot and with a lot of energy backed by their home crowd, but the Suns weathered the storm pretty well. By the second quarter, the game had turned around for good and the Suns were rolling. Amare was amazing. He dominated the game in both halves. He threw some ferocious dunks and the first half dunk on Stromile Swift was nasty!
The Suns got their what appears to be their daily dose of injury scare when Nash bumped into a screen and hurt his arm. Luckily, he was fine and came back to finish the game. The impressive thing about Amare's game lately has been how he consciously tries to play under control at both ends of the floor to avoid foul trouble. He still has a tendency to jump and crash into people and pick up fouls because of his great athleticism. But he seems to really play under control especially on offense where a lot of guys just try to stand there while he's jumping and hope for an offensive foul. It probably takes away some of his aggressiveness and a few highlight-reel dunks, but since his mid-range game is growing, he is doing just fine without having to dunk every possession.
Another issue I noticed in this game and has been true the entire season is how the Suns play together on defense. Obviously, the Suns are not a great defensive team. They don't control the boards that well either. Marion and Q rebound well for their size, but then again Amare doesn't get too many rebounds on some days. They play small and so they are not that good defensively or on the boards. But they do play well together and play as a team on defense. Given their deficiencies, they have to help each other out and they do a great job of that. They may not always be effective, but they play hard on defense and the players and the coaches deserve a lot of credit for it. Whats even more impressive is how they get out and run after spending so much energy on defense, that too for mediocre results. It should be pretty tiring and a lot of fun playing for these Suns. Here's hoping the Suns can wrap up the series on Sunday and stay fresh for the rest of the playoffs.
PHOENIX (110) AT MEMPHIS (90)
PHOENIX
REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-FGA FTM-FTA OFF-DEF-TOT AST PF ST TO PTS
====== === === ======= ======= =========== === == ==
Q RICHARDSON F 37 3-9 1-3 1 3 4 1 2 2 0 9
S MARION F 39 5-15 3-4 1 12 13 3 3 0 1 14
A STOUDEMIRE C 37 11-19 8-12 3 6 9 1 3 1 2 30
S NASH G 35 6-9 0-0 0 3 3 8 3 1 2 13
J JOHNSON G 42 9-15 0-0 1 2 3 4 1 0 0 20
J JACKSON 27 6-11 0-0 3 1 4 3 3 0 0 17
S HUNTER 20 3-4 1-2 1 1 2 1 4 0 0 7
L BARBOSA 3 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
B OUTLAW DNP - COACH'S DECISION
W MCCARTY DNP - COACH'S DECISION
J VOSKUHL DNP - COACH'S DECISION
P SHIRLEY DNP - COACH'S DECISION
TOTALS 240 43-82 13-21 10 28 38 22 19 4 5 110
(.524) (.619) TEAM REBS: 8 TOTAL TO: 5 (7 PTS)
MEMPHIS
REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-FGA FTM-FTA OFF-DEF-TOT AST PF ST TO PTS
====== === === ======= ======= =========== === ==
S BATTIER F 25 4-6 2-4 3 5 8 1 3 0 2 10
P GASOL F 32 6-12 1-2 0 3 3 1 2 0 2 13
L WRIGHT C 30 7-9 0-0 2 6 8 2 2 1 1 14
J WILLIAMS G 25 4-10 1-1 0 3 3 6 3 1 1 10
M MILLER G 33 5-12 2-2 0 2 2 2 1 0 2 13
B CARDINAL 20 3-6 0-1 0 2 2 1 2 0 0 6
E WATSON 20 1-7 0-0 1 1 2 3 4 0 0 2
J POSEY 25 2-6 2-2 0 1 1 1 2 0 1 7
D JONES 8 0-3 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
S SWIFT 10 3-5 3-4 5 3 8 0 1 0 0 9
B WELLS 9 2-4 2-2 0 2 2 0 1 0 1 6
A BURKS 3 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
TOTALS 240 37-80 13-18 11 28 39 18 21 2 10 90
(.463) (.722) TEAM REBS: 10 TOTAL TO: 11 (11 PTS)
PHOENIX 31 26 26 27 - 110
MEMPHIS 30 17 20 23 - 90
BLOCKED SHOTS: PHOENIX - A STOUDEMIRE 3, S MARION 2, S HUNTER 2, J JACKSON.
MEMPHIS - P GASOL 4, M MILLER 2, L WRIGHT, S BATTIER.
3-PT. FIELD GOALS: PHOENIX 11-19 (.579), Q RICHARDSON 2-4, S MARION 1-
2, S NASH 1-1, J JOHNSON 2-5, J JACKSON 5-7. MEMPHIS 3-16 (.188), S BATTIER 0-
1, J WILLIAMS 1-5, M MILLER 1-4, E WATSON 0-3, J POSEY 1-3.
TECHNICAL FOULS: PHOENIX - J JOHNSON, DEFENSIVE THREE.
FLAGRANT FOULS: NONE.
OFFICIALS: JOE FORTE, STEVE JAVIE, TIM DONAGHY.
A - 18,119. T - 2:19.
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