The Suns surprisingly won easily today against their arch-rival Dallas. The game was back and forth and close in the first half, but the Suns pulled away in the third and put the game away in the fourth with white-hot shooting in the second half. The entire team played well. MP3 was as good as ever with a 23-3-11 night. Amare and Stackhouse continued from where they left off the last time these 2 teams met. They had ridiculous shooting nights. Amare had 24 on 10/14 shots and stack had 25 on 11/16 shots for the Mavs. Marion had 20 and Barbosa led the Suns with 29 points. It's amazing how routinely Barbosa leads this team in both scoring and shots. It' a tribute to his game, but it's also a tribute to how much coach D'Antoni has trusted him from day 1 and let him develop in to an offensive juggernaut. But above all, it shows you the great chemistry and team-work of these Suns. The big 3 love him and have no problem letting him score in bunches because he can. He is such a good, friendly kid with a mad game. Dirk had a tough shooting game with a 6/18 showing for just 21 points. Howard carried them in the first half, but the Suns were just too hot tonight. They shot 65% for the game and 80+ in the fourth. I think Dallas is good, may be even championship good, but I never bought the hype about their defense. It's much improved from their Nelly days, but it's nowhere near championship level. They have to win with their offense and in that sense, they are very similar to the Suns. I think these teams are pretty close and the hot-shooting team on a given night will win the game. It' as simple as that. The only half way decent defence you'll see in these game are when Howard in on Nash and Marion on Dirk. Even that's rarely effective because we are talking about two MVP candidates here and they can't be stopped most of the time.
The Suns win kept them 3 games ahead of the Spurs who surprisingly lost at Indiana. The Pacers, after losing all those games, beat Timmy and the boys even without Jermaine O'Neal on a driving layup by Jamaal Tinsley. Diogu had a 18-13 night. This guy is going to be good if they play him consistently. Detroit won against Miami with a good fourth quarter despite 23 from Shaq. Close game, but the Pistons turned up the D late in the fourth. The Pistons are looking good right now. Big win today for the Jazz at Houston. They "contained" Yao who had 35-16 and T-Mac who had 20. Good number, but both guys didn't shoot particularly well.
Kobe had a quiet game today as the Lakers took care of the Kings to pretty much put an end to their faint playoff hopes. He had a season-high 13 assists to go with his 19 points. They won even without a strong showing from Lamar Odom. King James missed the game at Boston and the Cavs lost to the Celtics who played without The Truth, Paul Pierce. The Warriors beat the Grizz today even though Boom-Dizzle got ejected in the first quarter. J-Rich had another strong night for the W's with 26-6-8 and the W's stayed a 1.5 behind the Clips. Looking at the schedule, I think it'll be tough for the W' to catch the Clips.
Dallas @ Phoenix - 104-126
Miami @ Detroit - 88-94
Utah @ Houston - 86-83
Sacramento @ LA Lakers - 103-126
Interesting games on the board for Apr 2-Nd (Monday)
NCAA Finals. No NBA games on the board.
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