NBA Playoffs Blazers-Suns Game 1: Darkness Obscures The Blade

Thoughts on Blazers-Suns Game One:

• Shellshocked. That was the one word I wrote in my  notepad file for the first half, and it carried over. The Suns apparently read and listened to everything that we were saying. That Portland had no chance. That without Roy, they were toothless. We were dumb for saying so. They were inexcusably dumb for thinking that even if it was true that they could come out and perform like that.
• Amar’e is largely to blame, and we’ll get to him. But Nash has a hand in this as well.
• How can Nash have the blame after 25 points, 9 assists, and only 2 turnovers? He was one-half of the pick and roll failboat that set sail. The Blazers countered the pick and roll by going under the screen, fronting Amar’e, and sending a secondary pressure on Nash to force him to the other side.  And Nash went along with it. Instead of dribble hesitating to look for an oop or under pass to Amar’e, Nash circled around and tried to drive and kick. Over. And over. And over.
• On the other end of the floor, the Suns were prepared to let Aldridge shoot. Good strategy. but in a running theme of the night, the Blazers had things goin their way. And Aldridge killed them for 22 points. The main problem with the Suns’ defense was the mass confusion. Multiple times the Suns were simply bamboozeled as to who they needed to be guarded and where. They overextended, under-ran, and generally didn’t get anyone  in a Blazer face on multiple positions. The Andre Miller three was especially egregious to me. People immediately responded with “He only hit 16 all year!” And like I said in the Bucks’ notes, you have to choose someone to live with. But you don’t just concede. The Suns always seem to play okay defense for long stretches and then simply fail to get a hand in a guy’s face. Any attempt from Jason Richardson and Miller misses that shot, and you’re in a much different position.
• Anyone who says Jason Richardson had a good game is out of their gourd. I heard the argument that Leandro Barbosa, one of the few Suns who was forcing the issue on offense that Miller was eating him alive. Guess what? 33 points, you’re getting eaten alive by a F-Lion. But Richardson was not only tossing up bricks, but got lost on defense and looked clunky in the flow of the offense. Fail.
• For the Blazers, Bayless. Man, Bayless. You knew Miller was going to get his. The guy just gets buckets. What’s that? I said he was going to be a horrific bust as a free agent in preseason? I dogged on him for the first half of the year? I’m sorry, I can’t hear you. Andre Miller’s spirit animal is obstructing my hearing as it humps my ear.
• But Bayless continues his emergence. It seemed like the Suns finally had started to figure out the Blazers, then Bayless comes in and tears things up. Huh, speedy fierce small guard comes in and forces the issue and is the difference. Wish the Suns had someone like that. OH WAIT.
• Marcus Camby is the human equivalent of the AT-AT. That’s all I got.

Oster-Tags: Amar'e Stoudemire, Andre Miller, Phoenix Suns, Portland Trailblazers, steve nash