2008-2009

10 points from the scrimmage

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October 4, 2008 By

Suns.com team members Dan Hilton and Daniel Banks join forces to bring you ten random points about the Suns vs. Suns scrimmage on October 3.

#1: Still Pretty Fast

(Dan Hilton)
I think there may have been a fear among some fans that with a new coaching staff and an emphasis on defense, the team would slow down a bit. But with a total of 116 points between the teams, they still scored more than 23% of them on the fast break. Steve Nash looked as good as ever at pushing the ball and Goran Dragic is learning from Nash on how to run the break.

#2: Dancers Unveiled

(Daniel Banks)
The 2008-09 Suns Dancer squad may have been unveiled last month on suns.com (click here to see, I’ll wait here), but Friday night was their first chance to take the court together as a team. They stole the show with crisp choreography and fun. While the Suns still have one practice left before they wrap up camp, the Suns Dancers showed us they are more than ready for the season. Bring it on, Laker Girls!

#3: Free Throw Work

(Dan Hilton)
If the scrimmage shows anything like what the regular season will be like, one of the biggest things they can work on is free throws. They shot a total of 39 free throws and made 23 of them – about 58%. Sure, Shaq only made two of his six free throws but even taking that out, the rest of the team only shot 63%.

#4: Major League Moves

(Daniel Banks)
Speaking of the Suns Dancers, I was standing in the tunnel as the game operations crew were deciding who would get the honor of throwing out tshirts to the crowd during the upcoming timeout. I heard one man who shall remain nameless tease, “Don’t ask the Dancers, they throw like girls!” … Now I’ve learned my lesson not to taunt a Suns Dancer (long story) so I was interested to see how the gals would react. Brittany B rose to the challenge and launched a rolled up tshirt high up into the stands. The scouts in the audience will be contacting you, Brittany.

#5: Turnovers (not the apple kind)

(Dan Hilton)
I guess it is to be expected that when you’re playing a team that knows the same plays you know and has been practicing them all week, you’re going to have some turnovers. And since the team is learning new plays, that probably adds to turnovers as well. But the teams combined for 27 turnovers that turned into 23 points. Hopefully, that will be cleaned up as the team goes through preseason.

#6: Step Up To The Mic

(Daniel Banks)
Great point, Dan. The Suns.com broadcast duo had a turnover of their own. Steven J Koek and Adam Beechen turned the webcast mic over to one of the Suns Dancers. Brittany B – who studies broadcasting – donned a headset and tried her hand at color commentary. Check out the replay of the webcast to see how she did!

#7: 2nd Team Really That Good?

(Dan Hilton)
The starting lineups for the two teams. ORANGE: Hill, Amundson, Lopez, Bell and Dragic; WHITE: Barnes, Diaw, O’Neal, Tucker, Nash. Looking at those two lineups, you would most likely think that the White team would win handily. Yet, it was the Orange team that won. Robin Lopez admitted to me after the game that he was surprised at how much better Shaq was in a game than in practice. But I think that will only push him more. Can you imagine going from playing against Shaq every day to Fabricio Oberto? It’s like running with leg weights on and then suddenly taking them off and trying to run then. I think this 2nd team is for real.

#8: It’s A Dance-Off, It’s a Dance-Off.

(Daniel Banks)
You’ll never guess what my favorite part of the night was. Ok maybe you can. The Suns Dancers helped out by hosting a fan dance contest at halftime. Three contestants took the court and competed to win a prize pack. Contestant #1 was pretty solid, but it’s always a tough to lead off a dance-off. The second dancer took things up a notch by removing his shirt and bumping against the Dancer #3. But you should never poke the bear. The third and final dancer unleashed a furious collection of moves and won over the crowd for the clear victory. The moral to this story is: When your opponent takes off their shirt, you’ve got to take your game to the next level.

#9: It’s a Meaningless Game…Right?

(Dan Hilton)
The game started out basically like a friendly pickup game. If a player was knocked down, players from the opposing team would run over and help pick him up, guys were playing hard but weren’t getting upset at foul calls, etc. Yet with about 4 minutes left in the game, things changed. The score was close and these guys wanted to win. When one of the teams called a timeout with only a few seconds left, the other team’s coaches were complaining that they didn’t have any timeouts to call. They wanted a technical. Terry Porter wasn’t taking any of that, but it was still pretty interesting to me how competitive these guys really were. That should bode well for the team throughout the season.

#10: Stay Tuned

(Daniel Banks)
Yeah, yeah, Dan. Whatever. Suns players, training camp, blah blah blah… Let’s talk more about the Suns Dancers. I just looked at the scrimmage photo gallery and there are some great shots of the dancers. Be sure to check it out. Plus on the webcast replay you can see them performing in public for the first time! Now, I am not at liberty to divulge much about this but let me just say that you’ll be seeing some really cool Suns Dancer features this season. We’ve been hard at work behind the scenes on a project that I happen to know you will love. Why? Because it’s the Suns Dancers. Duh!
Filed Under: 2008-2009, Dan Hilton, Daniel Banks, Suns.com Staff