2009-10

Newsroom Notes: Suns @ Hornets

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November 19, 2009 By
hill_540_091119

The Suns suffered their third loss of the season at the shorthanded hands of the Hornets on Thursday night and here are five notes from the game that you should know…

A Slow Start

The Suns started sluggish in the first quarter on Thursday night but that wasn’t a cause for alarm. In the past 5 games they’d won the opening period only one time (vs NOH, 11/11). Poor early shooting has evened out for Phoenix later in the game but in New Orleans Thursday it wasn’t enough to overcome seven 3-pointers and 25 points by Peja Stojakovic.

Big Off the Bench

Most of the Suns did start the game struggling but there were a couple of bright spots. Leandro Barbosa kept his team in the game with three steals in the first half to go along with six points. He was a crucial part of the Suns’ second quarter comeback that gave the Suns a fair shot at their 11th win of the season.

Another shining Sun was Jared Dudley who was sizzling behind the line for much of the game. Jared started the game a perfect 5-5 from beyond the arc on his way to 17 points.

The Streak Continues

The Suns loss to New Orleans on Thursday night was the 16th straight time they’ve lost a game on TNT. Concerned fans around Phoenix are offering up theories ranging from Charles Barkley to painted goats but the Suns have yet to break the spell. They have four more TNT games this season with their next chance at a win coming December 17th in Portland.

Boarded Up

At halftime in New Orleans Coach Gentry shrugged off the poor first-half shooting but instead focused on rebounding as the key to the game. He was right, but the wrong team had the key on Thursday night. The Hornets out-boarded the Suns 56-38 on their way to a win. The Suns have been outrebounded in six of their 13 games and are 4-2 in those contests.

Century Club

Despite the loss, the Suns remained the only team in the NBA to finish with 100+ points in every game this season. It’s no surprise that the Suns run-and-gun style has led to a scoring increase over last season but Phoenix has kept up their scoring against some tough defenses. Of the teams they’ve played, five opponents are holding their opponents to under 100 points including Boston (88.27) and Miami (90.11) which are in the top five in points allowed.

Filed Under: 2009-10
  • John Serpe

    Sluggish first quarter, come on, Suns looked like they had anchors tied to their legs throughout the game. Very poor performance in all aspects against a team we should beat and without their star player on the floor. This is the kind of play that we can’t afford with a December shedule that is brutal. Dudley was the only Sun with a pulse. Let me add, the officiating stunk as bad as we did, horrible game, just horrible.

  • Rh

    C’mon Suns! You all can do better than that! Be tougher on rebounding and defense! If the Suns can do that, they could be the best team in the league!

  • David

    Long time fan, first time poster.
    They went into that game with the WRONG attitude. Alvin said before the game that we beat this team by twenty points before they lost their Paul, this will merely be another game to get out of the way or something to that affect. Perhaps he should spend less time picking out fancy suits and more time thinking about pro-active mindsets to take into games.

    From go this team had more energy and had their minds and most importantly hearts in this game! I turned it off halfway through the 4th because I honestly felt the Hornets deserved to win and didn’t need to see it either way.

    I’m glad we aren’t fighting for the “best record” anymore. The recently past seasons with such success including win streaks have been fools gold. Winning is not something to take for granted.

  • IvoIvanov

    I think it`s because of the lack of resting days. It was a very brutal schedule and the result of it showed in this game. Stay cool guys, till December we would take what is supposed to take. After that it would be extremely difficult but our Suns can handle the situation and keep tempo with the elite teams where our place is. :)

  • Josh

    How did Gentry go into this game with the wrong mindset? He said in interviews before the game that it was a trap game. This team is trying to prove something, and they had a practice with their new coach under their belts. So, Gentry knew what this game was.

    The guys, well, that’s a different story I suppose.

    They say that you live and die by the three.

    We died.

    The thing is that it took us a whole quarter to realize to go to the hole. And yes, the officiating made me crazy. But the thing is, the Suns never get calls, but this was the first time we really experienced it this season. Somehow, LeBron can get calls all day long because of who he is, but a two time MVP beast can’t get a charge called. We have to play through that. And we will.

    These games happen. The difference is that this year we’re tough enough to move past it and not hold our heads down like every other year. We’re alot more confident this year.

    Championship confident…

  • JOHN SERPE

    Nice rebound win over the Pistons. Okay, I know Detroit was on the end of a back to back and had lost in overtime, but our Suns had that “something” back. Amare looks strong and the timing is back. Djuric is really starting to come on and Barbossa looks like the wrist is getting better. With Lopez back after Thanksgiving we get another big boost off the bench. I believe we will continue to struggle a bit in back to backs and have some minor problems when the three’s don’t fall, but the Suns are a very good team and the biggest surprise in the NBA by far.