Suns/Pistons Live Blog!
By Andrew Lynch
[9:55 EST] Pistons commit a foul on the inbound after a timeout, giving Steve Nash a technical free throw. He nails it, but Channing Frye takes a contested three, down two, after the inbound, and misses. Suns foul Will Bynum, who knocks down both free throws to ice the game. Frye knocks down a superfluous 3 to make the final score 75-74, Pistons.
Thanks for joining us for the game! Check back later for more Suns analysis, and enjoy the rest of your weekend!
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[9:50 EST] Courtesy of Keith Langlois: The Suns are 62-0 in franchise history when holding an opponent below 80 points. We might be witnessing some disgusting history.
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[9:49 EST] The Suns foul Will Bynum and send him to the line with 10.2 seconds left. He makes the first, misses the second, and Tayshaun Prince grabs the rebound after a Ben Wallace tip. Vince Carter commits the foul and sends Prince to the line, where he misses the first and makes the second. What a strange sequence of events. Suns down 3 with 8.9 left – they take their second-to-last 20-second timeout.
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[9:45 EST] And, of course, the creepy Kevin Durant-in-the-past commercial comes on. The old dude talking to the Durantula in that commercial gives me the willies.
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[9:44 EST] Marcin Gortat secured the Suns two possessions coming out of the break with a crucial tip leading to an offensive rebound, but Grant Hill can’t knock down an open jumper at the end of the shot clock. The Suns foul, but they had a foul to give. 11 seconds left, Pistons ball.
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[9:41 EST] Austin Daye hits another jump shot from just inside the three point line to give the Pistons the lead, 71-70, with 53.7 seconds left. Detroit is on a 20-4 run and the Suns call timeout. Look for Nash to look for his own shot on the offensive end, as no Sun has scored other than Nash since the 5 minute mark. The key will be the defensive end, where Rodney Stuckey and Daye have been lighting up the Suns.
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[9:35 EST] Great ball movement by the Pistons leads to an Austin Daye 3. Suns up by only 3 with 2:30 to go in the game.
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[9:31 EST] Vince Carter hits an incredibly difficult shot after hanging in the air FOREVER. If you need further evidence that Vince can fly, here you go:
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[9:26 EST] Alvin Gentry brings Steve Nash back into the game with 7:31 to go and the Suns up 10. After several missed spot-up 3s, smart move by Gentry to get some offensive flow back into the game and prevent a Pistons comeback.
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[9:24 EST] Mickael Pietrus played some lazy defense on Austin Daye, going for the poke-check steal after Daye blew past him. Channing Frye picked up the foul on the defensive help. Don’t get lazy, Suns.
…yes, I know they can’t hear me.
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[9:17 EST] Goran Dragic starts the fourth quarter at the point. Given the way the Pistons’ offense is performing, Nash should be able to get a decent amount of rest here.
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[9:15 EST] Tom Leander has brought up the Hall of Fame cases for both Ben Wallace and Vince Carter tonight, and Eddie Johnson shot him down on both occasions. Johnson makes a good point – just because a player isn’t a Hall of Famer (or even a lock for it, as he said about Vince) doesn’t demean his career. There are a lot of very good players who aren’t in the Hall of Fame. I agree with this 100%.
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[9:13 EST] The third quarter ends with Steve Nash being defended by Ben Wallace – one of the oddest sights of the evening. Phoenix leads 61-47.
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[9:10 EST] Flagrant foul called on Ben Wallace – Jared Dudley makes both free throws. Gortat checks back into the game for Lopez and Mickael Pietrus gets his first playing time of the night. Nash sets Dudley up beautifully for a 3 on the next possession and suddenly the Suns lead by 12.
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[9:03 EST] The starters for Phoenix have now matched an earlier 10-2 run by their bench with one of their own. Phoenix is up by 9. Either Detroit’s offense is awful or the Suns are actually playing some defense. Or both. I’m going with both.
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[9:00 EST] 5 minutes into the third quarter, the Suns and Pistons have only taken 10 free throws combined. Phoenix is 2 for 4. Robin Lopez loses a defensive rebound to Greg Moroe who gets the putback – this is why Marcin Gortat has 16 minutes at center tonight.
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[8:54 EST] And we’re back! Steve Nash drops a pretty runner in the lane after a good bit of defense by Vince Carter on Tayshaun Prince. It doesn’t matter what Vince does, though – it always looks so nonchalant.
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[8:34 EST] Don’t look this gift horse in the mouth – the Suns lead the Pistons at the half by 2. I’m contractually obligated to mention that the score is 38-36. We’ll be back for the second half – let us know what you think on twitter or on Facebook!
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[8:31 EST] One of my favorite shots – a Nash PUJIT (pull-up jumper in transition) misses and leads, after a Hill offensive rebound, to one of my most hated shots – a long, contested two by Vince Carter, who had a wide-open driving lane to the basket.
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[8:28 EST] The Suns broadcast team began debating whether Ben Wallace was a Hall of Famer before the TV timeout – and is still discussing it when we come back after the break! Marcin Gortat’s 7th rebound in the first half breaks them out of their silly argument and back to the game action.
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[8:21 EST] The Suns take a timeout with just over 5 minutes left in the first half. After trailing by 4 after the first quarter, the Suns bench led the team back to tie the game at 30-all. The Suns are shooting 17% from 3 and 50% from the charity stripe, so they should consider themselves fortunate to be playing the Detroit Pistons. Er, I mean – to still be in the basketball game.
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[8:17 EST] Pretty pick-and-roll by Dragic and Gortat leads to an easy basket for Gortat, and-1. I could get used to seeing that.
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[8:13 EST] Dragic gets into the lane for a nice floater+1, drawing a foul on Ben Wallace, in a play that can only be described by one word: Felonious.
Right, Rasheed?
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[8:08 EST] The Suns go with Carter/Dragic/Warrick/Gortat/Dudley to start the second quarter; the Pistons counter with Gordon/Bynum/Daye/Maxiell/Wallace.
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[8:07 EST] …HOLY GOD, how weird does Marcin’s head look in that picture? That…wow.
The Suns are shooting 20% from 3 tonight. They fail to get a shot off at the end of the first quarter and are trailing the Pistons by 4 going into the second. Unfortunately, trailing their opponents after the first is Phoenix’s modus operandi this year – on average, they’re being outscored by .3 points in the first frame.
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[8:01 EST] Tayshaun Prince, the forgotten Piston, has caught fire in the second half of the first quarter to lead the Pistons with 6 points. Jump ball between Marcin Gortat and Tracy McGrady when we come back from the break.
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[7:58 EST] 10-0 Detroit run is ended by Jared Dudley after a beautiful pump-fake from the corner and an awkward finish after a drive to the hoop. Suns get the ball to Grant Hill in the post on the next possession to tie the game at 12.
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[7:56 EST] The Suns broadcast just showed a montage of pictures of highlights from last night. Apparently they haven’t heard of video highlights.
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[7:52 EST] 6 minutes in and these two teams have combined for 15 points. Yeesh. The Pistons are shooting 20% from the field, the Suns 40%. First timeout, the Suns lead 8-7.
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[7:50 EST] Vince Carter picks up 2 quick personal fouls and is replaced by Jared Dudley. The second foul was particularly bad – with the Pistons in transition, Vince played some matador defense and still managed to commit a foul in the act of shooting. A quick end to the cousin vs. cousin storyline (Tracy McGrady and Vince Young are cousins?! Who knew?).
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[7:46 EST] Channing Frye missed a corner 3 and Robin Lopez grabbed an offensive board to open the game. Already, the evening is drastically different from last night. Frye went 7 for 11 from 3, and Robin only got 14 minutes of playing time, even after starting the game. He and Brook have been trading notes on how to be bad lately, but Robin has the first 4 points for the Suns.
[7:42 EST] And we are live – the Suns from Detroit and myself from Albany, New York! Both locales have me pining for Arizona, but the Suns should distract me from the cold. If you have any questions, comments, or general nonsense that you’d like to contribute to the live blog tonight, get at me on twitter (@snghoops) or on our brand new Facebook page!
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I’ll be live blogging the Suns/Pistons game tonight. Won’t you join me at tip-off for what we all hope to be a rout in the Palace?