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Originally Posted by DubA169
seriously set a trap with some gummy worms or something. don't give him motivation.
Originally Posted by JapanAir21
Not just now, but since he joined the Suns. MORESO now because they have fewer weapons then they had before.
I give the Fakers very little credit. Bottom line: The Suns beat themselves.
Silly me...I expected Amare to show up tonight.
Someone needs to lay Fisher the +#!* out.
Of course Dudley fouls out...you automatically get 3 phantom fouls if you guard the Rapist.
First one is my favorite
Originally Posted by DLo13
Kurupt's verse off "Xxplosive" is stuck in my head now. Thanks, %!++%@#$. I can't walk around the office singing that one to myself...
currently just popped this in my comp at work right nowOriginally Posted by Proshares
Originally Posted by DLo13
Kurupt's verse off "Xxplosive" is stuck in my head now. Thanks, %!++%@#$. I can't walk around the office singing that one to myself...
I've been walking around whistling it for about twenty minutes now.
Magic, Suns benches not bringing it
By John Hollinger
ESPN.com
We're careening toward our second Lakers-Celtics NBA Finals in three seasons, and there are plenty of reasons why. But there's one major reason that has gone relatively unnoticed: Bench matchups that were supposed to favor the Suns and Magic, respectively, have instead become huge disadvantages.
Phoenix's vaunted second unit -- which is so good, it holds its own playing as a five-man unit -- was outscored 80-61 in the two games, a stat that looks worse the deeper you dig. For starters, the Suns played their subs 162 minutes, the Lakers just 140. So on a per-minute basis, the Lakers' advantage is more severe.
Additionally, the Suns' second unit is virtually the only source of poor shooting in this series. Suns starters are making 55 percent from the field and the Lakers as a team are shooting 58 percent, but Phoenix subs are just 21-for-55 (38 percent) in the series. And Los Angeles' subs? They're a scalding 32-for-50 (64 percent).
The carnage is mostly concentrated at two spots, and that doesn't sound as bad as it really is, since the Lakers used only three bench players in their Game 2 win Wednesday. Nonetheless, Phoenix is getting about what it expected from Jared Dudley, Leandro Barbosa and Louis Amundson. It's two other matchups that are killing the Suns:
Jordan Farmar vs. Goran Dragic: This matchup was supposed to be a major mismatch in Phoenix's favor. It's been a mismatch, all right, but not the one we expected.
A punching bag for Lakers fans for much of this season, Farmar has been fantastic this series (underratedly so, I would say). He contributed 10 points and five dimes to the Game 1 demolition, and added 11 points and two steals in Game 2. For the series he has 21 points in 33 minutes and has missed only three shots.
Dragic, meanwhile, had a solid opener (13 points) but was brutal in Game 2, shooting just 1-of-6 from the floor and failing to jump-start any other players' offense. In 36 minutes he has just four assists.
Lamar Odom vs. Channing Frye: We knew the Suns' second unit would have trouble dealing with Odom, but not to this extent. L.A.'s lefty sixth man has dominated the bench play, with 36 points and 30 boards in the first two games. He overwhelmed the Suns inside when they went small and used his superior quickness to abuse Frye when Phoenix went big.
Frye's best chance is to burn L.A. at the other end with his outside shot, but he's gone ice cold. He has made only one of his 13 shots in the series, and was so bad in Game 2 that he played only nine minutes. It appears the struggles have also got into his head on defense, where he was consistently a step behind.
It's no accident that these four players were on the court for what may turn out to be the defining sequence of the series: the beginning of the fourth quarter of Game 2, when the Lakers broke open a tie game with a 16-5 run while the two bench units were on the floor. Farmar hit a pair of 3-pointers in that stretch and Odom contributed a bucket. Conversely, Dragic had a turnover and Frye missed two jumpers.
In the Celtics-Magic series, it's more of the same. While Orlando's bench has outscored Boston's 50-43, the Magic reserves have played 21 more minutes, partly because Orlando is using a nine-man rotation while the Celtics keep it to eight.
Boston's three bench players have held their own and made the depth situation irrelevant. Rasheed Wallace is playing some of his best basketball of the season -- admittedly, that's not saying much -- contributing 19 points in 38 minutes and solid defense against Orlando's Dwight Howard.
Similarly, Glen Davis is using his muscle in defending Howard and the rest of the frontcourt and has made six of his 10 shots from the field. He also took a huge charge on J.J. Redick at the end of Game 2 -- as bogus as the call may have been, Davis sold it -- when he had to fill in for a fouled-out Kendrick Perkins.
Plus, the much-maligned Tony Allen is having another strong playoffs as Boston's lone backcourt reserve. While his penchant for blowing layups continues to frustrate Celtics fans, he has made five of his 10 shots from the field, has turned the ball over just once and continues to play spirited defense against opponents' top wing players.
Orlando's bench hasn't been as bad as Phoenix's, but the Magic reserves haven't impacted games either. Mickael Pietrus in particular seems off, shooting just 2-of-8 from the field and scoring only nine points in 36 minutes -- well off his norms and a far cry from what he did to Cleveland in last season's conference finals. Another bench ace, sharpshooting power forward Ryan Anderson, hasn't played a minute because of matchup concerns.
The best second-unit player so far has been Redick, but even he has hit rough patches. He's only 3-of-11 on shots inside the arc, and his failure to call an immediate timeout at the end of Game 2 proved costly.
As I mentioned, benches aren't the only reason that the Lakers and Celtics are ahead. Pau Gasol is having a dominant playoffs (check out the playoff PER leaders) and destroyed Amare Stoudemire in Game 2. In the East, Boston's Rajon Rondo has performed similar surgery in his matchup against the Magic's Jameer Nelson.
Nonetheless, those matchups were acknowledged as tough ones coming in. The benches? Not so much. But the two second units have helped turn the two series upside-down.
As a result, the Magic-Suns Finals matchup projected by some prognosticators (ahem) now seems horribly unlikely. Historically, teams that lose the first two games of a best-of-seven series at home are 3-22, while those that lose the first two on the road are 11-195, meaning we have an 83.3 percent shot at a Lakers-Celtics rematch, compared to a miniscule 0.6 percent probability of a heat vs. humidity Finals faceoff between Phoenix and Orlando.
That probability goes to zero if either loses Game 3, as no NBA team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit. The good news? Teams in the Suns' predicament win Game 3 61.7 percent of the time, and even teams in Orlando's dire situation (on the road down 2-0) won in 44.0 percent of previous encounters.
For the Suns or Magic to prevail, though, they'll need to do several things better. But one important one is that their benches need to regain control of matchups that, on paper, would appear to favor them.