News Flash: The Suns are Good

Phoenix Suns: 136 – Rehabilitation wing of Toronto General: 123

The mind of a Raptors’ fan between 9:30 p.m., December 3 and 7:15 p.m., December 5 - You never know, this is the NBA. The Suns could have an off night. Look at last game against Charlotte, the guys really pulled together. If they can just keep that up and make a few defensive stops, they’ve got a shot.

The mind of a realist for the same period: The Phoenix Suns could have dined on raw chicken, replaced their sneakers with tap-dancing shoes, worn space suits over knights’ mail over scuba gear and played three games against the Spurs in the afternoon before their tilt with the Raptors, and the Suns still would have won.

Without Bosh and Bargnani, arguably the Raptors’ first two options on offence, Toronto focused on their transition defence to at least slow down the Suns, the result: a hilarious total of 70 baskets made for Phoenix (field goals + free throws).

More than anything this game illustrated the prodigious gap between mediocrity and excellence. The excellent, like the Suns, step out of the locker room after halftime, stare you in the eyes while gripping your gonads, and then twist until you tear up and vomit in your mouth. Even with Bosh and Bargnani – at their best –the Raptors aren’t beating the Suns. The Raptors may have a bench full of guys capable of scoring 20 on any given night, but the Suns have at least 5 guys capable of scoring 30 on any given night.

One of those, the NBA’s reigning Sixth Man Award winner, Leandro Barbosa, dropped 35 tonight in just 28 minutes. And, as with the rest of the Suns, it’s not that he actually did, it’s the way that he did: three-pointers, fast-break lay-ins, pick and pops, iso-penetration. The Suns can do everything. The only hope of beating them lies in an interested defence and a glacial, but potent, offence (like the Spurs). In fact, I think that the Suns will win the title this year, even if they do face the Spurs in the Western finals. Not a daring prediction, true, but an honest one.

Some positives:

• TJ Ford looked amazing, scoring 27 points on 12-19 shooting. It would have been nice to see him pass more, but who would he have passed to, Hump? It also bears considering that he got most of those against the Suns’ bench late in the game.
• The Raptors shot 10-16 (62.5%) from three tonight. They lead the NBA in three-point accuracy, shooting 43.3%.
• Jamario Moon tied Keon Clark’s Raptors franchise record of 11 consecutive games with a block. Let’s hope Moon doesn’t take life advice from Clark - Keon’s Wikipedia entry reads like a compendium of bad choices.
  

Next game: 7:30 p.m., Friday in Boston versus the Celtics. Gird yourself, December looks dirty with games against Dallas, Boston (twice), San Antonio, Phoenix (twice) and Houston (twice).