Tonight’s game didn’t offer much in the way of inspiration. Due to some really poor play from the Suns and a pretty good counter-effort by the Cavs, it was over in the first quarter. Really, I was reminded of last season, when there were a ton of games that were boring to watch. Bad TV though can often be good basketball.
I know we write less about the emotional aspects of the game than other sites, and maybe even less than our readers would prefer. But tonight, I’ll say this: the Phoenix Suns are not an elite NBA team.
Before their 17 point loss to the Cavs, the Suns had a point differential of +5.56 (6th in the NBA). Cleveland, on the other hand, was at 10 with +4.47.
What I wanted to point out is that the Suns lost to the Knicks on Tuesday night by 27. Yes, this may have been a back-to-back at the end of a four game road trip, and Phoenix’s players could have been thinking about their beds in Arizona once the 1st quarter ended like it did (Cavs 33, Phoenix 14), but Championship teams don’t think like that. They may lose a handful of bad games over the course of the season, but rarely do they put up two complete stinkers in a row. What Phoenix’s play illustrated tonight was that they don’t mind losing that badly.
For this, Cavs fans should be thankful - not because the Cavs didn’t deserve to win due to a lackluster performance by the Suns - but because the Cavs do hate to lose.
Example 1: performance against Dallas after losing to the Bobcats the night before, at the end of a month filled with back-to-backs (11).
Oh yeah, and there’s the fact that Phoenix cannot match up against true big men. It’s why they won’t be able to beat L.A. in the playoffs or even Portland - if Portland gets their act together. The irony is that the Suns may be able to beat San Antonio now, thanks to the age issues that team has, but it really won’t matter very much anymore because better teams stand in the way.
It’s the reason they traded for Shaq in the first place, and that problem isn’t going away.
Z still broke the record, too. I’m shocked. I applaud the big man.
Chicago on Friday.
