Suns and Jazz Preview

Third straight post:

Right off the bat, we know that neither Steve Nash nor Grant Hill will be able to play against Utah today. But given how well they played down the stretch (not beginning) of yesterday's game, I'm not worried. They usually always (does that make sense?) find some way to win. They'll do that tonight with a tough 123-120 win. Marcus Banks will hit the tie-breaking three pointer with 5.6 seconds left before stealing the ball from Deron Williams to seal the win.

Last time:
This was the chipped-tooth game for Steve Nash who was great with 29 points and 11 assists. The Suns won 103-98. Shawn Marion was great as well with 26 points, 15 rebounds, and 5 blocks.

Player Predictions:
Marion will shine even brighter with 34 points, 21 rebounds, 5 steals, and 8 blocks. Andrei Kirilenko who might not play, but will, will do almost as well with 26 points, 14 rebounds, 4 steals, and 6 blocks. Apparently, neither of these great defenders will do well at containing each other. As for the Stoudemire/Boozer matchup, Stoudemire will outshine Boozer to the tune of 27 points to 19 points, 14 rebounds each, and 4 blocks for Amare and none for Boozer. Barbosa will score 27. Raja Bell will hit 5 threes for 18 total points. Skinner will grab 8 rebounds and 3 blocks. Ronnie Brewer will steal away 4. Deron Williams will have an off night with only 13 points and 6 assists.

Not like any of those predictions will be close.

Recap tomorrow afternoon.

Yankee Tidbits

• Hank Steinbrenner now says that he thinks the team will do just fine without Johan Santana.
• Many now believe that the Mets are the leading candidate for Johan with a package involving prospects: P Deolis Guerra, OF Carlos Gomez, P Phil Humber, and P Kevin Mulvey.
• I think a Mets trade is the best case scenario outside of Johan staying with the Twins or the Yankees trading a really lame package for him.
• Yankees have been linked to 31-year old free agent Jason Lane (formerly of the Houston Astros). They want him as first baseman (he's played 4 games there, but should adjust well to it). Dumb idea. He's had just one good season with 26 home runs, and that was in 2005.
  

Suns Recap

This game was too close for comfort. The Suns needed an extra 5 minutes to win this one 129-122 (overtime). But, once again, a win is a win is a win.

Phoenix Player Performances:

• Grant Hill obviously didn't play.
• Steve Nash came out of the game earlier because of a stomach flu. When he was in, he scored 9 points with 4 assists.
• Because of the injuries, Diaw and Banks got some extra time. Diaw made the most of it with 8 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists (sort of close to a trip-double). Banks didn't make a three after going 7 of 8, but he did end up with three points.
• Skinner got some solid minutes and put up 7 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 blocks.
• Barbosa was clutch in replacing Nash, scoring a total of 26 points, 5 assists, and a game-high +26 +/- rating.
• But Raja Bell was the game MVP with 27 points, including 6 threes, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals. Wow.
• The other two twenty point scorers for the Suns were Amare and Marion with 25 and 23 points respectively. Marion also grabbed 12 boards. Amare was clutch from the foul line going 11 of 14; he also grabbed 11 rebounds with 1 block.

Pacer Player Performances:

• The loser's MVP goes to Danny Granger for his 22 points, 11 rebound effort.
• Other notables were Troy Murphy (15 rebounds), Jamal Tinsley (19 points, but 8 of 26 shooting, 11 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks), Jeff Foster (11 rebounds), Mike Dunleavy (14 points, 7 rebounds), and Shawne Williams (22 points).
  

No Preview

There will be no preview for tonight's Suns/Pacers game. Luckily, I will post a recap tomorrow afternoon. Actually, I will predict another huge Suns win to the tune of 129 to 97.

Miguel Cairo signed with the Mariners. Can't exactly say that I'm bummed about.
There's continued talk of the Steinbrenner boyz/CashMAN power struggle. As long as Cashman, is back for next year, I'm cool. But that's no guarantee. I'd sure like to be the Yankees GM.

The biggest and worst news of the day is that Grant Hill has to take an emergency appendectomy and will miss two weeks. Good Luck. He's a great player and, more importantly, a great person.

Suns/Nuggets Recap, THE GOOSE, the top 10 yankees prospects

Big Post Today:

The Suns absolutely came out blazing against the Nuggets. A 137-115 win was the result. Talk about ridiculous.

Suns:

• This win embodied the Suns; give up a solid amount of points, score even more, and hit 3's. Tonight, the Suns nailed 20 (out of 31) 3-Pointers, one off of the NBA record.
  
• Hmm, where to start?
• Nash was probably the one Suns star who didn't shine, but was solid with 13 points, 10 assists, and 2 threes.
• Raja Bell was worse, with 7 points and just 1 three-pointer.
• Amare was solid to the tune of 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 blocks.
• Grant Hill helped the point barrage with 20 of his own to go with 5 rebounds and a three.
• Leandro B. didn't score much (12 points) but hit a couple of threes and dished out 6 assists.
• Diaw was similar, but lesser with only 4 points but 6 assists.
• Piatkowski hit a three pointer.
• Skinner also nailed a three to go with 2 rebounds and perfect 3 for 3 foul shooting.
• Alando Tucker played 2 minutes but didn't do anything but pick up a foul.
• The breakout player of the game was Marcus Banks. This team cast-off showed he belonged in a big way with 23 points, 2 blocks, and a team-high 7 three pointers.
• But the MVP goes to Shawn Marion. He shot a career-high 5 threes and picked up 27 points. His 14 rebounds and 4 assists were nice, too. So were his 6 blocked shots.
• As a team the number two blocking team in the NBA (Suns) out blocked the number one (Nuggets) 13 to 4. The Suns shot an astronomical 64.5% from behind the arc.

Nuggets:

• The Nugget players weren't that bad.
• A.I. did nail 32 points and Carmelo got 20 points and 14 rebounds; however, no one else scored above 17 (like I predicted), actually, the next best was Camby's 13.

Great game all the way. A+ performance from the Suns. Apparently Steve Kerr's pep talk and Coach D'Antoni's criticisms really motivated the team. The bar has been set high, and I hope the Suns will meet it more often than not.


THE GOOSE:
Former Yankees closer Rich "Goose" Gossage was the only one to be elected in the Hall of Fame this year (Red Sox outfielder Jim Rice was kind of close). Gossage jumped from 71% last year to a whopping 86% this year. He definitely deserved it. He was described as a top-three all-time closer by ESPN analyst Tim Kurkjian (but somehow Mariano Rivera wasn't on that list). Gossage's stats: 124 wins, 3.01 ERA, 1809.3 innings, 310 saves, and 1502 strikeouts. Amazing.

Top 10 Yankee prospects:

I'm a bit late on this one, but here's Baseball America's top 10 Yankee prospects list.

1. Joba Chamberlain
2. Austin Jackson
3. Jose Tabata
4. Ian Kennedy
5. Alan Horne
6. Jesus Montero
7. Jeffrey Marquez
8. Brett Gardner
9. Ross Ohlendorf
10. Andrew Brackman

The rest of article (including best tools and analysis) is here:

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/features/265405.html

I disagree with much of this list. Dellin Betances should be in there. Many other Yankee bloggers don't even have Gardner in their top 20. Marquez should be lower, as should Ohlendorf. Kennedy should be number two, and I wouldn't put Austin Jackson ahead of Tabata just yet. But their the so-called experts.

Suns and Nuggets Preview

The Suns have been maddeningly inconsistent over the past few weeks. The road to consistency won't be any easier with Denver and its Player of the Week A.I. 'Melo and A.I. will prove to be a troublesome duo, but if D'Antoni sticks Marion on 'Melo and Raja Bell of A.I., the defense would work much better. Regardless, this will be a high-scoring game, but the Suns have more stars and are a better team. That equals a 127-119 win.

Last time: Last year October 25, the Suns pulled out a 116-113 win against Denver. The three point lead was thanks to rookie D.J. Strawberry's (now with the D-League) 3-pointer with 3.3 seconds left. Carmelo and Iverson each scored over 20, but the Phoenix Suns didn't have anyone get over 20 points. Thank God they're balanced; seven Suns players scored double digits, with the two rookies Strawberry and Alando in that group (the starters also all scored double digits and Barbosa sat out with bruised ribs).

Player predictions: The only rookie still on the roster is Alando Tucker. This will be his breakout game with 19 points and 8 rebounds to complement 4 assists in 22 minutes. Nash and Stoudemire will get big double-doubles (I'm thinking 30+ points and 15+ assists/rebounds). Grant Hill will almost get a triple-double: 21 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists, while Marion does barely get one: 17 points, 14 rebounds, and 10 assists. Barbosa and Bell will both score in the high teens. Denver's two stars will hit over 30 points, but they will be the only members of the team to score over 17.

Suns vs. Hornets Recap

Are you kidding me? The Hornets won the game without their second best player (David West) and came from being 13 points down (78-65) to winning 118-113. They're a good team, but Phoenix should have won this won.

Suns:

• Marcus Banks and Boris Diaw each scored 11, and Diaw added 3 rebounds and 4 assists in 31 minutes.
• Marion was disappointing collecting only 6 points and 7 rebounds on 2-9 shooting. At least he blocked 3 shots.
• Grant Hill was solid adding 17 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 blocks.
• Raja Bell played less than 3 minutes and didn't do much.
• Stoudemire was sub-par by his lofty standards with 17 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 blocks.
• The biggest loser with Leandro Barbosa who had a -15 +/- rating, despite having scored 28 points.
• The loser's MVP award went to Steve Nash for his 23 points, 11 point night.

Hornets:

• All five of their starters scored at least 19 points.
• Leading the way was game MVP Chris Paul who got 28 points, 5 rebounds, 10 assists, and 3 steals, playing a full 48 minutes.
• Tyson Chandler also picked up a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds.