Watch the Cardinals Darnell Docket and Antonio Smith celebrate the safety on the Flacons’ Matt Ryan with a “safety dance.” Draw your own conclusions…
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SubscribeAfter an impressive 30-24 victory over the Atlanta Falcons in their Wild Card game, the Arizona Cardinals awaited the results of Sunday’s Eagles vs. Vikings game to see who they would face in the next round. If the Eagles won the Cardinals would travel to Carolina to play the Panthers, if the Vikings won, Arizona would face the Giants in New York.
Fortunately for the Cardinals, the Eagles won 26-14, meaning Arizona will face Carolina for the second time this season. The first time the Cardinals traveled to Carolina they allowed 21 third quarter points and lost the game 27-23, after leading for almost the entire first three quarters.
The Cardinals have to be encouraged with their offensive performance in Carolina, as Kurt Warner completed 35 of his 49 passing attempts for 381 yards and two touchdowns.
It will certainly be colder in Charlotte this time, but not nearly as bad as it will be in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Cards and Panthers will play at 6:15pm on Saturday, as they are expecting a high temperature of 52 degrees and a low of 28, with a 40% chance of rain. Not great, but better than the alternative in New Jersey: a high of 36, low of 25 with a 40% chance for snow/rain.
Both the Panthers and Giants finished the season with 12-4 records.
Overall, the Cardinals have to be pretty pleased with the matchup, feeling as though they have a better chance to beat Carolina in Charlotte than the Giants in New Jersey. Even better, should Arizona pull off the upset, and the Eagles were to beat the Giants, Arizona would host its second home playoff game in 62 years.
The Cardinals vs. Panthers game will air on FOX next Saturday, January 10 at 6:15 Arizona time.
After waiting 62 years to host a home playoff game, neither the Arizona Cardinals nor their fans would disappoint Saturday. The Cardinals played one of their best overall games of the season when it mattered most. It wasn’t just the Cardinals passing game that undid the Atlanta Falcons; surprisingly it was a balanced attack of passing, rushing, and solid defense that nipped Atlanta.
The Cardinals benefited from their raucous home fans which have to receive at least some of the credit for the Cards impressive defensive performance. Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan threw for 199 yards and two touchdowns, but was hurt by two interceptions and a fumble, leading to 14 Arizona points.
The first of Ryan’s three turnovers on the day would come early in the first quarter. On a third down and 6 play from Arizona’s 44 yard line, Ryan threw his first career playoff pass to the wrong color jersey, as the Cardinals’ Ralph Brown picked off the rookie’s throw intended for Roddy White.
The Cardinals offense and running game would then take over as Edgerrin James single-handedly moved the Cards 21 yards from their own 37 to Atlanta’s 48 yard line with three consecutive carries of 6, 9, and 6 yards.
Then it was Kurt Warner’s turn as the Cardinals handed the ball off to James who pitched it back to Warner on a flea-flicker who was able to connect with Larry Fitzgerald, despite double coverage on an incredible 42 yard touchdown reception to put the cards up 7-0.
Michael Turner, the NFL’s second leading rusher would be stopped for no gain on the first play of the Falcons ensuing drive. With the roof on University of Phoenix Stadium closed to help amplify crowd noise, Atlanta would false start on second down thanks to the ‘sea of Cardinals red’. Despite the penalty, Atlanta would convert the first down, but would hand the ball back to the Cardinals after Turner was stopped for a loss of 3 yards and Ryan was sacked for a loss of 2.
On the Cards next drive, Edge would continue to run the ball with two more carries of 5 and 7 yards. Warner found Larry Fitzgerald deep once again, this time for 30 yards, but the Cardinals were unable to enter into field goal range and were forced to punt.
Neither team would threaten to score again in the first quarter.
Atlanta got on the board in early in the second quarter with a Jason Elam 30 yard field goal to cut the Cards lead to 7-3.
Arizona however would answer back on their next drive, as Kurt Warner found his second favorite receiver, Anquan Boldin for a 71 yard touchdown reception to build the Cardinals 14-3 lead. Boldin would not return to the game after injuring himself on the TD run.
Just as it looked as though the game might be a laugher for Arizona, the Falcons quickly scored touchdowns on each of their next two possessions as Turner ran the ball in from the 7 yard line and Matt Ryan found Justin Peelle from 2 yards out. Atlanta would take a 17-14 lead into the locker room at halftime.
On the Flacon’s first drive of the second half, Darnell Docket nailed Michael Turner just as Matt Ryan was handing the ball off and knock the ball right into the hands of the Cards’ Antrel Rolle. Rolle ran the ball in 27 yards for the TD to put the Cardinals back on top 21-17.
Edge continued to run in the second half, finishing the game with 73 yards rushing on 16 carries. However, it would be Tim Hightower who scored the only Cardinals rushing TD of the game which capped a 14 play, 76 yard drive to put Arizona up 28-17.
The Cardinals defense came up huge once again in the fourth quarter, as Antonio Smith sacked Matt Ryan in the end zone for a safety that increased Zona’s lead to 28-17.
Ryan and Atlanta would answer back though with a 9 play 58 yard TD scoring drive of their own to close the lead to within a touchdown with 4:15 to play in the game.
However, Kurt Warner and the Cardinals receivers would never give Atlanta another shot. Warner completed passes of 15 and 25 yards on the final drive, but none was bigger than his 23 yard pass to Stephen Spach.
With 2:17 remaining the Cards found themselves in a 3rd and 16 situation, with the prospect of handing the ball back over to Atlanta for a chance to win the game. After an Atlanta timeout to stop the clock, Warner connected on his 23 yard pass to a wide open Spach to seal the Arizona victory!
Warner finished the game 19-32 for 271 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. Matt Ryan, by contrast was 26/40 for 199 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions. Meaning, oddly enough, the Falcons threw the ball more than the Cardinals but weren’t as effective.
The Cardinals rushed the ball more and had more rushing yards than the Falcons. Arizona rushed the ball 28 times for 86 yards while the Cardinals defense was able to shut down Michael Tuner who was held to just 42 yards on 18 carries. The Falcons had just 60 total rushing yards.
The Cardinals will await the winner of the Eagles and Vikings game tomorrow to find out whether they will play the Giants or Panthers next weekend. If the Eagles win, the Cards will play at Carolina. If the Vikings win, the Cards will play in New York.
View Box Score | Watch Highlights | Buy Cardinals 2008 NFC Champions t-shirt
Vote4Amare has released two new videos in hopes that it is not too late to save Amare Stoudemire’s dwindling lead in 2009 NBA All-Star voting. Amare is currently second to Tim Duncan among Western Conference forwards but has seen his lead over the third place Carmelo Anthony dwindle from about 43,000 votes a week ago to just over 18,000 votes this week.
Amare’s loosening grip on the second starting spot seems to correlate with his performance over the last week. STAT saw his tear of 11 straight games with over 20 points come to an end on Monday when he found himself in early foul trouble against the Oklahoma City Thunder. As a result, Stoudemire recorded 14 points and just 1 rebound, fouling out in 23 minutes of play.
Shaquille O’Neil answered the bell for the Suns when Steve Nash was lost to injury after playing 9 minutes in the first quarter, and it became apparent that Amare’s minutes would be limited due to early foul trouble. The Diesel carried Phoenix to victory with 28 points and 12 boards.
Shaq and Amare have each scored at least 28 points in a game four times this season, despite Shaq playing in 6 fewer games than Amare.
Shaq is currently in second place amongst Western Conference centers, but is 600,000 votes behind China’s Yao Ming.
Tuesday evening Shaq played on back-to-back nights, a rarity, but a necessity due to the absence of Steve Nash in the Suns lineup. Stoudemire found himself in early foul trouble once again, and was ejected in the first half after picking up two quick technical fouls.
Enter Shaq. The big Shaqtus once again put his Nash-less and STAT-less team on his back, delivering 24 points and 13 boards when his team needed him most. Where was Amare? In the Suns locker room.
The Suns would win the game thanks to the Diesel, but weren’t so fortunate when they played Utah earlier in the season. With a 2 point Suns lead and 3:24 remaining in the fourth quarter Amare was ejected, the Suns ended up losing the game by 8 points.
So far this season Shaq is averaging 17.2 points/game and 8.9 rebounds/game. Amare is averaging 21.7 points/game and 8.6 points/game.
STAT has been better numbers wise, but in a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league, it appears “the man” is Shaq. O’Neil has shown the ability to step up and be the Suns go-to guy when the team needs him most. Shaq is playing like an MVP and NBA Champion should - just getting the job done no matter what.
Amare, and all of the Suns for that matter, have without a doubt been hurt by their Christmas Day loss on national television as well as their overall lack of expose this past week. The Suns have played just three games since December 20, with the last two games against the lowly Oklahoma City Thunder and Memphis Grizzlies.
Having said all that, the All-Star voting has always been more of a popularity contest than a representation of the best statistical players in the NBA, so it is unclear how much of an impact, if any at all, these factors have had on the voting.
The correlation between Amare’s recent performance and his narrowing lead may be little more than coincidence, but it leaves many fans wondering who is more deserving of being a starter on the Western Conference’s team this year, Shaq, or STAT?
As always, the fans will decide.
The campaign to make Amare Stoudemire a starting forward for the Western Conference when 2009 All-Star game rolls into Phoenix is raging on. With 17 days remaining and STAT’s second place lead slipping to just over 18,000 votes, Vote 4Amare released two new videos this week to promote his election.
The second episode released 12/17 featuring Beyonce:
The third episode released 1/1 featuring Barack Obama:
Vote4Amare | Buy Tickets to the 2009 All-Star Game
It took two 24-hour extensions from the NFL, but the Arizona Cardinals finally managed to sell out their first home playoff game since 1947. The game would have been blacked out to Arizona households had the Cardinals not sold out the game.
The sellout comes thanks in part to Leslie’s Pool Supplies who purchased a block of tickets on Thursday. The tickets are available to fans for free when they purchase $100 or more in pool supplies from Leslie’s from now until noon on Saturday, January 3.
The game will air everywhere, including in Arizona, on NBC Saturday at 2:30pm local time.
Tickets to Saturday’s game are now sold-out, but can be purchased online from StubHub!
Valley sports fans are more than glad to usher in the New Year and say goodbye to a disappointing 2008 for Arizona sports teams. Nearly every Arizona sports team failed to meet expectations this year, so I decided to recap the biggest disappointments of the year so that we can put them safely behind us and know that 2009 can’t possibly be as bad as 2008.
Suns fall to Spurs again, the end of an era
2008 was another disappointing year for the Phoenix Suns. Once again, they fell to the hated San Antonio Spurs in the playoffs. This failure, however, was the worst yet as Phoenix failed to make it past the first round for the first time during the Steve Nash era.
Worse yet, the Suns traded away Shawn Marion in exchange for Shaquille O’Neil, hoping that Shaq’s low post presence would be just the prescription Phoenix needed to combat Tim Duncan and cure their playoff woes.
Shaq was ushered in with much fan fare and hype. In his first appearance at US Airways Center Shaq stood and signaled as though he was adding another championship ring to his finger, much to the delight of Suns fans. But it was just another tease in what’s been a heartbreaking history of misfortune for the organization.
After a 4-1 first round series loss to San Antonio, Steve Kerr and Robert Sarver decided that something would have to change and asked coach Mike D’Antoni to concentrate a bit more on defense. D’Antoni became upset; feeling betrayed, he eventually decided to pursue other offers with the Bulls and Knicks. Ultimately D’Antoni decided to abandon the Valley and his “7 Seconds or Less” offense for the Big Apple.
Since the divorce things have only gotten uglier. With Mike D’Antoni blasting Steve Kerr and Robert Sarver in Peter Vecey’s NY Post article just prior to the Knicks coming to town for the first time in December.
Raja Bell, Steve Nash, and Amare Stoudemire all spoke out against the Suns new style that focused on getting the ball into Shaq early, then kicking it out to the shooters only if the Diesel didn’t have a shot.
Kerr and Sarver seemed to wipe away any resemblance of the team D’Antoni constructed by trading away his beloved Boris Diaw and a discontent Raja Bell (who as it came out days later had requested a trade) in exchange for the dynamic Jason Richardson.
The funny thing about the trade was that it was basically a confession that new coach Terry Porter had been wrong in trying to slow down the Suns, and the addition of J-Rich enabled the Suns to once again run-n-gun it with another athletic shooter on the floor.
The Suns would beat the Knicks, but were scrooged once again on Christmas Day by the San Antonio Spurs. This time though it may have hurt even more, as the Spurs had no Robert Horry or Bruce Bowen, and Manu Ginobili was a non-factor. This time it was Jason Richardson’s defensive meltdown and Roger Mason‘s buzzer beating three-pointer that stole Christmas.
It remains to be seen whether the Suns can come together and rally behind Coach Porter. Let’s just hope 2009 doesn’t end the way 2008, and for that matter 2007 ended for Phoenix.
ASU denied bowl appearance at the hands of UA
For the first time in the Rudy Carpenter era the ASU Sun Devils lost their prized Territorial Cup to the Arizona Wildcats in embarrassing fashion, falling 31-10 in Tucson.
But even more disappointing than that for the Maroon and Gold faithful was that the loss eliminated the Devils from bowl consideration, while at the same time punching UA’s ticket to the Las Vegas Bowl, where UA would come up with a surprising 31-21 victory over No. 16 BYU.
After a 10-3 2007 season, it appeared as though ASU football had turned the corner under the leadership of their newly proclaimed savior, Dennis Erickson.
ASU started out hot, beating NAU and blasting Pac-10 rival Stanford 41-17. However, the squad seemed to have a letdown against UNLV in week 3 as a Devils game-tying overtime field goal was blocked, giving the Rebels a 23-20 victory at Sun Devil Stadium.
Suddenly next week’s Georgia game, that the Sun Devils had been so focused on that they supposedly overlooked UNLV, lost much of its luster. While the game would still be nationally televised, ESPN’s College Gameday show would not be broadcasting live from the desert.
The reduced media attention was a good thing for the Devils as they were embarrassed by No. 3 Georgia 27-10 on their home field. From that point forward it was all downhill for ASU football.
The Sun Devils lost their next four games, setting their losing streak at 6 games before finally defeating hopeless Washington, Washington State, and UCLA teams to keep the Devils in bowl contention.
To finish off the season ASU would face Arizona for all the marbles - with certain Devils seeming to lose theirs… but let’s not discuss Rudy Carpenter.
ASU can only improve from their 5-7 season, right?
Cardinals surprise, then disappoint; oh ho-hum
2008 was a big year for the Arizona Cardinals, having moved into their new stadium a season ago, it was not make or break time. Would the organization continue to receive support and enthusiasm from Cards fans, or would the same ole’ birds return?
Indeed it was not the same old Cardinals, although they did bring back their older, wiser quarterback in Kurt Warner who beat out Matt Lienart for the starting job in the pre-season.
The Cards got off on the right foot with a pair of impressive victories, beating San Francisco on the road in week one, followed up by a 31-10 whipping of the Dolphins at home. All indications were this team had turned the corner, and could beat the Red Skins in Washington in week three.
All indications were wrong, as the Cardinals brought back glimpses of seasons past with their inability to win back East. Arizona fell to both the Red Skins and the Jets to even their record at 2-2.
Arizona would, however, bounce back at home and set their sights on their first division title since 1975, when the St. Louis Cardinals resided in the NFC East. Arizona handled Buffalo at home with a 41-17 victory as Kurt Warner threw for 250 yards.
After beating Buffalo the Cards faced long-time foe, the Dallas Cowboys at University of Phoenix Stadium. The Cowboys joked that the game would feel like a home game to them, but the Cardinals got the last laugh, beating the Cowboys 30-24 in overtime.
The Red Birds had a chance two weeks later to beat Carolina on the road, but squandered the opportunity, handing Carolina a 27-23 victory, once again displaying their inability to win on the road back East.
But the resilient Arizona team would bounce back once again, winning three straight against lowly division foes, the Rams, 49ers, and Seahawks.
The New York Giants came to town in late November with a chance for Arizona to put the division on ice, but once again the Cardinals failed to win the big game, losing 37-29. Meanwhile, Kurt Warner had placed himself near the top of candidates in the MVP race, throwing for 300+ yards in each of his last 5 games.
Things weren’t quite so rosy for running back Edgerrin James. After failing to reach 100 yards in any game since week one, Edge was benched in favor of Tim Hightower in week nine. Shortly after, Edge would ask for his release, a request which was denied by the Cardinals.
The Cardinals had the opportunity to clinch their first playoff home game since 1947 on Thanksgiving Day as they traveled to Philadelphia to play a down-n-out Eagles team. Donovan McNabb had been benched in the second half the previous week, and the time seemed right for the Cards to finally win a meaningful game back East…
Don’t let the new uni’s fool ya! The same old birds showed up and were devoured by Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook on Thanksgiving Day. McNabb threw for 260 yards and 4 TDs while Westbrook tied a team record with four touchdowns in a single game. The Cardinals were embarrassed, 48-20, losing their second game in a row and failing to clinch the division title for the second straight week.
In their third attempt, the Cardinals eventually would clinch their first division title in 32 years as they beat the Rams once again.
With another attempt to prove themselves as real contenders in the playoffs the Cardinals lost to Minnesota at home, 35-14 in week 15. But wait! The Cardinals had the opportunity to make a statement, or at least come close by toughing out a late December game in New England and finally show their new team to the entire country!
Well, it was snowing, and any hope the Cards may have had leading up to the game went by the wayside before the game even started. Arizona was able to do nothing in the snow and freezing rain against the Patriots, losing 47-7.
The Cardinals did finally win again, beating the dreadful Seahawks at home 34-21, but it wasn’t without disappointment, as the Cardinals early mistakes had fans booing throughout the first half at University of Phoenix Stadium.
The Cardinals lost 4 of their last 6 games, playing uninspired football that has fans questioning how different this Cardinals team really is. Are they a new, reborn “Ken Wisenhunt team”, or are they just the same ole’ birds?
One can hardly blame Cards fans or the media for questioning the legitimacy of this team. Six of the Cardinals nine wins have come in the worst division in the NFL. Furthermore, the Cardinals failed to win big game after big game. What will happen when they are in the playoffs and every game is a big game?
We are about to find out as they host the Atlanta Falcons this Saturday.
D-Backs take step backwards, blow late lead, miss playoffs
Next up we have the Arizona Diamondbacks, the feel good story in Valley sports in 2007. The D-Backs surprised everyone, not only making it to the playoffs with a bunch of youngsters, but swept the Chicago Cubs in dominating fashion to advance to the NLCS. The D-Backs were handled easily by the Rockies in the NLCS, but the season was a huge success for Arizona, a team that many picked to finish at the bottom of the NL West. Their 2007 figured to be a nice launch pad for things to come in 2008.
Not so. After starting at a torrid 20-8 pace, the best in Major League Baseball, the Snakes began to fade quickly. By the All-Star break they had slipped to one game under .500 at 47-48. Despite going 19-40 since their hot start, they maintained their lead in the putrid NL West.
As the season wore on, the D-Backs were unable to hold their lead, looking like the hare that fell fast asleep, only to be passed up by the tortoise. The young team learned the hard way that a Major League Baseball season is a marathon, not a sprint.
One party that certainly cannot be blamed for not trying is the D-Backs front office who did everything they could to try to arm the team for victory. In an effort to hold on to the NL West lead, Arizona added David Eckstein, Jon Rauch, and slugger Adam Dunn late in the season to try to fend off the Manny-led Dodgers.
The Diamondbacks efforts would turn out to be in vane, as they coughed up their lead late to the Dodgers, losing the NL West by two games.
Now that the dust has settled, and the Dodgers failed to advance past the NLCS, things have only gotten worse for Arizona due to the teams deteriorating financial condition. In early November the team laid off 31 front office personnel, in addition the team was unable to re-sign Randy Johnson, Orlando Hudson, and Adam Dunn.
Randy Johnson has since signed with the San Francisco Giants, with a strong possibility that his 300th career victory could actually come against the D-Backs rather than for them!
Adam Dunn wanted to stay in Arizona, however the D-Backs declined to offer him arbitration, scared that he might accept and be granted a salary that the D-Backs could not afford. In the process the D-Backs lost Micah Owings and draft picks, pouring more salt on to their already blistering wound.
The offseason hasn’t been much to get excited about as it appears the D-Backs will be unable to sign any big name free agents. They fell short on offers to second basemen Ramon Vazquez and Mark Loretta, with Loretta ending up on the LA Dodgers. Arizona finally settled on a grossly overpriced Felipe Lopez.
Arizona hopes that the arms of Brandon Webb, Dan Haren, and Max Scherzer, and the resurgence of sluggers Mark Reynolds, Chris Young, Conor Jackson, and Justin Upton will be enough to get them back to the playoffs in 2009.
Coyotes close to bankruptcy?
After failing to reach the playoffs since the beginning of the Wayne Gretzky Era in 2005, the Coyotes currently find themselves in an unfamiliar position – in the playoffs! True it is early, but the Coyotes 17-15 records has them clinging to the eight position in the Western Conference. That’s the good news!
The bad news is the Coyotes are also wavering on the edge of bankruptcy, with reported losses in the $30 million range each of the past two seasons, and more significant losses likely in 2009.
Despite selling more tickets so far this season than last, and increasing television ratings, the team continues to lose money. The NHL is so concerned about the team that they have stepped in to help the Coyotes find new investors and sources of revenue.
Two notable sinkholes in the Coyotes pocketbook are their parking contract with the City of Glendale, and their salary owed to head coach Wayne Gretzky.
The Yotes currently pay the City of Glendale $2M per year in parking contracts, whereas, if they had control of the city’s parking lot on game nights they could earn up to $10M/season.
The second cash drain is Wayne Gretzky’s salary. The Coyotes coach makes more than any other coach in the league, and his $7 + million annual contract is outrageous when compared to the typical head coach’s salary of $1-$2M per/year.
But even if Wayne Gretzky agreed to coach for free, and the Coyotes did receive $10M in parking revenue, they’d still be losing money in bunches — nearly $13M/year.
With owner Jerry Moyes already in a heap of financial trouble due to the increase in gas prices followed by the downturn in the economy hammering his primary business, Swift Transportation, it remains unclear how long the Coyotes can keep burning truckloads of cash at $30M/year.
Rattlers 2009 season cancelled, team’s future uncertain
The Rattlers did manage to make it to the playoffs in 2008 with an 8-8 record but lost in the opening round of the playoffs 41-48 to Grand Rapids.
The season was a successful one for a team that was just 4-12 in 2007, however the success of the AFL was not as certain.
On Monday, December 15, 2008 to the surprise of few after much speculation, the AFL decided to cancel the 2009 season due to the downturn of the US economy. With the AFL’s Acting Commissioner, Ed Policy saying, “Every owner in the AFL is strongly committed to the League, the game, and, most importantly, the fans. Owners, however, recognize that, especially in light of the current unprecedented economic climate, the AFL, as a business enterprise, needs to be restructured if it is to continue to provide its unique brand of this affordable, fan-friendly sport.”
The future of the Arena Football League and the Arizona Rattlers is uncertain, with the likely contraction of league teams and no timetable set for a resumption of play. Will 2008 be the last year of arena football?
In hopes of a better 2009
Certainly the stars do not often align for everything to go right, but 2008 just seemed like a year where nothing went right for Arizona sports fans. Okay, maybe I’m being a bit of a pessimist, but we can at least agree that much more went wrong in Valley sports than right in 2008. Good riddance to bad rubbish! Bring on 09!
With all of the 2008 in sports recaps going on right now we decided to take a little different approach and recap the biggest stories in Arizona sports, youTube style. From the Superbowl to the Suns changes, the D-Backs losing the division, to the Wildcats triumph over the Sun Devils; 2008 was a year that will not soon be forgotten by Valley sports fans.
Giants win Superbowl in the desert
Suns acquire Diesel for Shawn Marion
Tim Duncan sends Game 1 to double overtime, Spurs take series 4-1
Shaq disses Kobe in New York night club: “Kobe, tell me how my @$$ tastes!”
Dodgers clinch NL West on D-Backs loss to Cardinals
ASU loses Territorial Bowl to Wildcats 31-10
Cardinals win NFC West for first time since 1975
(The NFL scrubbed the web off all the highlights from this game. However, there is a video of highlights from the Cardinals division clinching game vs the Rams at NFL.com.)
Suns trade Bell and Diaw to Charlotte for J-Rich
Wildcats beat BYU in Las Vegas Bowl
Roger Mason scrooges Suns on Christmas Day with buzzer-beater
Is it just me, or is Amare Stoudemire’s utter lack of focus alarming? In a game where the Suns were already without 2-time MVP Steve Nash, Amare lost his focus, getting into early foul trouble, then lost his cool, picking up two simultaneous technical fouls.
It was bad enough that he wasn’t there for his team last night. Luckily Shaq had enough in the tank to carry the Suns team to victory again, as they beat the Memphis Grizzlies 101-89.
Amare knew his team was without Nash. He knew that the Diesel, who rarely plays back-to-back games, would likely be tired from the prior night. Still, he couldn’t keep it together.
This is becoming a habit for Amare, and not the thing you would expect from a franchise player who claims to want to be “the man.”
Earlier this season against the New Jersey Nets, the Suns weren’t so fortunate. Amare Stoudemire was ejected for picking up two technical fouls in the fourth quarter. At the time of his ejection the Suns were leading 100-98 with 3:24 remaining in the fourth quarter. From that point on the Suns would be outscored 19-9, and lost the game 109-117.
One has to wonder if Amare is putting too much pressure on himself. Trying too hard, and outthinking himself. Sometimes it’s better to relax a bit and play your game. There are players in the NBA like Kevin Garnett that feed off intensity and emotion, but they never cross the line where their emotions cost their team a ballgame. Unless Amare finds that line, he will never be “the man.”
The Suns knew going into tonight’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies that they’d once again be without 2-time MVP Steve Nash. They did not know that Amare Stoudemire would fail to record any significant minutes once again. Amare, who was in foul trouble last night in Oklahoma City, once again got into early foul trouble, and early technical foul trouble.
After picking up his third personal foul with 4:50 remaining in the second quarter, Amare picked up two quick technical fouls and was given the boot, leaving the Suns to go the rest of the way without their top two players.
What is that I hear? A turn of a key, a crank of the engine and the Diesel is ready to throw his team on his back once again. Shaquille O’Neil responded huge, dropping 24 points and grabbing 13 rebounds on a night where O’Neil passed another Hall-of-Famer, Oscar Robertson for eighth on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.
But Phoenix trailed all night thanks largely to the contributions of starter Mark Gasol’s 16 points, and reserves Hakim Warrick and Quinton Ross, who scored 25 and 10 respectively. The Suns 17 turnovers didn’t make it any easier for them.
Who would it be to step it up for the Suns? Jason Richardson, no, he couldn’t throw it in the ocean, going just 3-12 on the night for 7 points. Matt Barnes was just 1-6 for 4 points. How about Leandro Barbosa, The Brazilian Blur?
Barbosa, starting in place of Steve Nash, scored a season high 28 points, including 22 second half points. Barbosa was helped by teammates Grant Hill and Louis Amundson. Hill has 15 points and 7 boards in 39 minutes of play. Amundson had his best game as Sun contributing 10 points and 8 rebounds off the bench.
Credit Jason Richardson for his defense on O.J. Mayo who dropped 33 points on the Suns last time they met in Phoenix. J-Rich held Mayo to just 12 points on 4-20 shooting.
Dee Brown and Jared Dudley both saw significant minutes for the second straight night, but had minimal impact. Dudley scored 3 points and had one rebound in 13 minutes. Brown recorded two points, two assists, and three turnovers in his 15 minutes.
Phoenix improved to 6-15 when playing without Steve Nash.
The Suns will enjoy another two day break before hosting the Clippers on Friday. They hope to have a healthy Steve Nash, and a more focused Amare Stoudemire for the matchup.