Denver Nuggets @ Phoenix Suns [Game 34]

[PDXKnight]

Thanks for winning tonight and again tying the blazers and the Nuggets in the northwest division! Go Suns and go Blazers!

[djuandemarco]

what a game!!

Banks playing 20 min, and the rest of the players under 30 min (except Nash and Marion , but just 32)

Maybe the loss against NO was not that bad after all. I hope DA continues using this 9 men rotation

[nanoclarkology]

9 man rotation is awesome. Plus Banks improvement is really outstanding. Now we can really kick some conference arse. Plus tonight I hope the GSW take Duncan and company to the loss column.

[Cash]

Yeah, the way Banks has been playing, he's earned a spot in the rotation, even if he has a couple of bad games. With Raja's current health (not to mention crappy jumper), he should probably be playing Manu-esque minutes. Take a couple away from Nash & Barbosa as well, and there's a full rotation spot for Banks.

[OzzyAZ]

Sweet, Suns scored more points in the first quarter than the Spurs did in the first half.

[mkot]

Grant Hill and I quote "When we lose a game it's like the end of the world."

haha

Hill must be reading the RealGM Suns board too...

[Cash]

I also liked the bench lineup of:

Banks
Barbosa
Hill
Diaw
+1 (Skinner in 1st half, Amare in 2nd)

There, you've got 4 guys who can handle the ball to various degrees, 3 guys who can shoot to various degrees (4 w/ Amare), 2 outside threats, 2 really good passers, and at least 4 guys who can get to the rim (although only Barbosa, Diaw, & Amare are really good at it). Offensively, it's pretty damn good, especially considering there's no real PG, much less Nash. Defensively, it's not particularly undersized (not by our standards anyway), and with Skinner in there, should be a pretty decent defensive lineup. Even w/ Amare in there, the D should be adequate against a lot of teams.

[J~Rush]

Skinner made a three? Woah.

[impulsenine]

I'd like someone to YouTube that Skinner 3

[JohnVancouver]

PHX wins big, banks gets to play and shows Mike what he's got, Skinner hits a three and ...
Spurs get beat by the warriors

That's a pretty good night

[KPCB34]

Skinner made a 3!

Awesome and Banks 7-8 Crazy!

Cant wait to watch this game.

[TASTIC]

Skinner, it's like he can only hit a 3 if it's at the buzzer...

NOICE win over a good team...stoked Amare played well enough to not let Camby dominate the boards.

13-0 when Amare's 20-10...

[KJ7]

I thought our foul trouble would come back to haunt us. I don't think any of our players played over 30mins tho. Diaw with a 5th going into the 4th qtr ... I thought we were close to playing Marks in the 2nd but D'Antoni rode his luck.

Boy did we need a shooting performance like this. We are just on another planet when we are hitting our outside shots.

[TASTIC]

Yeah when I saw Amare, Hill, Marion on 3 and Diaw 4 I said to my mate here it comes, 16 is going to be 6 in a couple of mins...

[KJ7]

Yeah we were limping to the end of the 3rd, then Amare comes on and hits a jumper and LB hits the 3. That was huge for us. Gave us a nice buffer. Likewise when Banks nailed the b2b 3s. They were daggers!

[-SDU-]

great win, so much to like, amare with 20 10 3 and 3 in 24 minutes, WOW!

the sky doesnt fall for me when we lose 1 game, and im not talking titles when we win 1, but it was nice to see a confidence boosting win for the team, especially one where a non rotation guy became a big part of it on both ends of the floor. that made the other guys stand up and enjoy the win more than they normally would have

banks one on one defense was amazing and pesky, we need that on parker, bdiddy, terry, deron, paul, all guys we might meet in the playoffs

great to see, keep it up suns

[impulsenine]

ESPN has GREAT highlights - including Skinner's 3 - and as a bonus treat, a recap of the KJ/Ceballos 107 points IN A HALF versus Denver (!!!).

Strangely, the only Banks mention was that he had only averaged 4 points, and no mention that Skinner is shooting 100% from 3-point-land and always at the buzzer.

I'd really like to know if that's planned. Seriously. Are we going to set the game-winning play for that guy in the playoffs?

[impulsenine]

Here's a thought:

Without Marcus' 23 the Suns would've ... lost by 1 point.

Obviously, he would've been pulled before he got a chance to go 0-for-8, and someone would've probably scored... but then again, he also did a good job defensively.

SO. Marcus Banks: the difference between a tough, close loss and a complete blowout. For that game, anyway.

[PHXfan85]

It would be sweet to see Banks name show up on that ESPN highlight board consistently. Can't believe they didnt show him drain any tres in the highlights though.