It’s Only Fitting

Thanks George. That was nice. This one was a “stepping stone” win for us. I don’t think that was a victory that is worth only one W. This one needed to go down as a momentum builder, but obviously, we won’t know how that works until the future.

I miss the days of Fox Sports Southwest, TNT, ABC and ESPN. Sadly, being deployed to the Middle East, I have the luxury of only watching games via the Armed Forces Network, or AFN. I pray to the Basketball Gods to watch these games as we near the playoffs, but as of late I have been drawing the short stick and getting to watch all of the Opening Day baseball games.  With only one sports channel to watch hundreds of different games, let’s just say I don’t catch many Spurs games.

That leaves me with searching the 3 or 4 websites frantically, on limited bandwidth, that offer some form of analysis in an effort to read about what’s going on. I have a couple friends who send me the highlight clips from whatever ESPN decides to show on SportsCenter. Aside from being away from home, my low spirits have a lot to do with the 6-game-slide that we have found ourselves on.

Coming off 6 winnable games that turned into big fat L’s and plenty of Laker-band-wagon sports analysts who continue to write us off, I was saddened to read all the negativity from the fans of the Silver and Black who flood the forums around the world wide web.  Many of our own seem to think this team is done and are ready to dump Pop, trade RC and Co. for a sack of old school Pogs and start rebuilding, all before game one of the playoffs.

Look, I am nothing more than a journalist for the United States Navy, so I don’t have the stat sheet buried in my Camo pants to fill your brain with useless knowledge on how to dissect the triangle offense. However, I am smart enough to know you can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Tonight’s game was a perfect example of even though the bubbles in the tub are out, there is still a bar of soap that can get us clean (sorry, that was a terrible overuse of that cliché).

With a Phoenix team limping around struggling to realize they have a better chance at a lottery pick than a playoff spot, this win was to be expected. Ya, we had our big 3 and McDeezy back in the line up, but with out Steve Nash, I was waiting for this game to tip. We needed the W of course. But the effects were bigger than just stopping the 6 game sabbatical.

I have no concerns as far as the mental mind set of Tim, Manu and Tony as well as Pop. I think the big 3 and coach are capable of seeing the possibilities and can realize that even if we don’t get the 1 seed going into the playoffs, we are still a capable threat, if we play good ball. The only problem is the “if” in that sentence.

That’s were Mr. Hill, RJ, Blair, Split, Neal,  the Red Rocket and their band of merry men come into play.

These guys concern me in a healthy way. These guys are more underrated than the Big 3. They have the ability to fill it up from the Land of Plenty and each one of them can have that kind of game where you say, “Dude, if he played like that every night…”

You fill in the blank. The issue is, they don’t every night. And that is fine. We don’t need them too every night. I don’t know the stats (again, forgive me, but I don’t have the access to all that here in the Middle East), but I would say we tend to have better games when better bench production is involved then when our big three score 30, 25 and 25, like in Houston.

Tonight’s game was more about the next few games and the playoffs for our bench than it was about beating the not-so-bright Suns. I was glad to see George with 17 after the first quarter rather than Tony with 14. The Big Fundamental finished with 8 Points and 4 Rebounds, yet deferred to the Red Rocket, who got a few more shots off.  The bench needed this game to remind themselves of the group that they can be, rather than the group they have been as of late.

We need George Hill to be George Hill in round one and two or we won’t need to worry about playing the Lakers. Neal needs to be the “Where did this guy come from?” type of player he has been or we will find ourselves watching the games on the River Walk instead of the AT&T Center. Bonner needs to remember that although he has to stretch the floor, 11 Rebounds is a good thing.

The Suns starters tonight had 61 points. Bonner, Hill and Neal had 60. That’s helpful.

It wasn’t just about beating a depleted, Nash-less Phoenix team. It was about stopping the bleeding and refocusing our bench. Tonight, I think that happened.

The only starter in double figures was RJ with 12.

With less than 20 second to go in the game, Steve Novak hit a 3 in the corner and Hubbie Brown commented, “It’s only fitting.” Some people say we live and die by the 3. Tonight we shot a shade over 51 percent, 15 of 29. I understand why they say that, but I think we live and die by our bench. Tonight, we might have won with out them. But, we might lose future games if it weren’t for games like tonight.

Of our last 5 games, 3 are against sub-500 teams (Atl, Sac, Utah, LAL, Phoenix). We have a chance to finish strong, but I could handle a 2^nd seed if it meant our bench was on ready call.  You can’t put a price tag on a Dejuan Blair…when he is Dejuan Blair. If he is out on the court running around like a chicken with his head cut off, we might as well have J.R. Reid out there shooting 18-foot jumpers.  Same goes for the rest of the bunch.

But let’s not pull the proverbial drain on the tub just yet.  The Lakers lot tonight, (I think we have Melo’s Melon sized ego to thank for that, don’t sleep on Denver). I choose to remain optimistic (mind you, I am on deployment, I don’t have a choice). Let’s hope that the bench decides to maintain their energy and continue to make the Aaron Brooks and Vince Carters of the world look like 3^rd graders at a YMCA game crying and mad because someone wasn’t playing defense against the person with the matching colored wrist band. Today it was Brooks and Carter. In two weeks it’s going to be Jason Terry/Mark Cuban, Kobe and Andre Miller.

I expect the Big 3 and Pop to get the rest of the gang together and finish these two weeks strong.

Of course, we shall see if George and Gary and the guys make me a wanna-be analyst or not.

No pressure guys.