The Suns went from being blownout in Brooklyn to winning in convincing fashion against the league’s third-best defensive team 97-81. This win brought the franchise’s win total to 2,000. Phoenix is the fourth fastest to get to that number.

Everybody on the Suns contributed, including a major Michael Beasley sighting after several DNPs in the last couple weeks. Phoenix was up by seven points by the half and didn’t let up. They stretched the lead by seven more points by the end of the third, and finished by increasing it a couple more points by the final buzzer.

Beasley was surprisingly amazing in this game. He was able to get in the game because Jared Dudley couldn’t play due to a wrist strain he sustained against Brooklyn. Beasley was an efficient 10-14 from the field for 20 points in 21 minutes, extremely close to a point per minute which is a difficult feat to achieve, especially with that volume of minutes. He even had a positive plus/minus of +8.

Luis Scola contributed with 22 points, and seven rebounds, Marcin Gortat scored eight points and ripped down 10 boards.  Goran Dragic was more of a facilitator as he scored only seven points, but dished out eight assists. Sebastian Telfair had 13 points off the bench to go along with six rebounds, and five assists and was a +16 on the night. Shannon Brown added 11 points starting in place of the injured Dudley.

Even though he only scored seven points Markieff Morris really contributed to the win that salvaged the otherwise miserable road-trip. In his 19 minutes the second-year player played good defense and had four great blocks. Morris ended the night with a +9 plus/minus, despite leaving early after fouling out.

For Chicago, Carlos Boozer posted a double-double with his 15 points while pulling down 10 rebounds. Other notable players were Jimmy Butler’s 13 points off the bench and Richard Hamilton’s 12.

Lets check out my keys to the game.

• The Suns stole the game! They played consistently, which has been a problem recently, and players like Beasley and Morris took it upon themselves to play better. 

• While there were almost no fastbreak points to be had with Phoenix winning in the category 6-4, the Suns still got some easy baskets off some broken plays.

• Phoenix succeeded in keeping Luol Deng under control. He only scored 13 points and was a -15 on the night.

• The Suns also kept the lid on Joakim Noah. He only scored 10 points, and two of those points were a long two with his unorthodox shot release, that doesn’t look like it should ever go in when he shoots it. However, the Suns failed to keep him off the glass. He had 13 total rebounds, with SEVEN of them being offensive, giving the Bulls another possession.

This game was very emotional with four technicals being called. Sebastian Telfair received the tech for Phoenix while, Carlos Boozer, Luol Deng and Nate Robinson were T’d up by the refs on the Bulls side of the ball.

Phoenix salvaged what otherwise was a disaster of a road-trip with heart-breaking fourth-quarter collapses, a blowout, and three road losses to Milwaukee, Boston, and Brooklyn before getting over the hump against Chicago.

The Suns only have one day to rest while they travel back to Phoenix to host Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday.

Thanks for reading! Please check me out and follow me on Twitter @Eric_Saar and check in tomorrow for my Weekend NBA Roundup!

They are in the middle of a five-game losing streak after losing to the Brooklyn Nets 99-79 Friday night. The halftime score was 53-46 in Phoenix’s favor and it looked like they had a chance to steal a precious road game. THe outlook was especially bright with Gerald Wallace getting injured during a fastbreak where P.J. Tucker swatted at the ball (getting a little body) and Wallace fell hard on his ribs and had to leave for the rest of the game.

The Suns also caught a break where Deron Williams took a Dragic knee to his thigh and was hobbling around for the rest of the game after coming out for a bit. Things looked good going into halftime, but then it all went bad and the Suns ended up losing by 20.

How did my keys to the game work out?

• Phoenix actually did something right! They diminished the effectiveness of Brook Lopez to 13 points and eight rebounds instead of his usual 18.7 points, despite him having a +23 plus/minus (which is the net team points when that player is on the floor). 

• The Suns did not put up nearly enough points. I said 100 is the magic number and they only got to 79. In fact the problem is the have only hit the 100-point mark 11 times in their 38 games this season. That won’t get the job done.

• Phoenix did OK here tied with Brooklyn in offensive rebounds, but lost the overall rebounding battle by four. It seemed like they lost that battle by more. Every time Reggie Evans got one of his 15 rebounds (5 offensive), I thought, “Again, really, He got another rebound,” or “Another putback layup.” The Suns cannot have so many defensive lapses, giving up easy layups/dunks after missed shots.

• Deron Williams only had 15 points and six assists, but that was probably because of his injured leg and him hobbling around. He did pretty good for being injured. Phoenix did nothing on former Sun, Joe Johnson. He had 19 points and had a +17 plus/minus for the game. The Suns defense was so ineffective against Johnson he barely even tried and still got almost 20 points.

• The Suns had 18 turnovers giving up 14 points on those turnovers and giving up 14 fastbreak points. Not good enough.

Phoenix also lost the points in the paint battle 46-32, which is horrible. A lot of that was the offensive rebounding putbacks and the porous nature of the Suns defense in allowing penetration and letting post players gain position.

Once again total plus/minus says it all. Every Brooklyn player was on the positive side led by Lopez’s +23 and other than Marcin Gortat’s +2, every other Suns player was on the negative side.

And the road doesn’t get any easier with the Chicago Bulls up next with no days rest and still on the road.

The Bulls just beat the New York Knicks 108-101 Friday so at least the opposition is also on no days rest, but they are at home.

The keys to tonight’s game are:

• Play hard all night no matter what the score. Try to get better individually and as a team, so that maybe you can win later when you are at home. Also try to steal this game.

• More practically, Chicago is a tough defensive team so make your shots, spread the floor and get out in transition to get some easy baskets to increase your confidence. The Suns are going to need it because the Bulls are the league’s third best defensive team, only allowing an average of 92.2 points per game.

• Don’t let Luol Deng get hot. He just scored 33 points, YESTERDAY in New York. That job will probably be up to P.J. Tucker to stop him.

• Please stop Joakim Noah from being an effective rebounder. He averages 10.4 per game. Also, don’t let him score as much as possible, because when he does, he gets his teammates and the home crowd energized, making it even harder to salvage this devastating road-trip.

The Suns need to regroup after this game because they will have the Oklahoma City Thunder waiting for them in Phoenix on Monday.

Thanks for reading! Please check me out and follow me on Twitter @Eric_Saar and check back tonight after the game for a recap and analysis!

They continue their arduous road-trip against Brooklyn after losing to both the Milwaukee Bucks and the Boston Celtics in the previous two games. The Nets (20-15) are 6-1 since P.J. Carlesimo took over head coaching duties for the fired Avery Johnson and are looking to grab another win against a poor Phoenix road team. The Suns are only 2-16 when not at U.S. Airways Center this season.

This game, which tips off at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time, will be a tough game for the Suns. At this point, every game is going to be a hard fought battle, due to the talent disparity between Phoenix and most other teams. They have even become the legendary “trap game” for many teams. A trap game is one where one team is favored by enough that unconsciously, the favored team doesn’t put enough effort in to win the game. Any team can win on any night. They are all paid NBA players after all.

The keys to this game include:

• Stop Brook Lopez in the paint. Lopez is the starting center for the Nets and is leading the team in points per game by averaging 18.7 per game. The Suns need to take him out of the game (figuratively). 
• Put up some points. The Suns offense is not consistent and is often stumbling around wasting time on the shot clock, instead of getting into their offensive sets. They need to get to that all-important 100 point plateau, because Brooklyn is fifth in the NBA in scoring defense, only giving up an average of 94.7 points per game.
• Rebounding. The Nets are smack in the middle of the pack at 15th overall in rebounding, but I have a feeling that if the Suns don’t box out their man that Reggie Evans, Brook Lopez, Gerald Wallace and the rest of the team will out-hustle and out-rebound Phoenix to a victory.
• Also, try to contain Deron Williams and Joe Johnson.
• As always cut down on turnovers, especially live turnovers.

Phoenix needs to put forth the effort in this game and try to put it away early because they have to travel to Chicago tomorrow to play an even better defensive team in the Bulls.

Thanks for reading! Please check me out and follow me on Twitter @Eric_Saar and check back tomorrow for a recap of tonight’s game and a preview of the Bulls game!

The Suns just can’t be consistent over the course of a game. They were up 14-9 in the early going, but couldn’t keep it going and were only up 24-23 at the end of the first period. Phoenix lost the lead at the start of the second quarter and then Jeff Green started getting going, including this dunk, flying by who else but Michael Beasley. The Kansas State product finally got to play Wednesday after two straight DNPs, but only five minutes, and was somehow a -10 with only two points. Green ended up with a +16 plus/minus, with 14 points off the bench. 

The situation continued getting worse that by halftime the Suns were in a 53-41 hole. Kevin Garnett, who finished the game with 10 points, had a bucket to start the third quarter. Then the Suns had their once-per-game run that gives the fans hope that Phoenix can pull out a victory on the road against a team with playoff aspirations. The Suns went on a 17-0 run in 5:35 minutes with all the starters scoring at least once.

The rest of the game was just all Celtics. Because of good coaching by the Celtic’s Doc Rivers and the veteran experience of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo, they didn’t allow the Suns to get in striking distance in the final quarter.

Once again, the bench is the problem with the Suns. Jared Sullinger, a rookie from Ohio State, was a +24 with 12 points and 16 rebounds, while the rest of the Celtics bench had a positive plus/minus. Jason Terry was +19 with 13 points, and Courtney Lee was +12, even though he only had six points.

For the Suns, Markieff Morris was a -21 and Shannon Brown was a -15 and all but three players for Phoenix had a negative plus/minus. P.J. Tucker and Jared Dudley were a plus four and five respectively, while the bright spot was Luis Scola’s +16, along with 16 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

Lets see how my keys to the game worked out.

• Rebounding – The Suns actually did OK here. They out-rebounded Boston by seven on the offensive boards, which are more important, and only lost the defensive rebounding battle by two so the Suns did fine there. 
• Run – Phoenix had 17 fastbreak points, which was more than I thought they would have, but gave up 18, so that cancels out.
• Pound the paint – The Suns won the points in the paint 50-46, but due to the Celtic’s undersized roster, it should have been more.
• Run up the score – Phoenix didn’t get to 100 points . . . they didn’t even get to 80. On the bright side, they didn’t give up their usual average of 100.6 points per game, but still didn’t score enough to win.

The Suns lost the turnover and points off turnover battle, but only by a little bit.

Phoenix won or was close in almost every statistical category, except for the important one, plus/minus (the net score). That is the most important. Overall, the Suns do not have a go to scorer; the closest would be Goran Dragic. That is what they need to finish off these games. Someone to go in the post multiple times in a row and coming out with points, or someone who can create their own shot. If the Suns had this or a slight upgrade at every position, they would win some of these closer games.

The talent on the team is good, but not enough to defeat teams with multiple all-stars and some future hall-of-famers on a consistent basis. They just don’t have the firepower.

Thanks for reading! Please check me out on Twitter @Eric_Saar and check back Friday for a preview as the Suns travel to New York to take on the Brooklyn Nets!

Their 108-99 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks Tuesday was Phoenix’s tenth straight road loss and their 15th road loss of their 17 games away from U.S Airways Center so far this season. The Suns only road wins were against the Charlotte Bobcats and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Suns started out well in the first quarter, shooting 9-18 from the field, and led 33-26 at the end of the first period. Then they got outscored each quarter for the rest of the game. In the first quarter, the Suns were getting great looks on offense and playing decent defense including hustling for the rebound. After that the Bucks started making shots the game slipped further away with each minute until the final buzzer. It was never a blowout, but the Suns never held control of the game after the first quarter.

In another DNP (coach’s decision) for Michael Beasley, Goran Dragic scored 21 points while Jared Dudley had 18, Marcin Gortat had 16, and Luis Scola had 12 in the loss.For the Bucks, point guard Brandon Jennings had 29 points, and dished out nine assists, while most of the other Milwaukee Bucks that played scored around 10 points. I guess when a team loses their coach the day before, the next team doesn’t stand a chance.

The problem in this game was the Suns bench. The net plus/minus tells the whole story. The Suns starters were a combined +13 versus the Bucks starters combining for a +2. On the other hand the Suns bench was a combined -58. Thats really bad. The Bucks bench was a combined +43. This demonstrates how badly the bench played and with the current roster you can’t expect the starters to make up for that deficit and come up with a win. Anyway, on to tonight’s game.

The Suns have a quick turnaround to play the Boston Celtics (17-17), who have won three contests in a row and are starting a five game homestand with tonight’s game against the Suns at 7:30 p.m. ET.

What are the keys to a game against the Celtics? Usually the same, rebound, run, pound the paint, and run up the score.

• Rebound – The Celtics are last in the league in rebounds per game so Phoenix needs to hit the glass on both ends of the floor.

• Run – The Celtics are a tough, physical, grind out team that loves to slow the game down and play a half-court sets, so the Suns need to get out in transition.

• Pound the paint – The Celtics are undersized, which is a reason for their 30th rebound rank in the NBA, so the Suns need to take advantage and get good post looks and paint penetration. They only have one seven-footer, rookie Fab Melo, who was only recently called back up from the Developmental League. They have older 6’11′ Kevin Garnett and that ends the list of people over 6’10″ on the Celtics.

• Run up the score – Boston only averages 95.4 points per game, 21st in the league so if Phoenix can score 100 points they could win.

The Memphis Grizzlies are have been reaching out to trade Rudy Gay. The teams include Phoenix, Golden State, and Toronto and there are probably others. In Phoenix’s case they would probably have to give up Jared Dudley and future draft picks. We will see if this ever happens.

The Sacramento Kings are almost certainly moving to Seattle. More to come in This weekend’s version of NBA Roundup.

Thanks for Reading! Please check me out and follow me on Twitter @Eric_Saar, and check back late tonight (because of school) for a recap of tonight’s game!

This road trip starts against the Milwaukee Bucks (16-16), who are in the midst of a four-game losing streak, the latest being a 15-point beat-down by the Indiana Pacers due in part to 7’2″ center Roy Hibbert’s 20 point, 15 rebound, five block game.

Phoenix will need to be consistent on both ends of the floor if they are going to leave Wisconsin with a victory. On offense they need to pass the ball, and spread the floor, getting Jared Dudley coming off screens for jumpshots, getting Marcin Gortat and Luis Scola quality post looks, while spreading the floor.

The defensive side of the ball is trickier. Goran Dragic and Jared Dudley and the rest of the Suns guards will have their hands full with two big-time scoring guards in Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis. They do the bulk of the scoring while the forwards do almost nothing. The Pacers game on Saturday is the perfect example. The guards Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings combined for 33 points while forwards Ekpe Udoh and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute combined for only seven points. For two starting players . . . in one game . . . That’s horrible.

That is why P.J. Tucker and Scola have to take advantage of their matchups in this game by helping on the quick guards, but also getting back to their man so as to not give up open layups or dunks. What Phoenix wants is Milwaukee’s big frontcourt players taking contested, long, two-pointers.

Keys to a Suns victory are: turnovers, paint penetration, points in the paint, and consistency.

Phoenix needs to cut down on live turnovers. They only had 14 in the loss to Memphis but gave up 18 points on those turnovers, so most of them were live, meaning Memphis got the ball, ran it up the court, and quickly scored.

The Suns defense needs to prevent the Buck’s guards from penetrating the painted area and either getting an easy layup or dumping it off to someone else for a dunk when a Suns player comes to help.

The Suns need to pound the ball into the paint. They need to get lots of post-ups for Gortat, Scola and O’Neal within 10 feet along with guard dribble penetration and fastbreak points will be a key to a Suns win.

Phoenix needs to be consistent most of all. They don’t have to be on fire with all their shots, they just can’t have horrible quarters where they barely score any points.

One aspect that is tricky about this game is Head Coach of Milwaukee Scott Skiles, former Suns coach, suddenly decided to part ways with the team, yesterday. It had been reported that he would leave at the end of the season, but ended up leaving sooner, as the Bucks are mired midst the four-game losing streak. This could be good for the Suns as the Bucks are without their leader. However, historically a team does extraordinarily well the game after a coach is fired, and that could be the case with a coach leaving as well.

Thanks for reading! Please check me out and follow me on Twitter @Eric_Saar and tune in tomorrow night for the recap of Suns/Bucks. We’ll see if Milwaukee’s coaching change has any affect.

America West Airlines N908AW Boeing 757-2G7 24233 PHX Phoenix Airport 1999 Phoenix Cardinals c/s

As said by other people on Twitter and I agree, it’s never a good thing when your defensive specialist is your leading scorer. P.J. Tucker,who was acquired this offseason for his tough, lock-down-style of physical defense, scored a career-high 17 points, to go along with five rebounds and three steals in the second consecutive Suns loss. His previous high was 15, even though he has scored much more when he played overseas.

The Suns offense was sloppy and they were missing shots, finishing with a miserable 39.2% field goal percentage at the end of the game, even worse is that percentage was lower for most of the game.

Phoenix’s defense was horrible for stretches, riddled with mental mistakes and was good for a couple short series, but they could not stop Memphis consistently or when it counted.

For the Suns the only other person than Tucker in double-figures scoring was Marcin Gortat, who had 12 points. Everybody else was hovering just below the double-digit mark, which shows balanced scoring, but for the Suns to win probably at least three or four players need to be in double figures, with at least one of them going over 20 points for the game.

The only bright spot for Suns fans was a Wesley Johnson sighting in the rotation and not in garbage time. Johnson had 6 points, a couple rebounds and a resounding block that saved a fast-break layup in his limited 17 minutes. While those aren’t great stats, Suns head coach Alvin Gentry is trying to shake up the lineups, inserting Johnson for Michael Beasley with his third DNP-CP (did not play- coaches’ decision) of the season. Beasley is earning $5,750,000 this year and is on a multi-year contract. That is too much money for anybody to have a coach feel the need to bench you for entire games. He needs to step up and produce on both ends of the court.

The Grizzlies had a regular night with Zach Randolph scoring 21 points and grabbing 8 rebounds, Rudy Gay posting 20 points and Gasol and Tony Allen both scoring in double-figures.

A simplistic way to see how the game went is to look at the plus/minus of each player. This gauges how well the team did while they were on the court. The entire starting lineup of Memphis and one bench player were positive, led by Marc Gasol’s +17, while Phoenix had only Jermaine O’Neal on the positive side at +3, who played almost the least amount of minutes for the Suns.

Let’s see how I did in predicting what the Suns needed to do to win.

• Pace. Yep, the Suns didn’t get to 100 and the Grizzlies barely got past 90, so one reason Memphis won. 
• the bigs. Memphis had 44 points in the paint, with a lot from the front-court players of Gasol and Randolph. Another reason for losing.
• Turnovers. The Suns had 14 turnovers leading to 18 Memphis points and gave up 19 fastbreak points. A third reason.
• Rebounding. The Suns won the offensive rebounding battle 11 to seven, which I was worried about, but missed so many shots they lost the overall rebounding war by 10, at 42-32.

And… that’s the nail in the coffin. Losing all of those different aspects led to a Suns loss in a sorely-needed win, but it hurts even more because a getaway game before any length road-trip helps.

Phoenix travels next to Milwaukee to take on the Bucks Tuesday to kick off a four-game road trip.

Thanks for reading! Please check me out and follow me on Twitter @Eric_Saar, and tune in Tuesday for a preview and recap of the next Phoenix Suns game!

Our new home is with roommates, but we have an entire master bedroom to ourselves and the ability to use the rest of the house as well, which ends up being much more space. Yay!

So … hello 2013 … let’s see what adventures you have in store for our little blog this year! From all of us at through our eyes, Happy New Year!

New bedroom/office

How do you get charged, you asked? The sushi goes by on colored plates. Different colored plates are equated to different prices. For example, the cheapest yellow plates cost $1.00 each. As you finish each plate, you stack your used plates and then the waitress comes by at the end of your meal to figure out how much your bill will be. SGT Fong and I ate a total of 13 plates total at various prices. We ended up paying $25 including tip, which I guess isn’t so bad considering it’s sushi? At least it was an interesting way to end 2012!

Welcome!

Plates on the conveyor belt

Haru Sushi

So many plates!

I do have to point out though that my favorite Spanish holiday vocabulary is Noche Buena. I really appreciate how the day before Christmas isn’t just called the eve of another more important day; rather it has its own name altogether.

¡Feliz Navidad!

Mexican Christmas party

A tasty tale photo adventure:

A flower forest photo adventure: