Game Day: Suns (1-1) @ Blazers (1-1), Sat 10/31/15

[Mori Chu]

Knight having a strong second half.

[carey]

Warren is having a rough game.

[Gladiator]

Really good run there to go up by 9. Knight looking better than I've seen him for the Suns

[Mori Chu]

Great game by our starting backcourt.

[carey]

Our guards had themselves a game. Bledsoe 31 points on 21 shots. Knight 25 points on 19 shots, 4-9 from 3. I think they can do even better but I like it for tonight. They're going to have to trade Archie if they are going to just give him DNPs.

[The Bobster]

Bledsoe, Tucker and Knight did a good job down the stretch closing this one out.

Everything seemed to get started though when Price was in running the offense and settling things down.

[Superbone]

Wow. Let's give credit where credit is due. Our two guards tonight were excellent. Knight showed some specialness too. That stutter step drive near the end of the game was a thing of beauty. Great way to finish the game.

[Superbone]

Price is surprisingly not horrible.

I'm telling you. He was excellent in the preseason and he's doing it so far to start the season too. Loved that one quick drive in the 4th that left two Portland defenders on the ground under the basket.

[Superbone]

Our guards had themselves a game. Bledsoe 31 points on 21 shots. Knight 25 points on 19 shots, 4-9 from 3. I think they can do even better but I like it for tonight. They're going to have to trade Archie if they are going to just give him DNPs.

Archie is just a trading chip at this point. We have too many guards for him to get time. I'd much rather see Booker than Goodwin.

[Ladmo]

Wow. Let's give credit where credit is due. Our two guards tonight were excellent. Knight showed some specialness too. That stutter step drive near the end of the game was a thing of beauty. Great way to finish the game.

It does make one start to wonder if this current group of guards are going to work better under Hornecek's system than last year's group.

They still have much to prove in my book. Still think you need to have more of an offensive post-presence to go anywhere in the post-season.

[INFORMER]

Only a few minutes in and Markieff has already made like 7 distinct mistakes.

He hit the boards, though. That's good to see.

Two nights in a row the Bledsoe-Knight combo dominated the Lillard/McCollum backcourt.

[TOO]

Only a few minutes in and Markieff has already made like 7 distinct mistakes.

He hit the boards, though. That's good to see.

Two nights in a row the Bledsoe-Knight combo dominated the Lillard/McCollum backcourt.

Seeing as I think Lillard is one of the most overrated players in the league, this pleases me.

[AmareIsGod]

Looks like we're going to see Booker - DNP the majority of the season. Hornacek sure liked to talk all preseason about how mature he is and how well he handles himself on the court. That translates into DNPs all season. It's TJ Warren all over again (last season with no burn while PJ Tucker got all the minutes).

[Mori Chu]

Maybe we'll have to hope for a (minor) injury to our backcourt to free up some minutes for Booker. Those things tend to happen over the course of a season.

[Sunsfan4life]

Nice W. Portland's down this year, but any road win is a good win.

Knights best game as a Sun? Maybe. Bledsoe's stat line is pretty insane.

Unbeaten Clippers on Monday should be a good one.

[pickle]

Didn't like Len's play in the first half. He's extending himself too far horizontally so that he can't get up high over the defender, and he's off-balance which allows the defender to push him around or bother his shot. Still needs a lot of work.

i actually had a totally different takeaway from len's performance. he didn't produce much but i loved his aggressiveness on offense. they were giving him the ball in the post and he made some moves. i hope he continues practicing this and makes it a staple of his game.

[ShelC]

Len's still a bit awkward and gets pushed around. He needs to get lower and create better leverage. He's so tall and now looks top heavy because he's gotten bigger that he tends to get pushed out of the paint. Still, he's huge and agile and can get a ton better.

Our guards were in rhythm last night but I don't think their games lend themselves to consistency which might be frustrating.

[OE32]

It is hard to complain about our guards' play last night. And it was hard to argue that Len and TJ deserved more time, the way they played. Then again, sticking TJ in the corner might be the very worst thing you can do with his particular skill-set. Len has to keep his hands up on offense.

I'm curious to see how we fare against teams that will get more than 30 wins this season.

[ShelC]

With spacing being so important now, and with our slashing guards and Chandler inside, I just don't know where, or if, Warren fits. He might be best as a microwave with the 2nd unit.

On a different note, I've been really impressed with Leuer. He's got a great outside shot but is showing a lot of versatility on the boards and bringing the ball up a bit in transition. He's got some nice bounce and isn't just a shooter like Novak. I'd like to see him get some consistent minutes. Could be a Channing Frye type for us.

[Mori Chu]

Len's still a bit awkward and gets pushed around. He needs to get lower and create better leverage. He's so tall and now looks top heavy because he's gotten bigger that he tends to get pushed out of the paint. Still, he's huge and agile and can get a ton better.

He seems to be trying to avoid contact and go around his man. He's extending his body horizontally way too much. He should just stay close to his center of gravity and stay more vertical. Jump up, big fella, don't extend your arms out to the side and make it easy to bother your shot. But I fully believe he can learn how to adjust this stuff. I think he's got a lot of promise. I just want to see him have a healthy season so that next year he can get closer to beast mode.