Game Day: Spurs (1-0) @ Suns (1-0), Fri 10/31/14

[iLLmatic]

I just finished re-watching the 3rd and 4th quarter again of last nights game..The Isaiah Thomas signing is looking so money at this point. He virtually carried this team offensively from the end of the 3rd quarter through the beginning of the 4th.

[Cap]

<Sarver>Now this is the game you paid your hard-earned money to see.</Sarver>

[JCSunsfan]

I'm excited as everyone else, but lets see how he does when other teams actually have a gameplan for him. He's a bit of a secret weapon at this point.

If teams game plan for Len, someone else on this team is going to have a big, big day. Besides, everything in this game he got was incidental. Lets see how he does when we actually start running plays for him.

[Xylus]

Rewatching the 4th quarter, the Suns held the Spurs to 0 FG's in the final 5:30 of the game. The Spurs' only points came from 2 Ginobili FT's. DE-FENSE. DE-FENSE. DE-FENSE.

[Superbone]

len highlights

Good find. I never thought I'd see Len on the end of an alley-oop reverse dunk.

One of his college highlight videos had one of those.

Shh.

[Atreides]

Rewatching the 4th quarter, the Suns held the Spurs to 0 FG's in the final 5:30 of the game. The Spurs' only points came from 2 Ginobili FT's. DE-FENSE. DE-FENSE. DE-FENSE.

Yeah man, that defense was fantastic. Len has potential to be defensive anchor for us:D Bledsoe and Markieff also did their job. I think it was good overall team effort on defense

[virtual9mm]

Len's explosion was great to see. That being said, we can't expect him to perform like this night-in and night-out. He'll have games where he looks like he did tonight (Tyson Chandler perhaps?) and he'll have games where he has the deer-in-the-headlights look. We just have to be pleased with the flashes of potential and hope that it really crystalizes for him in Year 3.

I disagree with this. The thing is, Alex didn't have to do anything very extraordinary to be so effective. He just played smart defense consistently. His game isn't really about athleticism as it is about staying between the ball and the basket, boxing out, and putting his hands up. He can do this night in, night out. Why not?

Because the game still might be moving just a bit too fast for a second-year player who more or less redshirted his 1st year. Because we shouldn't expect too much from a young big man who still has much to learn.

I'd be very happy to eat my words, though, if Len manages to be a bigger Marcus Camby or Tyson Chandler this year, and adds offensive moves reminiscent of Rony Seikaly or the Dunking Dutchman (Rik Smits) next year. I wouldn't mind him adding a mid-range jumper like Ewing or Yao Ming (i.e. T-Rex) either.

[INFORMER]

Great, gritty win from the Suns. To beat the Spurs with so many players off is just outstanding

Agreed.

[INFORMER]

Len may be the best young big we've had since Amare.

That's actually very sad.

[INFORMER]

I have no beers in me and i can see this team being nr 1 seed if Len healthy and plays like he played first 2 games. Without Len i though we were pushing 50 wins, with THAT Len we might be pushing 60 wins.

Welcome to the month of unbridled optimism.

[INFORMER]

The funny thing is, this video understates his impact on the game. Most highlight videos by their nature do the opposite. But one can't compose a highlight video with clips of a guy whose mere presence shuts down an offense. Amazing. I apologize if my gushing is just so ceaseless. I'll get used to this. It's a new day in Phoenix. We've FIXED THE PAINT!!!

OE, don't you dare allow this enthusiasm to dampen! I'm loving how fired up you are about this team.

[pickle]

i'm in indy/inf's camp in terms of being cautiously optimistic. to me this is len at his best, before he adds a reliable mid-range shot, at least to the free throw line... but damn that's some serious defensive potential.

what little i saw of marcus on the court last night, i felt like he put in some good work on defense. the offense wasn't working like it did against the lakers, but the defensive effort was there. if he continues to provide defense, i would think the 4.5 or whatever million we allotted him wasn't so bad after all.

at this point, i'd like to see len just become more comfortable on D, and more importantly, maybe some PR work on the part of the team to get him some respect with the refs (and for dragic and bledsoe obviously) so that he doesn't get called for too many silly fouls, which is the only threat i see to len performing like this on a consistent basis.

[Uncle_Gene]

Nice comeback win for the Suns after a sluggish start.