I won't say best coached, because a good coach is always preparing for the playoffs. Leaving JMAX out of the rotation for this game is a bad coaching move, which mars an otherwise fine job of coaching.

I caught that on tv and thought something was up. You could see Tay shaking his head as he sat on the bench and was saying "I'm not even tired" to whoever was sitting next to him.

Agreed.

There is no such thing as a perfect game.

Full marks to Flip for having his team prepared, Murray and Delfino put in a position to succeed and a game plan to beat one of the 5 best teams in the league, on the road no less.

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Momma was queen of the mambo, Poppa was king of the congo, deep down in the jungle, I start banging my first bongo
Every monkey like to be, in my place instead of me, cause I'm the king of bongo baby, I'm the king of bongo bong
-Manu Chao

Nobody is talking about perfection. Just best of season. This game was not. I will more likely give kudos to Flip Murray for staying ready to play.

Just a side note. Was interested in how the Suns would fare going to the Nuggets tonight and ---------- WOW!!!!!!!! NUGGETS DESTROYING THEM.
They were up over 30+ points in the 3rd qtr and have not let up!

Championship team??? I don't think so.

Westcoast representing again!!! Great recap lapeapod, you done us proud in this west coast close out game with another "live account" of the game, the scenes from the seats and player-human element. And of course a pf body was in the house, so of course another W for the road warriors,...Good job!!

Tay is my favorite player. But he was tired. 1 rebound for the whole game for him. He had just missed an easy layup. Besides, what, he does not think the bench needs developing? He does not think Delfino needs playing time? Its not about this game at hand. Its about winning in the playoffs. Someone needs to get a message to Tay to straighten out his priorities. I just reviewed the Cleveland game. Both Tay and Rip were left playing to start the 4th quarter with Delfino not getting to play that quarter. We all know the result. We fizzled out by the end of the quarter, then a tired group of starters scored just 4 points in overtime. I bet you can attribute that bit of ugliness back to this same selfishness.

More bad stuff. Having your team prepared means knowing who is injured and giving them extra rest. Billups needed time off, not an opportunity to further injure himself. We don't need that at all this late in the season. A guy has a nagging groin injury, so what do you do when faced with a stretch of 3 games in four nights? You rest him in the middle game. That is anything but having the team prepared. And Tay, most minutes on the team. No way he can handle these kind of minutes. One rebound for him for the game. Quite unprepared. Where was Rip? 3rd game in 4 nights, thats where he was. A coach who most decidedly does not prepare his team.

How did we win. Two players did well. Webber, who sat much of this season, and so has not had the opportunity to be run into the ground by Flip-yet. And Sheed, who recently sat 3 games, 2 for another ankle injury and one for a suspension. He was rested.

Then you have your bench. Dyess is not getting overplayed. Neither is Flip Murray nor Delfino. Rested players, thankfully we had some. Of these, only Dyess can be credited to Flip Saunders for having ready to play. Dyess has played the right amount for him. Plenty enough to be in shape, at the top of his game, and yet not too much to wear he is pushing that surgically repaired knee of his. But Flip Murray? He has been out of the rotation for quite a while. His preperation was all himself getting the extra practice he needed. I will give Flip some credit for tough love, that made Murray improve, but thats it. And Delfino, you got to be kidding. Delfino should be getting way more minutes this season. Nothing Flip Saunders can do in one game makes anything good out of that situation.

Flip did leave his starters in a couple of minutes after the Suns started their garbage time. But it was only a couple of minutes. There was one sequence where we got 2 steals in the backcourt in a row, just embarrassing their scrubs.

Reminds me of being a little kid when your parents tell you to go to bed, and in a rather sooky voice you're like, "but i don't waaaaaant to go to beeeeed. i'm not tiiiiiiired." haha

But really Tay was only ok in this game, I didn't even notice he wasn't put back in at the end, he hit a couple of post-ups and a 3, but Rip was the one with the terrible game. If not for all those missed shots Rip was pretty much invisible. Looks like his game has gone the other way on the road trip while everyone else's improved.

But that's the only complaint on an otherwise brilliant day. I just love watching road games when the guys hit the big shots and silence the crowd, and they get the towel waving going on the bench, really going to work with each other.

Flip looked great, that full length drive to the hole was amazing after he picked up the loose ball in the back court. Play of the game I think. As someone else mentioned, you wouldn't see CB doing that. We need some way to capitalise on fast break opportunities.

It's funny that whenever you see the Suns score it always looks like an easy basket like a free layup or an open jumpshot, yet you look at the score and see they are still 10 down. Weird thing that.

Never saw so many travels called in my life. What a joke. Seemed like Violet set herself a precedent on the first travel call and couldn't go back, so she had to keep calling them. The one on C-Webb was a flat out joke though.

And Sheed's T... Nothing to say really. Stupid decision from that referee, I can't wait to see that one rescinded. Hmm, so Sheed starts smiling and having fun and you just keep hassling the guy. It makes me angry.

Did anyone get to hear Eli Zaret on the radio? I didn't, but I could imagine it being quite a boring broadcast.


Bring on the Mavs tonight! Another early game, yay!

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