Suns Basketball » Adrian Dantley http://www.sunsbasketball.net Following the Rising & Setting Suns Sun, 05 Feb 2012 14:00:44 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 Suns Rout Nuggets, Clinch Home Court Advantage http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/04/14/suns-rout-nuggets-clinch-home-court-advantage-in-first-round-of/ http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/04/14/suns-rout-nuggets-clinch-home-court-advantage-in-first-round-of/#comments Wed, 14 Apr 2010 11:58:12 +0000 Fanhouse NBA Blog - suns http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/04/14/suns-rout-nuggets-clinch-home-court-advantage-in-first-round-of/ Brett Pollakoffby Brett Pollakoff

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PHOENIX -- There were plenty of convoluted mysteries in the Western Conference playoff race heading into Tuesday's games, and none of them figured to be completely solved by the time the night was through. But after the Suns routed the Nuggets by a score of 123-101, and the Jazz helped Phoenix's cause by beating the Warriors, one thing has been decided: the Suns can now finish no worse than the four-seed, and thus have earned home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

"Going into the season, a lot of folks didn't have us even making the playoffs," Amar'e Stoudemire said, after scoring 26 points and grabbing eight rebounds in less than 28 minutes of action. "And for us to now have home court advantage and a chance to get the third spot, it's a success."

The Suns can get that third spot with a win in Utah on Wednesday. If the Jazz should win, the Suns will end up in fourth, and will face these same Nuggets in the opening round of the playoffs.

A matchup of Phoenix versus Denver in the first round would be a treat for the fans, as it's a series that could easily take all seven games to be decided. But with the Nuggets playing on the road, on the second night of a back-to-back, and the Suns playing on a day's rest and touting this one as the most important game of the season, the results were decidedly less competitive on Tuesday than they would likely be in the playoffs.

Phoenix jumped out to an 18-2 lead to start the game, and it was a deficit too large for a tired Nuggets team to try to overcome. The Suns were clearly the aggressors from the start, shooting almost 61 percent from the field and 57 percent from three-point land in the first quarter, while out-rebounding their opponent by a 16-7 margin.

If that wasn't enough evidence that everything was going the Suns' way, Steve Nash launched an 80-footer just after the first quarter buzzer sounded that went in as if he had shot it from 15 feet out.

"You can't dig yourself in a hole like that at the beginning of the game," Nuggets coach Adrian Dantley said. "I don't know what I can do when we're down 13-2. ... They scored 13 points in the first three minutes of the game. It's a little disappointing."

 

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]]> Brett Pollakoffby Brett Pollakoff

Filed under: ,

PHOENIX -- There were plenty of convoluted mysteries in the Western Conference playoff race heading into Tuesday's games, and none of them figured to be completely solved by the time the night was through. But after the Suns routed the Nuggets by a score of 123-101, and the Jazz helped Phoenix's cause by beating the Warriors, one thing has been decided: the Suns can now finish no worse than the four-seed, and thus have earned home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

"Going into the season, a lot of folks didn't have us even making the playoffs," Amar'e Stoudemire said, after scoring 26 points and grabbing eight rebounds in less than 28 minutes of action. "And for us to now have home court advantage and a chance to get the third spot, it's a success."

The Suns can get that third spot with a win in Utah on Wednesday. If the Jazz should win, the Suns will end up in fourth, and will face these same Nuggets in the opening round of the playoffs.

A matchup of Phoenix versus Denver in the first round would be a treat for the fans, as it's a series that could easily take all seven games to be decided. But with the Nuggets playing on the road, on the second night of a back-to-back, and the Suns playing on a day's rest and touting this one as the most important game of the season, the results were decidedly less competitive on Tuesday than they would likely be in the playoffs.

Phoenix jumped out to an 18-2 lead to start the game, and it was a deficit too large for a tired Nuggets team to try to overcome. The Suns were clearly the aggressors from the start, shooting almost 61 percent from the field and 57 percent from three-point land in the first quarter, while out-rebounding their opponent by a 16-7 margin.

If that wasn't enough evidence that everything was going the Suns' way, Steve Nash launched an 80-footer just after the first quarter buzzer sounded that went in as if he had shot it from 15 feet out.

"You can't dig yourself in a hole like that at the beginning of the game," Nuggets coach Adrian Dantley said. "I don't know what I can do when we're down 13-2. ... They scored 13 points in the first three minutes of the game. It's a little disappointing."

 

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