GAME 21: Portland Trail Blazers vs Phoenix Suns | One Game At A Time
December 7, 2010 — PDXPIPELINEBy Andy Popp
GAME 21: Blazers vs Phoenix Suns
December 7, 7PM; Comcast Sports
Related: Portland Trail Blazers Games, Schedule, and WIN Tickets
The good news: The Blazers win and the six-game losing streak is over. The bad news: The Blazers are 9-11.
This is the second meeting between the Suns and Blazers this year, the Blazers opened the season with a 106-92 win.
Even though Mark D'Antoni is gone, the Suns are still singing his song. They run. They look to outscore other teams. A lot of this is because it's the best way to utilize Steve Nash's unique skill set, but it's also due to their lack of size. Case and point: Channing Frye is their starting center.
The Suns on paper.
Starting five: Grant Hill, Earl Barron, Channing Frye, Steve Nash, Jason Richardson
Off the bench: Hedo Turkoglu, Josh Childress, Hakim Warrick, Jared Dudley, Goran Dragic, Earl Clark
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
Andre Miller's streak of 632 consecutive games played will come to a screeching halt tonight because of his suspension for blowing up Blake Griffin. Nicolas Batum will start in his place.
STRATEGY
Force the Suns to play a slowed down basketball game. Marcus Camby and Joel Pryzbilla need control the boards and give the Blazers second-chance points.
LET'S GET RICH
To date: 8-7-1.
Blazers -3. I like it.
TRADE ME
Rudy Fernandez.
NEXT 5
vs Orlando
@ Phoenix
@ San Antonio
@ Memphis
@ Dallas
BOTTOM LINE
If they Blazers are going to rally and make the playoffs in the ultra-competitive western conference, they will have to protect home court for the rest of the season. One game at a time.
