heard loud and clear, but also be absolutely, 100 percent correct about it? Phoenix Suns. He wanted control over player personnel.
He couldn't have it, But that doesn't keep the Scottsdale, Arizona denizen from sounding off. He has a national stage for that courtesy of Turner Broadcasting, and after All-Star, used it to detail why the Phoenix Suns won't make it to the NBA Well, Sir Cumference can take a little solace that D'Antoni -- due to various injuries on the team -- actually had to call Eric Piatkowski's number, as Doesn't mean he was right, nor does it mean D'Antoni either assuaged or trumped the Round Mound of Rebound. After all, he still only played an eight-man rotation, thanks to both some intuitive coaching and getting Indiana's Jermaine O'Neal in early foul trouble, veteran Piatkowski can do when called upon, and that Burke can get in there "At shoot around, Coach comes up and says 'I don't know if you go play golf on game days, or whatever you do, but you might want to be ready tonight, night (three from downtown).
"He's a great coach. I like the way he communicates with me. You know, to give you a head's up like that instead of just shocking somebody, it gives you a chance to mentally prepare all day long.
" Piatkowski). You know I usually only play eight or nine guys," D'Antoni joked. "It paid off.
He played well. He shot the ball well and he's an extremely smart player. Didn't surprise me, yet he did surprise me.
I probably should him earlier and he proved me wrong tonight." Piatkowski scored 11 points on the night, one of only three off D'Antoni's shorter-than-short bench. Burke went three-for-five on the night (a dunk, a deuce, and one of his noted treys) en route to 10 points and four rebounds.
return from injury, put in a solid night with 14 points and a team-high 10 assists, and had one of the better highlights of the night when he went coast-to-coast, In fact, nearly every player racked up the double digits, with the exception of Kurt Thomas, who finished with six points, but got his double digits with a season-high 15 rebounds. His previous best was 12, a mark he's hit three times this season, the most recent being versus the Celtics nearly two weeks Amare Stoudemire, who blistered the Pacers in Indianapolis earlier in the week, scored a game-high 23 points, equaled by Nash. Stoudemire also had 10 rebounds while Nash pushed out seven assists in a 32-minute night.
Nash got some much-needed rest, thanks to Barbosa, but still had to have his shoulder Bell finished with 17 points, shooting eight-of-15 on the night, and Jones finished with 11 points and seven rebounds, all on the defensive glass, doing a critical foul on O'Neal early in the second half, as well as an ensuing technical foul on Jermaine under the league's Zero Tolerance policy. The O'Neal finished with just 16 points and seven rebounds, while Danny Granger led his team with 20 points in the scoring column. Marquis Daniels came off the bench to match O'Neal's 16, while Tinsley added 11 and the team's newest to fit into Rick Carlisle's system, netting only 10 apiece, leaving huge question marks about Dunleavy's production versus his contract.
"We need to be better in a lot of areas, and we just weren't," said Carlisle after watching the Suns beat his team for the second time this week. "We had the game started the right way, but then they went on an 8-0 run and that got the game going the wrong way for us. We didn't shoot well either, and that never helps.
" Suns -- all eight of them -- got the job done at a 52.6 percent clip. On Tuesday night, the Suns spotted the Pacers an 18-point lead in Indiana, last night, they provided the Pacers the same courtesy, going up by 18 and then tacking on 10 more.
But Indiana was helpless, especially without their "Me picking up my fourth foul was big early in the third quarter," explained O'Neal, who only scored two points in the second half. "But they came out and played like we knew they were going to play. Extremely All in all, they didn't miss a beat.
That's been the story with those guys. No matter who's in there, they keep going as long as they have Steve Nash." And Stoudemire, who looks as resurrected as anyone with a Black Jesus tattoo really stressed before the game," said Stoudemire.
"That we start out with high intensity and we did that tonight." "Everybody just did their job," praised D'Antoni. "Good workmanship and it was good.
Good win tonight." And the future? Getting Steve Nash the rest he so desperately needs, according to the self-proclaimed and self-promoted Omniscient One at TNT?
Until everyone's 100 percent healthy and back in the swing of things, all Mr. Barkley has to worry about is finding another available partner for tee At least on game days ..
. right, Pike? "It might be short-lived," a grounded Piatkowski realizes of his 15 minutes of Phoenix fame.
"But I'm always going to be here to cheer on the other guys. It's a lot of fun to be on this team. I've never been on a team that has a chance to win an NBA Championship and hopefully we can do something real special this year.
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