reflections
December 28th, 2006 Phoenix Suns @ Dallas Mavericks Game Preview

TNT 6PM AZ Time

Phoenix Suns (19-7)

PG Steve Nash SG Raja Bell SF Shawn Marion PF Boris Diaw C Amare Stoudemire

Dallas Mavericks (21-7)

PG Jason Terry SG Devin Harris SF Josh Howard PF Dirk Nowitzki C Erick Dampier

The two hottest teams in the Western Conference collide today(both have combined to win 39 of their last 45 games). The last two seasons these teams have had some great games against each other, especially in the playoffs. This game, for both teams, is a good measuring stick to see where they are at right now. This game should be an important one for Amare Stoudemire who thought that his presence in last year’s playoffs would have made a difference. And after coming off the bench in his last game against the Mavericks, right now as the starter he wants to prove to the TNT audience that he is back. He will face a tough challenge today against Desagana Diop. Two years ago when he destroyed the Mavs in the paint they didn’t have a more athletic big man like Diop who will have a much easier time than Dampier at staying with Amare.

Key Players

Boris Diaw

Diaw had a great playoffs last year, especially against the Mavericks. He was playing the best basketball of his career and after a slow start he’s gone back to that and has been more aggressive on offense like he was at the end of last season. In the playoffs, he was our Amare in the post, causing mismatches with big men using his quickness and great passing ability to get the team some easy points. Now that Amare is back that puts him in a better position. While the Dallas defense focuses on Amare, Diaw has to take advantage of the much slower Dampier or whoever else defends him. He should have a pretty good game.

Josh Howard

The Mavericks right now are averaging 13 points less per game than the Suns and they’ll need their 2nd option on offense to have a good game if they want to keep up. Howard is a very good all-around player and they’ll need him to score 20+ points in this game so Dirk doesn’t have to do everything. Shawn Marion needs to do a better job of containing him than he did in the playoffs last year. Howard also needs to do a good job defending Marion because the Suns have more than enough offensive weapons.

Prediction
I don’t really see either team with a huge advantage. These teams are evenly matched and it will be an awesome game on TNT. The Mavericks are on a 7-game win streak right now and they are at home so I will go with them, doing so has almost always given the Suns the win so why ruin a good thing smile.gif, but if both Diaw and Amare have good games and the Suns stay close in rebounding then they will take it.

Mavericks 110 Suns 105

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