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Fast-breaking Suns, Nuggets are slow-starting
Janny Hu
San Francisco Chronicle
Sunday, November 12, 2006
The wonder of small ball and the run, run, run isn't looking so wondrous these days. Instead of winning under the "We'll score more than we give up" premise, teams like Phoenix and Denver are putting up oodles of points, only to have their defenses ooze them away quicker than a Steve Nash-led fastbreak.
Through Friday, the Suns were averaging 108 points per game while giving up a league-worst 112. The Nuggets and their newly installed up-tempo offense have been good for 105 points, but their defense is allowing 104.5.
The predictable results: Denver, at 1-3, was the last team in the league to record a win. The Suns, after beating Memphis 96-87 on Saturday night, are 2-5. They're 1-5 start was their worst since the 1996-97 season, when they opened with an 0-13 mark.
So much for the league-wide trend toward using faster-paced and smaller-but-more-skilled lineups. As Suns coach Mike D'Antoni so eloquently stated after his team again folded late in Thursday's loss to Dallas, you can't run without the ball and you can't win without defending.
"We're soft as freakin' cupcakes out there," D'Antoni told reporters after the game. "We haven't got an offensive rebound since 1998 ... I don't mind being small and you're almost there and you don't get it because the other guy is bigger. But we just drop back on defense and don't think it's any big deal.
"That's where it starts. It starts with running every time. It just starts in our attitude. That has changed and it will change."
The Suns have blown big leads in all their losses, including a 19-point advantage against the Lakers, a 15-point edge against the Jazz and most recently, a nine-point fourth-quarter lead against the Spurs on Wednesday.
Somehow, the Nuggets have been even worse in folding down the stretch. In the fourth quarters so far, they've blown a 12-point lead against the Knicks, a seven-point lead against the Timberwolves and a 10-point lead against the Clippers in their season opener.
Up-tempo means more possessions, more chances for teams to score. Nuggets coach George Karl went so far as to proclaim his desire for shots to be put up in the first 18 seconds of the shot clock, but that isn't helping his team slow down the opposition. Things won't get any easier with Kenyon Martin now likely out until January because of pending knee surgery.
"We're losing all our games the same way,'' center Marcus Camby told the Rocky Mountain News. "It's starting to get repetitive."
And it's starting to put a crimp in much of the preseason hype surrounding the Western Conference. The Warriors were tabbed as another team following the Suns' lead and turning lineups upside down with their small-ball ways under Don Nelson.
They essentially threw out those plans after one game, moving Troy Murphy back to power forward for tip-offs and inserting Andris Biedrins at center. In getting better defensively without losing too much on offense, Golden State might have taken the first step toward addressing what some league experts maintain is the wrong of small ball.
"I think Don Nelson is going to have a huge impact on what Golden State is trying to do, but ... more importantly, they've got to figure out something on the front line," ESPN analyst Greg Anthony said before the season.
"Right now, they're a team that can't defend in the paint or score consistently and then rebound. And they're not a great perimeter shooting team. They still have a ways to go."
As do the Nuggets and Suns defensively. It's why the Bulls paid nearly $60 million for an aging Ben Wallace this summer and why San Antonio is still many people's favorite to win the NBA title.
E-mail Janny Hu at jhu@sfchronicle.com.
