The Sports Corner

Stoudemire drops 49 on O’Neal-less Pacers

I don’t know what this tells more about, Stoudemire’s attempt to pass Nash as the player who’s going to carry the Suns, or the fact that TJ Ford is the best player on the Pacers.

(I did love it when Jarret Jack stole the inbound pass and hit a 10-footer just as the first quarter expired. Unanimous selection to TSC’s NBA All-Name squad.)

The Suns are showing doubters, so far at least, (and I’m one of those) that they’re still going to contend in the highly competitive Western conference. If Amare is able to put up big numbers on a consistent basis (he’s the seventh player in NBA history to drop 40-10-5-5 in one game) without Steve Nash leading the team in assists, that’s a huge jump for this Arizona based team.

It’s very hard to believe though, that the Suns will be able to continue to win games against Western opponents when Stoudemire leads the team with just six assists.

This isn’t to say they haven’t been impressive. Starting the year with a new coach, they beat San Antonio, something they’ve always had troubled with, as the Spurs seem to deny Phoenix a spot in the finals each season.

But back to the initial point, the Pacers are headed downhill without Jermaine O’Neal patrolling the paint. Stoudemire was able to take advantage of this in a huge way and when the Raptors come to town, with three seven footers, it’s going to be very hard for Indiana to do anything this season. 

Yes, TJ Ford was still able to shoot for 23 points, but Ford being the Pacers leading scorer also isn’t going to get them anywhere.

The Suns still have some proving to do in the West, though. Yes they beat the Spurs, but they are hurt, and Tim Duncan is getting up there in games and starting to be predictable. They couldn’t hang with New Orleans, which looked like a passing of the torch game from the last great point guard Nash to the new one, Chris Paul.

Other than that, they were able to handle the Oden-less Blazers, which is a good indicator that they still have the running game going.