Heat vs. Suns: Miami Runs and Guns Phoenix Down

The Phoenix Suns walked into the American Airlines Arena last night ready to ‘Run and Gun’. It’s their new-old look, and they wanted to put it on full display for the Heat in hopes it would bring them another victory.

Over the past year or so, the Suns had moved away from such play; the Phoenix front office hoping to develop the team into a defensively-minded franchise that would have more luck in the playoffs—where defense is king.

They first traded away one of the centerpieces in the ‘Run and Gun’ style of play Phoenix had been operating; sending Shawn Marion to the Miami Heat along with Marcus Banks for Shaquille O’Neal.

This seemed rather disjointed, since they still had all the rest of the pieces from that offensive scheme, as well as the coach who ran it.

Neither Steve Nash nor Amar’e Stoudemire seemed comfortable in the slow-paced, half-court offensive scheme the Suns were now forced to play most of the time with the addition of the massive low-post presence of Shaq.

Shaq, to his credit, came into the organization stating he would work his game around theirs. However, almost immediately it was apparent they would have to work their game around his—to the detriment of the team. With Shaq in the middle, the Suns were bounced quickly in the playoffs.

They then fired Mike D’Antoni, the NBA’s Coach of the Year for the 2004-2005 season, who had been the architect of the fast-break basketball the Suns had played for four years.

D’Antoni had won in Phoenix, there was no denying that. He had amassed a record with the Suns of 232-96 over his four seasons coaching in Phoenix, and had led the Suns to two Western Conference Finals.

However, the loss the previous season in Game 5 of the Western Conference First-Round had left the Suns scratching their heads and packing their bags for the trip back to Phoenix.

When they returned, the Suns management decided it had stomached enough.

It seemed they could take D’Antoni’s European-style offensive-minded game so long as the Suns were at least reaching the Western Conference Finals; as they had in Mike’s first two seasons.

However, being knocked out in the First-Round and out of the playoffs for the second season in a row by the San Antonio Spurs just wasn’t cutting it.

So they let Mike go.

He’s now the coach of the New York Knicks, and has brought at least his run and gun style to the erstwhile New York franchise. That style has yet to translate into wins, but the New York fans are excited and thrilled at times.

Phoenix, meanwhile, hired Terry Porter to instill a new sense of style to the team. He tried his best to get the team to fully buy into the new defensive scheme of things, but had very little luck, as the team floundered, going 28-23 prior to the All-Star break.

So, what do the Suns management geniuses do? Why they fire the coach again—must be his fault, not the fact they’re trying to completely revamp their team without truly revamping it (getting rid of one player from a team like that doesn’t change the rest of the players).

So, with Terry Porter out, and Alvin Gentry in, the new-old ‘Run and Gun’ could be brought back. And thanks to some moves by management, they had an all-new gunner for the system ready to go in Jason Richardson, who they had acquired from the Bobcats for Boris Diaw and Raja Bell.

Voila! The Suns are back in business, and all is right with the world. Phoenix, under Alvin Gentry’s new leadership, has solidly returned to the style of play D’Antoni made famous in the desert.

Their first three games out of the gate, the Suns did something no franchise had done in nearly two decades—score 140 points or more in 3 consecutive games. No team had done this since the Portland Trail Blazers from Nov. 13-17 in 1990.

And all three scoring blitzes came in victories, as the Suns beat the Los Angeles Clippers in a Home-and-Away series (140-100 and 142-119), and then demolished the hapless Oklahoma City Thunder at home as well (140-118).

Since the All-Star break, coming into the game against the Heat, the Suns had tallied a record of 6-3, and did it while averaging 122.0 PPG over that span. This resurgence in the Suns was accompanied by a resurgence of Shaq, who had come to life over that span as he hadn’t done since his glory days.

Shaq even had a 45-point effort during that stretch, showing he’s still got the goods. Because of that, the Suns had to have come in Wednesday night against the Heat pretty confident. They certainly weren’t going to misfire as they had the night before.

The night before, the offensive juggernaut had sputtered in Orlando as the Suns had their worst offensive output since the break in a 111-99 loss to the Magic.

However, no one thought that would continue against the Heat. Shaq and company were sure that Wednesday night would tell a different tale. They were confident they could ‘Run and Gun’ the Heat right out of the American Airlines Arena.

And they tried their best.

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