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.The Game

The pace of the game was as frantic as one could imagine, with the score at halftime 67-61 in favor of the Heat. Dwyane Wade had been incredible early, scoring 19 points in the first quarter alone; the last two coming on a sweet banker off the glass with 42 seconds left in the period.

Wade cooled in the second quarter, but got his teammates involved, dishing out 8 assists by halftime to go along with his 21 points. He had help from an unlikely source, Daequan Cook, whose shooting woes had begun to make people wonder if it really was just a fluke he’d won the NBA All-Star 3-Point Shootout.

As the second half erupted, both teams continued to score at a frenetic pace, with Miami ending the quarter with a total of 104 points, something I can’t personally recall ever seeing. With still a quarter to go, the Heat had topped the century-mark.

Of course, the Suns were within breathing distance, having scored 95 points themselves thanks to the play of Shaquille O’Neal, Steve Nash, and more importantly, Jason Richardson.

As the fourth quarter began, the excitement was palpable. Leandro Barbosa of the Suns and Michael Beasley of the Heat quickly traded buckets; Barbosa’s being a trey to bring the Suns within eight points at 106-98.

Nash and Dudley both added treys of their own, but could only bring the Suns within four of the Heat because of Beasley’s lay-up with 8:49 to go. Wade had dished out his 13th assist on that play, and Miami fans were beginning to wonder if he’d set another career high in dimes.

He finished the night tying the mark he’d set last week of 16, but even this isn’t a good testament to how much he helped his team win last night. D-Wade was once again the best player on the court, and there was no one else even close.

Sure, Nash ended the night with 29 points and 10 assists, but a good portion of those points came when Miami was really in control of the game at the end.

Following Dudley’s 3-pointer, Michael Beasley quickly made it a six-point game again (110-104), as he sank a jump shot, giving him 23 points. This too gave knowledgeable Heat fans pause, as they were aware no player on the Miami roster other than Dwyane Wade had scored more than 25 points this season. Could Michael be the first?

The next two minutes of play were a bit of a disappointment, as the only points scored were two free throws by Nash and a shot from downtown by Mario Chalmers, putting the score at 113-106. Both Dudley and O’Neal had been fouled in the act of shooting, but had whiffed on both of their sets of shots from the charity stripe.

Finally, at the 6-minute mark, the pace picked up once again, as Shaq made a lay-up and the free throw when Cook was called for the foul on the big man. Barbosa then stole the ball from Beasley, but the Suns turned it right back over, as Wade snatched the ball from Richardson.

This resulted in an easy lay-up for Beasley, assisted by Wade, and gave him 25 points. More importantly, he was fouled in the act by Steve Nash.

Then, of course, the officials had to slow the game down again, calling an official timeout. When play resumed, Beasley sank his free throw, giving him 26 points, and it was on again.

O’Neal threw down a thunderous jam for the Suns just twenty seconds later, and the last stretches of the game began to wind down. Phoenix kept up the pace in scoring, but couldn’t seem to find the defense needed to close the gap.

The Suns never closed to within less than four of the Heat from that point on, as Miami played smart ball and sank their free throws. In the end, it was enough to put an end to the Suns ‘Run and Gun’ game as the Miami Heat beat Phoenix 135-129.

One thing of note though, as Shaq committed his fifth foul on D-Wade on a drive Flash had made to the hole. After the foul O’Neal seemed to stand over Wade as he lay on the ground in a menacing fashion. It wasn’t until Haslem gently pushed him out of the way to help Wade up that he moved off.

Dwyane got his revenge though, in the consolation that his team was victorious. Once again Wade had a brilliant game, scoring 35 points, to go along with his 6 rebounds, and 16 assists.

His fellow high-scorers in the game were Michael Beasley and Daequan Cook, coming off the bench to pour in 55 points. Michael Beasley had a career high 28 points, and Daequan also had a career high with 27 points.

Other notable contributors in the game were Jamario Moon who scored 15 point to go along with his 5 rebounds; Mario Chalmers who scored only 14 points, but had 5 rebounds and 7 assists, and even Jermaine O’Neal.

While O’Neal only scored 6 points, while grabbing 2 boards, and handing out 5 dimes, he was important; for he limited Shaq and kept him in trouble. Sometimes the stat sheets don’t tell the whole tale.

Quite literally, the Suns tried to run the Miami Heat out of their own building. They found that’s not always an easy task, as the Heat beat Phoenix at their own game to notch their second-highest point total in franchise history.