With the revitalized way the Phoenix Suns have been playing this season, a match-up with a Hornets team without Chris Paul seemed like a sure victory. However, the Suns decided to leave their intensity at  home and were defeated 110-103. This is relatively disheartening considering the fact the Phoenix Suns blew out the New Orleans Hornets just over a week ago by 20 points with a healthy Chris Paul.

What was the difference in this game? The thing most Suns fans were skeptical about coming into this season; the ability and willingness to rebound the basketball. The Suns were pounded on the glass, giving up 25 offensive rebounds amounting to 38 second chance points for the Hornets. Overall, the disparity of total rebounds was 56-38 in the favor of the Hornets. Amar’e Stoudemire following two consecutive solid games offensively and defensively, completely regressed only mustering 5 rebounds in 43 minutes. For a player who is expecting to receive a maximum contract this upcoming off-season, this is completely and utterly atrocious. I am thoroughly convinced that it is a mental and not a physical issue when Amar’e has these “off-games” rebounding. It is almost as if that he decides before games that he doesn’t feel like banging with the big men in the interior on that night and the result is typically a loss for the Suns. The Suns have actually out-rebounded opponents this season by a narrow margin this season (42.9-42.5) and this will continue to be a primary factor in their success as the season progresses. Plain and simple, if the Suns don’t play tough and rebound they lose.

Cursed On TNT?

A friend of mine pointed out last night that including last night’s game the Phoenix Suns are 0-12 on TNT televised games. Can this be called the curse of Charles Barkley? This is actually somewhat a cause for concern as the playoffs are televised on TNT. The Suns will have 2 more opportunities to break this trend this season, the first on Dec 17th:  Phoenix Suns @ Portland Trail Blazers (10:30pm) and the second on January 18th: Phoenix Suns @ Memphis Grizzlies (5:30pm)

The Suns look to get back on track on Sunday versus a beleaguered Detroit Pistons team. The Pistons are only averaging 92.23 ppg despite off-season addition of Ben Gordon a (18.5 ppg career average) and Charlie Villanueva (13.5 ppg career average). The Suns have been giving up 106.6 ppg this season which is 5th worst in the NBA, however they still lead the league in scoring by a slight margin over the Golden State Warriors with 109.8 ppg.