On my last post, I basically anointed the Suns to be one of the best teams in the NBA. Not surprisingly, within 48 short hours the Suns proved they are in fact not to be considered an elite team despite an excellent November. The Phoenix Suns were absolutely atrocious versus Mike D’Antoni’s New York Knicks. The Knicks if you haven’t noticed this season are the worst team not named the New Jersey Nets. Yet coming in with only 3 wins, the Knicks put up 71 first half points against a defenseless Suns team and ended up getting blown out 126-99. This also marked the first time this season the Suns offense was held under 100 points. Rest was not an issue in this game as they were in New York for 2 days previous and simply came out flat in the game.

Every team deserves a mulligan from time to time. It happened last week to the Cleveland Cavaliers as they were blown out by the lowly Charlotte Bobcats. However, an elite team should come off that defeat and play inspired basketball in their next game. This simply didn’t happen for the Phoenix Suns against the Cleveland Cavaliers last night. The team should have been further motivated by facing Shaquille O’Neal for the first time since his departure from Phoenix. However the game was over by the end of the first quarter, as Lebron and company jumped out to a 33-14 lead.  As usual Steve Nash is the catalyst for this team and he has played poorly in the past 2 outings.  In the 2 losses, he only had 13 assists to go along with 10 turnovers. When Nash is not distributing the ball well the team is simply terrible. Especially reliant on Steve Nash for scoring is Amare Stoudemire, who scored 14 points in both losses as well. Amare, who wants to garner a maximum contract after this season needs to prove that he can lift this team up when Nash isn’t playing as well and thus far he is not proving he is capable. He is showing that he is more in the mold of Robin (an excellent role-player in the right setting), rather than a Batman (the man who can carry the load himself when need be).

Now, I am not saying the Suns aren’t going to make the playoffs this season. They will make the playoffs, but based on meetings against elite teams defensively this season they will make a quick exit. The Suns schedule continues to be difficult these next two weeks. They have to face the Lakers, Magic, Mavericks, and Spurs in 4 out of their next 5 games. Can the Suns rebound from these two atrocious losses against elite teams? It is certainly going to be difficult, especially with the news that Leandro Barbosa is likely out until Christmas.