Tonight It's Denver's Turn to Beat Down the Suns

Ouch! that 2 OT Dallas game earlier this week took all the air out of Phoenix's balloon. The Suns, one night after a 105-83 drubbing at the hands of the Chauncey Billups-less Detroit Pistons got smacked again by the Denver Nuggets. The 22-point loss at home was bad enough, but tonight's 131-107 game was downright pitiful.

While Allen Iverson showed Steve Nash what it's like to attempt to guard a real Hall of Famer by raining 44 on Stevie Efense, a host of Suns looked like shook ones against Carmelo Anthony. 'Melo dropped 29 and scooped up eight boards on a combination of Shawn Marion and Boris Diaw, and Raja Bell (when he, like Nash, wasn't getting lit up by AI). Oh, and I almost forgot, Iverson dropped 15 dimes on Phoenix, as well.

For the Suns' part in this crime of a game, Leandro Barbosa led the Suns with 25 points, many of which were scored in garbage time. Nash had 15 points and 10 assists in 34 tired looking minutes. Shawn Marion had his second consecutive sub-par game, scoring only 12 points in only 27 minutes of play.

Offense wasn't the problem for the Suns; it rarely is. Though the Suns shot a very good 44.4% from the field, they allowed Denver to shoot an otherworldly 57.3%. The sad thing about the 24-point "L' was that the game wasn't that close. The Nuggets took a 26-point lead, 70-44, and rampaged to a 111-73 end of the third quarter bulge. Mike D'Antoni had this to say about his team's performance:

"We're in a little bit of a funk right now. Discombobulated. We have the regroup a little bit."

Uhhh, yeah Mike. The back-to-back let downs do not bode well for a Suns team hoping to make an appearance in the NBA Finals. If they cannot immediately regroup after a draining game as they had Wednesday against Dallas, how can they expect to magically find the energy in June?