Suns Look Great Early, But Fall Late to Injury-Ravaged Blazers

When the Phoenix Suns hit the court this evening against the Portland TrailBlazers in the Pacific Northwest, it was with the back-monkey of five consecutive road losses weighing them down. They had played sluggishly away from US Airways Center, and they had to go into an always tough environment to play at the Rose Garden. Even while struggling with injuries, the Blazers are loaded with players like Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldredge that create difficult match-ups for teams like the Suns.

In what was mostly an up and down effort, the Suns showed flashes of brilliance in the game. Of course, it would be nice to see the kind of effort that folks saw at times, but Phoenix could not keep it up through all 48 minutes.

The most notable example of this was the play of Amare Stoudemire. He looked like his old dominant self in the game, showing off a lightning quick first step and an ability to shed bodies in the lane that you love to see in a power forward of his ilk. Amare also showed quite a bit of emotion in the contest, roaring with passion after a couple of massive dunks.

In all, Amare played a blistering 45 minutes, and he was noticeably gassed as the game came to its conclusion. He had 27 points and 11 boards in the contest.

Grant Hill also dominated early in the contest. When the Suns were struggling through a points-less opening three minutes, Hill took over the contest, reaching double figures with some quick shooting and an amazing touch around the basket. Hill scored 20 points in the contest, even while he somewhat disappeared as the game went on.

Channing Fyre also had a solid game, sinking five three-pointers and contributing six boards.

Unfortunately, as has been the case recently, the fourth quarter spelled their doom. The Suns couldn’t buy a bucket, and the Blazers completed a great comeback to win the game. Jerryd Bayless was a driving force behind the Portland win, with a career high 29 points in 29 minutes off of the bench to send the Suns to their 17th straight defeat on TNT.

Portland outscored Phoenix 41-23 over the last 14 minutes of the contest to take it.

In the closing seconds, the Blazers were clinging to a three point lead, and the Suns were inbounding the ball with four seconds left, and they were unable to get a good shot off as Nash bricked a fall-away three.

The last two quarters of the game represent an alarming trend with these Suns. As they did in their game against Orlando, the Suns built up a large lead, only to see it begin to dwindle as they struggled to make shots and Bayless and Brandon Roy were making everything in sight.

For the first time in six seasons, the Suns have now lost six games in a row away from home, and to do so in such disheartening fashion is a big blow to a team that finally sees the end coming of a huge stretch of road games with minimal home time.

With some bigger games looming on the schedule after Saturday’s match-up with the Wizards, the Suns will need to quickly forget the pain they experienced at the Rose Garden, and get back to work keeping up to speed in the Pacific Division.

Tags: Amare Stoudemire, Brandon Roy, Channing Frye, Grant Hill, Jerryd Bayless, LaMarcus Aldredge, Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers, Steve Nash