Dy-No-MITE!!!

Suns vs. Kings and hoo baby was it a...sleeper. There's really nothing to expect from these pre-season games, but a little excitement wouldn't totally suck. Tonight, all the thrills came from Shawn Marion (no surprise) and the flagrant throwdown of Brad Miller by Raja "The Clothesline" Bell. No brawls, though.

The highlights of the evening for me:

• James Jones stepping over the baseline in-bounding the ball on the Suns first possession. JJ? How old were you when they taught you how to inbound the ball? Seven? Eight?
• JJ again a few minutes later, 3 second defensive violation. JJ? How old were you when they taught you to count to three??? Oh wait. You went to Miami. You might not have gotten all the way to three.⁽¹⁾
  
• The Suns Dancers! Let me clarify. They suck, and only one of them is even a bit pretty. However, they're also stupid, so on this evening they wore their purple outfits. There are really only two shades of purple in the NBA: Forum "Blue" and the one everyone else uses. The Suns were in their regular home whites, so the Kings were in their road ______⁽²⁾.
  
• Bumped into my favorite waitress at the game. Yah, that's completely random and has nothing to do with the game, but I hadn't seen her in a few months. And there's absolutely nothing awkward about introducing your wife to your favorite waitress, I swear.
• Celine was there! Well, not Celine, but this chick who looks like Celine Dion who gets way into the games. She and her hubby⁽³⁾ used to sit across the aisle from us and are now a few rows behind, but like the turning of the leaves, seeing Celine stamp her feet is a sure sign of the season cycle.
  
• Amare managed to get some vertical tonight, but a bit less than Louis Amundson.
  

The Kings still seem to be stuck without enough of an outside threat to spread the floor, so there was very little high post play. Sucks to watch Brad Miller have to move out of the high post where he's so effective. There were a few well executed back cuts, but those were mostly against Barbosa, and it's not like he's fully aware when he's on the court. I expect the Kings will improve a bit as they get used to Musselman and gel as a unit. I'd guess they'll finish between fourth and seventh in the west, barring serious injuries. On the high side if KMart plays well and Francisco Garcia looks as sharp as he did for stretches tonight.

As for the Suns, they look like anywhere from third to last, all depending on the durability of Nash.

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¹ Can y'all tell I don't like JJ? I'm not clear why the Suns didn't try to find another long, lanky gunner in the off-season. Although, it does make me wonder...in the lockerroom, do you think he now goes up to Raja and says "[y]ou come into our house, you should get your behind kicked. You don't come into the [US Airways Arena] playing that stuff. You're across the ocean over there. You're across the city." Just curious.
² Purple.
³ He's got to be the worst dressed gay man I've ever seen. At least we're convinced she's his beard.