On the 15th, the Suns challenged another Texas powerhouse, Spurs, back-to-back, away.

Both sides played an overtime, and the Suns lost the game 104-110.

Rookies have a common weakness, which is that they don’t know how to distribute their physical strength, which will make them hit the rookie wall. Yesterday, several newcomers in the Suns ran wildly throughout the game, and their back-to-back conditions were obviously falling.

Sir Xiao scored 16 points and 10 rebounds, with a shooting percentage of only 40%; Nene scored 12 points and 7 rebounds, with a shooting percentage of 60%. He was abused by Duncan and graduated with 6 fouls in 26 minutes.

Duncan played in 51 minutes, made 16 of 25 shots, 6 of 6 free throws, scoring 38 points, 16 rebounds, 9 assists and 4 blocks, with a quasi-triple double-double.

People say that Duncan is at his peak when he debuted. In fact, "Stone Buddha" has become significantly stronger in the past two years. The single core has led the Spurs to achieve outstanding results, averaging 23 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks this season.

David Robinson, one of the Spurs' double towers, averaging less than 10 points this season and will retire after the end of this season.

The Spurs' No. 2 scorer is second-year point guard Tony Parker, who averages 15+5 per game and is often scolded by Popovich.

Ginobili, who is not yet bald, is just a rookie this year, coming on as a substitute, averaging 7+2 per game.

Of course, the Spurs also had surprises. In 2001, Stephen Jackson, who had a two-year minimum salary, averaged 12 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.6 steals per game, and performed well on both offense and defense.

In the summer, the Spurs also renewed their contract with swingman Bruce Bowen at a low salary. Although he has poor scoring ability, his three-pointers in the bottom corner are accurate, and his candy-style defense makes the Spurs' outside line solid.

In the same team basketball, the Spurs are mainly defensive. They restrained the Suns in tactical aspects, but could not defend Guo Xu, so the strength of the two teams is not much different, and the scores are very close.

Guo Xu made 14 of 26 shots, 4 of 10 three-pointers, 6 of 6 free throws, scored 38 points and 12 assists, and almost played back-to-back 40+10. He completely defeated Spurs sophomore rookie Tony Parker, who made only 3 of 18 shots, 2 of 5 three-pointers, 7 of 9 free throws, and scored only 15 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists.

Parker is in a bad state, and Popovich must also let him play because his speed can keep up with Guo Xu and his height can also interfere with shooting. Substitute defender Spider Clarkston has no choice but to play Guo Xu when he appears.

Starring as Guo Xu, the same rookie No. 20 in the first round in 2000, was an unlucky guy who was injured and reimbursed for a rookie season. At that time, scouts thought he was much better than Guo Xu, but he had poor shooting percentage of the 76ers last season, poor assist ability, and defended a black hole. So the 76ers management gave up on him and traded to the Spurs.

Guo Xu's breakthrough and shooting were unable to stop him. He only played for 4 minutes in the game. He could not help the team during the tough battle.

Although the Suns suffered a 15th loss of the season, Guo Xu still ranks third in the MVP rankings, second only to Duncan and Nowitzki. Now many people now believe that Guo Xu and Duncan are superstars of the same level, but they lead the team differently.

Duncan is the core of both offense and defense, while Guo Xu has super attack power and can drive the entire team's offense.

The Suns returned to Phoenix for three days to repair and started another away trip to the East.

In the game against the Hornets, the two sides staged a battle of dragons and tigers, and the regular time was tied at 114, and then they played two overtime games to decide the winner, and the Suns won 140 to 133.

The Suns team scored 6 players in double digits, and 4 players scored 20+. Guo Xu was in a sluggish state, making 1 of 8 three-pointers, with a total of 15 irons, a shooting percentage of 33.3%, scoring 25 points and 15 assists.

Joe Johnson performed very reliably, scoring 24 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. In the last 6 seconds of regular time, he hit a value-trained three-pointer against Byron Davis.

The Suns' weakness on the defensive end has appeared again. They can make a breakthrough in the offense, but they cannot be defended. Especially when the opponent is also fighting back, all kinds of people are missing on the defensive end.

The Hornets have good attack power, with Byron Davis, David Wesley, Jamal Marsh trident on the outside, and Magloyle on the inside, and PJ Brown combination. The Hornets' overall level is that it is no problem to enter the playoffs, and it is difficult to go far.

One day later, Suns vs. Magic, Guo Xu scored 24 points, 17 assists and 5 steals, leading the team's five players to double scores, and 4 players scored 20+ points, winning 117-107.

McGrady scored a game-high 41 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists. The Magic scored the second most and scored was Sean Kemp, who scored 22 points. With McGrady's efforts, the Magic and the Suns reached the fourth quarter.

Grant Hill was reimbursed again with serious injury, and the Magic Management became a laughing stock.

Since the "Big Shark" O'Neal was released, Magic has never had good luck. Except for McGrady, all the people who signed the contract with high salaries were glass people, as if they were cursed.

Xu Jicheng joked during the live broadcast of the game: "Are you counting on Hill to save the team? Hill is not on the operating table now, he is on the way to the operating table."

It's a bit ironic, but it's true. Hill's big contract locked down Magic's salary space. In 2000, he signed a seven-year, $93 million contract with Magic, which will not expire until 2007. This is terrible.

After the game, Guo Xu rarely praised his teammates, but conducted a self-examination, saying that the Suns players, including himself, performed too lax on the defensive end, which was very bad.

"We can't continue like this. It's forgiven for being flawed by players, but we must be focused. Otherwise, no matter how beautiful the offense is, we cannot go far in the playoffs. The rookies don't know that the defense intensity of each team in the playoffs will increase and the confrontation will be more intense, but I know this. They must be mentally prepared in advance. I must set an example and defend seriously."

It's not too late for Guo Xu to say this now, and it's a little better than when Nash joined in 2004. Once the rookies develop the habit of not defending, it will be difficult for them to change in the future.

In his previous life, the Suns were the pioneers of the "small ball era". The team had an extremely smooth offense like the future Warriors but failed to win the championship. Their weakness was their poor defense and some strange personnel changes in the Suns management.

Later, Cole and Gentry, who coached the Warriors, were the general manager and coach of the Suns, so they were able to combine the Suns' success experience in the regular season with the lessons of failure in the playoffs, and the Warriors' glory was achieved. Guo Xu had seen the Warriors in the future. If he wanted to succeed, he had to stabilize his defense while attacking.

The Suns currently have no thorns or cancers. As soon as Guo Xu's boss said something, young players will listen.

In the next away game against the Heat, the Suns players became much more active when defending, winning 28 points, easily defeating their opponents. However, the Suns' good defense is also directly related to the Heat's overall poor strength.

Former Heat star center Alanzo Mooning was reimbursed for kidney disease again due to seasonal remission, outside core Eddie Jones was also absent due to injury, and the second round rookie Rasu Butler became the starter, and Marik Allen, who entered the NBA in the non-draft last season, also started.

The team's most benefit is No. 10 rookie Caron Butler, who has obtained a lot of shooting rights and unexpectedly became the Heat's No. 2 scorer. Jones is not here, he is the Heat's first scoring point. He has poor strength and low shooting percentage. Marion can handle him alone.

The Suns returned to Phoenix City with three consecutive victories. The next four games were all home games, and the schedule was more comfortable.
Chapter completed!