Recap Grizzlies vs. Suns
The Suns came up with a solid performance and in the first minutes of the game the additional Defense with the return of Amarè Stoudemire paid off. Joey Graham dished out his first assist for the Suns as he passed to "The Matrix" for the beautiful Alley-Oop. The Grizzlies answered: Damon Stoudemire hit a couple of consecutive Threes to bring his team back early. After the First Quarter the Suns have a two point lead. The score is 22 - 20.
Shawn Marion with seven points so far. The surprise is Kurt Thomas who already collected 4 boards.
In the second Quarter the Suns quickly extended their lead to six. Amarè Stoudemire came out hot scoring six consecutive points.
With 4 minutes left in the second quarter Hakim Warrick came off the bench for Pau Gasol who is in foul trouble after three in the second quarter.
At the half the Suns led by 8. Amarè Stoudemire had a great first half with 16 Points and 6 Rebounds so far.
In the third the Grizzlies started hot narrowing the gap to three. But the Suns were not impressed by that and completed two consecutive three point foul plays. Halfway through the third the Suns up 63-49. The suns struggeling to hold of the Grizzlie's jump shooters. Stoudemire, Jones and Battier were hard to put under control.
Raja Bell nailed a 18 footer with 1.2 left on the clock to give the Suns a 78 - 67 lead after three.
In the fourth Pau Gasol came out hot and narrowed the gap to 4 by himself. With 2 Minutes left the Suns up 96-92. Amarè Stoudamire missed three important free throws in a row. With 58 seconds left, Mike Miller completed a three point play to tie the score. 30 seconds left, Raja Bell intercepts a pass from Stoudemire and goes for the fast break to give the suns a two point lead. In transition Tskithisvili blocks Battier, Ball up to Nash and he scores. The Suns won the Game 102-98.
Box Scores
Quotes
A. Stoudemire (on his return):
"It feels great to be out on the floor again. We played solid over three quarters, in the fourth we had problems with our concentration, Memphis hit a couple of big shots"
S. Nash (on Stoudemire and shooting 2-10 from beyond the Arc)
It's great to have Amarè back. Our defense is much better with him. Noone expected him to contribute so much in his first game after his injury. - Well, I had a cold streak tonight offensively. I missed shots I normally make. But that's sports, you never know what happens"
GM eisfeld (on Stoudemire, Graham and his first Game)
Seeing Amarè playing again gives us a great push. I'm very pleased with his performance tonight. We're executing great offensively but we have to work on D to keep of perimeter shooters. - For a rookie, Joey played a solid game, we decided to rest him in the fourth quarter, he's not custom to our system but I expect him to contribute a lot for our team."