Suns’ Amare Stoudemire continues to battle
Reporting from Phoenix -- The masses, it seems, have pointed criticism of Phoenix Suns All-Star forward Amare Stoudemire.
His comments, poor defense and rebounding, and his continued willingness to talk about his contract situation during the Western Conference finals against the Lakers make Stoudemire an easy target.
The Suns trail the Lakers 0-2 in the best-of-seven series that continues with Game 3 tonight at US Airways Center, but Stoudemire seems to be the lightning rod for all the shortcomings for Phoenix.
After practice Saturday, Stoudemire sat for a second day and answered questions about his play, approach and attitude.
“Much is given, much is expected,” Stoudemire said.
“A lot of eyes are on me as far as a contract year. Myself playing the power forward/center position against three 7-footers. Not getting as many rebounds as they are. They are just trying to compare positions. Sometimes they don’t quite look at the total picture of how the game is being played.
“A lot of time the blame is pointed toward me. But it’s OK. I’ve got broad shoulders. I can carry the load.”
The Suns hope that is true.
Stoudemire is averaging 20.5 points in the first two games. But he’s averaging only 4.5 rebounds while trying to deal with Lakers 7-footers Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol and 6-10 Lamar Odom.
“It’s never easy rebounding against these guys when you have pretty much three 7-footers,” Stoudemire said.
While trying to help the Suns defeat the Lakers, Stoudemire openly has talked about his future.
He can opt out of his contract this summer that pays him $17.686 million next season and sign an extension with the Suns or become an unrestricted free agent and sign elsewhere.
Rumors have been rampant that Stoudemire wants to go to the Miami Heat.
“I will play the season out and see how it goes and try and make a decision this summer,” he said. “It’s still 50-50. It’s always going to be that way until a decision is made.”
Stoudemire’s teammates have stood by his side. They say it’ll take a team effort to beat the Lakers.
“We didn’t feel so good coming home from L.A.,” point guard Steve Nash said. “But we’ve had a day or so to get our energy back. We feel positive and optimistic and we’re just excited that we have the opportunity to play better to try to get a win.”
The Lakers are averaging 126 points against the Suns. They are shooting 57.8% from the field, 51.5% from three-point range and have five players averaging in double figures.
“You can’t have five or six guys play great for that team. Then they are not going to lose,” Suns Coach Alvin Gentry said. “So we’ve got to find a way to slow a couple of guys down and then we have to raise our level of play some also.”
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