Suns’ Scola expanding shooting range
Nov 2, 2012, 6:50 PM | Updated: 7:53 pm
November 2, 2012: Suns play second straight home game to open season
The Suns have always been known as a 3-point shooting team.
Luis Scola, not so much.
“I want to add 3-point shot to my game,” he said. “I feel confident the whole preseason. I just made one in preseason but I was feeling confident. I just need to keep working at it. It’s not going to happen overnight. I never shoot 3s before in my career. We’ll see how it goes.”
So far, it’s gone quite well—at least through one game.
Wednesday night against the Warriors, Scola hit as many 3s as he had in his previous 386 games combined. He made 1-of-2 and is now 2-for-19 in his career but a sparkling 2-for-3 all-time against Golden State.
“If it doesn’t work,” he said. “I’ll be the first one to stop shooting them but I’ll keep working at them.”
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Head coach Alvin Gentry on facing the Pistons, “This team is a lot different than Golden State. They’re much more of a physical team. They do a much better job of attacking basket. They do a good job of attacking the basket. We’ve just got to make sure that our one-on-one defense has got to be better and our help defense has got to be better.”
Especially, Gentry added with the backcourt of Rodney Stuckey and Brandon Knight who “are just put your head down, drive to the basket type guys. We have to have to basket protection and rim protection.”
The Suns did a decent job of that in the opener, blocking 12 shots (one better than in any game all of last season) including a career-high tying five by Marcin Gortat.
Suns have won 6 of 7 against the Pistons, including four straight at US Airways Center
Suns have opened a season 0-2 just once since 1996-97, last season
Suns dropped their season opener for the third-straight year