Put Up Shut Up

Here’s what happened Wednesday on The 620 SportsLine with Dave Burns:

* Vote Burns Cookies

The Suns lose to LA. No, not the Lakers: the friggin’ Clippers.

Should we be worried, or is this just another case of the team coasting through the regular season and then stepping up when it counts? We might find out tomorrow as the Suns step into Staples again, and again try to defeat the now 1^st place Lakers.

Steve Kerr joined Burnsy to talk some Suns on his weekly segment. Kerr wasn’t too worried about Tuesday’s loss to a team that had yet to win a game in 08’, and reiterated that the Suns have one of the best records in the West and yet are “taking a lot of punches” from the media, etc. Kerr said he was disappointed about the effort in LA, but he did add “you want to peak at the right time” and “not in January.”

As for the Suns effort, perhaps lacking, Kerr said he doesn’t see it happening physically, but that mentally it’s tough to get up every game in an 82 game regular season when the focus is so much on the postseason.

The focus will be on the Lakers tomorrow night (yeah, another 8:30 game). Kerr said LA will lose some games due to the loss of Andrew Bynum and that it’s a better matchup for the Suns due to the fact that they like to play small and given how it’s such “a tough thing for (Amare) to guard Andrew Bynum.” And last but not least, on the subject of getting adding another shooter, Kerr said while the Suns shouldn’t panic, they will “look at every possible deal,” but “at this point there’s nothing really out there, but it’s not from a lack of trying.”

The Girl Scout cookie war continues. Now BOTH Burnsy and Franz have political ads on the subject. Not much more I can say…

Here’s what happened on the 620 SportsLine with Dave Burns on Tuesday:

* The debate that never ends: When will the college football season FINALLY end with some finality?

* Is a playoff system the most pressing need in sports today? Even more so than a salary cap in baseball, the elimination of the DH in the American League, the shortening of football’s pre-season, or the changing of the overtime system in the NFL.

* Burnsy votes for the elimination of the DH. Most callers say there needs to be a playoff (not much of a surprise there).

* Not much to complain about after the Suns big win over Denver. Suns coach Mike D’Antoni stopped by for his weekly visit. First off, coach was thoroughly confused by George Karl’s criticism of the Suns running up the score with some “excessive 3s.” Coach wasn’t sure if Karl wanted him to tell his bench players to pass on open looks and “drive in and (get your shot) blocked.”

* Of course, D’Antoni was quick to draw a distinction between what happened at the end of the Denver game and what isn’t appropriate in a blowout win. Coach referenced calling timeouts and staring down your opponents. He didn’t name Phil Jackson, but the inference was pretty clear. (At least to me, you can make the call on that one).

* As for Amare not calling anyone about his absence from practice on Sunday (save for a text to the trainer), D’Antoni said situations like Amare’s have occurred before and that, “he made a little mistake by not contacting some people.”

* Coach also agreed with Shawn Marion’s assessment that there has been a tendency to “dwell on the negative” this season, saying there were a lot of positives that his team was overlooking, and that they just “whined too much.”

* And last, but certainly not least, coach said that the days of the dreaded 9-man rotation may be over provided that Marcus Banks keeps providing a spark off the bench. D’Antoni said that if Banks continues to contribute, “there’s enough there that we can expand it to nine.”

* And, finally to close the show, Republic columnist Paola Boivin joined Burnsy to discuss the Suns problems and ASU’s big test versus U of A tomorrow evening.