Preseason or not, head coach Alvin Gentry expects his team
to be ready to play. They were not Tuesday night. The
Suns lost their preseason opener at Denver, 127-110.

“We didn’t play very good,” Gentry said after a two-hour-
plus practice Wednesday. “I was really disappointed. For
us, the energy level wasn’t where I thought it should be.”

Gentry pointed to three issues when looking at the final
stats:

1. turnovers: the Suns committed 16

2. points in the paint: the Nuggets scored 60

3. offensive rebounding: the Nuggets had 17, leading to 22
second chance points

“You add all of that up,” explained Gentry, “it becomes
really difficult to win a game where you have those kind
of numbers out there.”

Overall defensively, the Suns allowed nearly 53-percent
shooting from the field, letting the Nuggets score at
least 30 points in three of the four quarters.

“Wake up call. Bad dream. It was tough,” stated Grant
Hill, who missed the game because of a sore right knee.

Hill practiced fully Wednesday and expects to play
Thursday when the Suns and Nuggets close out their home-
and-home preseason series.

“We just got to come out and play hard,” Hill continued,
“play with more energy, more intensity. I don’t think we
did that collectively (Tuesday) and certainly the film
showed that.”

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