FanNation | SkyBill40's extravaganza of opinion..

Last night's game against the Miami Heat was sad and only reaffirmed what everyone has been saying for years: The Suns have a DIRE need for a strong, developed, interior presence to shore up their line. It became glaringly apparent as Heat players went strong and only mildly contested to the hole, unchecked other than by the Suns' only strong defender in Shawn Marion who, by the way, had a stellar rejection of Udonis Haslem and transition dunk off the same play. It was also rather apparent a few nights ago when an awful Minnesota team came in and shocked our Suns. Al Jefferson abused the post all night long.

Despite his 35 years of age and his penchant for playing himself into shape, Shaq repeatedly abused our post players. I have a certain respect for a certain Mr. O'Neal, but he can and should be stopped. The petty fouls that were called by the refs for Shaq also need to stop. It has become more clear to me by the minute just how much sway the refs have in changing the outcome of a game and their "protection" of marquee players. That's another story...

Certainly, I can now see how Dallas Mavericks fans can be upset by Dwayne Wade's use of his arms to push off and create space. There's an awfully fine line between trying to get by your defender and drawing an offensive foul. As I saw it, the Suns were using a single hair and the Heat were using a whole paintbrush. This disparity needs to stop. Wade repeatedly cleared space and drew fouls that were, at times, questionable at best.

*Note: I an not a whiny Suns fan who thinks we were robbed last year, so get off that boat right now. There were lots of questionable calls and fouls, but our guys did get off the bench. Enough said about that.

Finally, until the Suns address the interior defense and step up their game all around, many will consider them to be pretenders to the throne that San Antonio seems to have a stanglehold grip on and will continue to have until Duncan retires. I am sadly starting to see just how right those nay sayers are, and that simply breaks my heart.