As expected, Dallas came out with a lot of fire and energy. The Suns lost for the first time this playoffs. But overall not a big loss in my opinion. They did not have a big problem running their offense and getting their shots in the first quarter, but the shots just didn't go in. They fell behind the Mavs by 12. As you might expect, the Suns made their run and closed the gap even before halftime. The big problem was Joe Johnson's injury seconds before halftime. Stackhouse tried to block his fast-break dunk and Johnson fell down on his head. He was shaken up and he got up just to shoot the free throws and left the floor. Stack shook his hand though it was not a dirty play.
The Suns tied it up in Q3 even without Joe Johnson and they briefly led. The game was back and forth from that point on and I thought the Suns had come back and they would close it out. But Michael Finley was on FIRE ! He kept the Mavs in it single handedly. Finley can do this from time to time though he doesn't do it every game. For the Suns, Nash stepped up his scoring in the absence of Joe J. He had 23 pts, but shot only 9/22. The game was close going in to the last minute and Nash tied it up on a jumper with 29 secs to go. As expected Avery put the ball in Nowitzki's hand and he took Q down to the block and scored on a jumper to put the Mavs up by 2. Suns still had 7 secs and they ran a pick and roll for Nash, but Nowitzki met him inside and Nash kicked it out to Q. Q faked Josh Howard away and took a wide-open three. It was close, but it didn't go in.
I thought the Suns kept it close. May be they could have won with Joe Johnson. I was not too scared by this defeat. But Joe Johnson situation is a little frustrating. I hope he is 100 % soon. It would be a shame if the Suns lose a key player at this stage. Looks like this is another problem with playing an up-tempo style. The exposure to injury is high in the playoffs when teams tend to foul hard during fast-breaks. Shawn Marion almost got killed a couple of times against Memphis and now this. The problem with Suns is that they are extremely thin and they are playing even "thinner" this series with Mike not finding much of a role for Steven Hunter. Essentially, looks like he just wants to play 6 guys and now he's down to 5. I didn't quite like the Barbosa-Nash back-court look either. It would be interesting to see if he uses LB more or plays Walter McCarty more. I hope Walter plays and steps up. I also hope they play well on the road as always.
DALLAS (108) AT PHOENIX (106)
DALLAS
REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-FGA FTM-FTA OFF-DEF-TOT AST PF ST TO PTS
====== === === ======= ======= =========== === == == == ===
J HOWARD F 35 5-10 0-2 0 2 2 1 5 0 0 10
D NOWITZKI F 39 8-18 6-9 1 11 12 2 4 0 3 23
E DAMPIER C 27 7-8 1-4 7 5 12 0 5 1 1 15
J TERRY G 36 5-10 2-2 0 3 3 2 2 0 4 12
M FINLEY G 40 12-18 2-2 0 6 6 5 4 2 2 31
J STACKHOUSE 31 2-11 4-4 0 2 2 5 3 0 2 8
M DANIELS 29 4-12 1-1 4 4 8 3 3 2 3 9
A HENDERSON 1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
D ARMSTRONG 2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
S BRADLEY DNP - COACH'S DECISION
K VAN HORN DNP - SPRAINED LEFT ANKLE
D HARRIS DNP - COACH'S DECISION
TOTALS 240 43-87 16-24 12 34 46 18 26 5 15 108
(.494) (.667) TEAM REBS: 5 TOTAL TO: 15 (19 PTS)
PHOENIX
REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-FGA FTM-FTA OFF-DEF-TOT AST PF ST TO PTS
====== === === ======= ======= =========== === == == == ===
Q RICHARDSON F 33 4-10 1-2 3 4 7 1 5 1 1 12
S MARION F 45 9-18 5-5 4 11 15 0 5 1 2 23
A STOUDEMIRE C 43 9-20 12-17 7 9 16 1 4 0 4 30
S NASH G 42 9-22 5-5 0 3 3 13 2 0 3 23
J JOHNSON G 21 3-8 1-3 1 1 2 1 1 0 1 8
J JACKSON 34 3-7 0-0 0 2 2 5 3 5 0 9
S HUNTER 3 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
W MCCARTY 8 0-1 0-0 0 2 2 0 1 0 0 0
L BARBOSA 10 0-2 1-2 1 2 3 0 1 0 0 1
B OUTLAW 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
J VOSKUHL DNP - COACH'S DECISION
P SHIRLEY DNP - COACH'S DECISION
TOTALS 240 37-89 25-34 16 34 50 21 22 7 12 106
(.416) (.735) TEAM REBS: 12 TOTAL TO: 13 (13 PTS)
DALLAS 34 20 26 28 - 108
PHOENIX 22 24 36 24 - 106
BLOCKED SHOTS: DALLAS - D NOWITZKI 2, J STACKHOUSE, E DAMPIER. PHOENIX -
S MARION 6, S HUNTER 2, J JACKSON, J JOHNSON.
3-PT. FIELD GOALS: DALLAS 6-13 (.462), J HOWARD 0-1, D NOWITZKI 1-
2, J TERRY 0-2, M FINLEY 5-6, J STACKHOUSE 0-2. PHOENIX 7-18 (.389),
Q RICHARDSON 3-5, S MARION 0-2, S NASH 0-5, J JOHNSON 1-2, J JACKSON 3-
4.
TECHNICAL FOULS: NONE.
FLAGRANT FOULS: DALLAS 1 (J STACKHOUSE, 0:19 2ND).
OFFICIALS: DICK BAVETTA, GREG WILLARD, TONY BROTHERS.
A - 18,422. T - 2:46.
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