This was probably one of the most satisfying Suns game I have seen in a LONG time, may be ever. They came out on the road and just dominated. They showed once again that they can play their style and play it well on the road. As always, the Mavs had no answer for Amare Stoudemire. He just destroyed them in the first half. And Nash put on a clinic in the second half. He showed why he is the MVP. Though the game was close, it always felt like the Suns were in control. They couldn't stop Amare and in the second half, Nash was toying with them. He has gotten more aggressive offensively in the absence of Joe Johnson and ended up with 27 points and 17 assists ! That's MVP numbers folks. Nash shot 12-21 and Amare scored 13-24. That's high percentage shooting. The Suns just blew the Mavs away late in the fourth quarter. Q and Jim Jackson hit crucial 3 pointers to put the Mavs away. Jim J had a good game - starting, playing 42 mins and scoring 17 points.
Dallas was thoroughly outplayed at home and the Suns took back the home court as I had expected. One thing that bothers me and many Suns fans is that they never call fouls on Nash. I thought he got butchered in the lane a few times both in game 2 and 3. My theory is that they don't call fouls since he is not looking to score. The refs know that he is a pass-first guy and they just let the play go. Whatever it is, I hope they call more fouls on Nash. Other than this, it was a great game. The Suns didn't look like they missed Joe Johnson. The Mavs looked lost against both Amare and Nash. Not sure what they can do to stop the bleeding. The big story between game 1 and 2 was the whole Nowitzki-Dampier thing. Nowitzki had openly called out Damp and asked him to step up. Damp had a good game 2, but he was back to being Damp in game 3. He played 13 mins and scored only 4 points. This was still 4 more than what he scored in game 1 :-)
PHOENIX (119) AT DALLAS (102)
PHOENIX
REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-FGA FTM-FTA OFF-DEF-TOT AST PF ST TO PTS
====== === === ======= ======= =========== === == == == ===
Q RICHARDSON F 42 4-10 0-0 0 5 5 2 3 4 1 12
S MARION F 41 7-14 2-2 1 8 9 2 4 2 1 21
A STOUDEMIRE C 46 13-24 11-15 8 6 14 0 3 0 3 37
S NASH G 42 12-21 2-3 0 3 3 17 1 2 7 27
J JACKSON G 42 8-15 0-0 3 5 8 1 2 0 0 17
L BARBOSA 16 2-4 1-2 0 4 4 2 2 0 1 5
S HUNTER 2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
W MCCARTY 9 0-1 0-0 0 1 1 1 5 0 1 0
B OUTLAW DNP - COACH'S DECISION
J VOSKUHL DNP - COACH'S DECISION
J JOHNSON DNP - FRACTURED ORBITAL BONE
P SHIRLEY DNP - COACH'S DECISION
TOTALS 240 46-89 16-22 12 32 44 25 21 8 14 119
(.517) (.727) TEAM REBS: 11 TOTAL TO: 14 (12 PTS)
DALLAS
REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-FGA FTM-FTA OFF-DEF-TOT AST PF ST TO PTS
====== === === ======= ======= =========== === == == == ===
J HOWARD F 27 5-9 5-6 1 5 6 2 4 1 2 15
D NOWITZKI F 42 8-24 5-5 4 9 13 4 2 1 2 21
E DAMPIER C 13 2-4 0-0 2 2 4 0 3 0 2 4
M FINLEY G 43 4-14 3-4 2 1 3 0 1 2 2 11
J TERRY G 41 7-14 0-0 3 6 9 7 3 2 0 14
A HENDERSON 13 1-3 0-0 3 1 4 0 2 1 1 2
J STACKHOUSE 33 6-18 7-8 5 2 7 1 0 1 2 20
M DANIELS 21 5-11 3-4 3 1 4 2 2 3 2 13
S BRADLEY 2 0-1 0-0 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0
D ARMSTRONG 4 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2
D HARRIS 1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
K VAN HORN DNP - SPRAINED LEFT ANKLE
TOTALS 240 39-100 23-27 24 28 52 18 17 11 13 102
(.390) (.852) TEAM REBS: 7 TOTAL TO: 14 (13 PTS)
PHOENIX 27 33 27 32 - 119
DALLAS 31 28 23 20 - 102
BLOCKED SHOTS: PHOENIX - A STOUDEMIRE 5, J JACKSON, W MCCARTY, S MARION,
Q RICHARDSON. DALLAS - D NOWITZKI 3, E DAMPIER 2, J TERRY, J HOWARD,
M DANIELS.
3-PT. FIELD GOALS: PHOENIX 11-22 (.500), Q RICHARDSON 4-6, S MARION 5-
7, S NASH 1-5, J JACKSON 1-3, W MCCARTY 0-1. DALLAS 1-18 (.056), J HOWARD 0-
1, D NOWITZKI 0-2, M FINLEY 0-5, J TERRY 0-3, J STACKHOUSE 1-4, M DANIELS 0-
2, D HARRIS 0-1.
TECHNICAL FOULS: PHOENIX - A STOUDEMIRE. DALLAS - COACH JOHNSON.
FLAGRANT FOULS: NONE.
OFFICIALS: EDDIE F. RUSH, JIM CLARK, SEAN CORBIN.
A - 20,896. T - 2:28.
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