If game 3 was amazing, game 4 was depressing. I am a little more disappointed in this loss than game 2. Game 2 was close, this one was not. This is the kind of game I feared Dallas would give the Suns before the series ever started. My worst fears came true in this game. Every Mavs player hitting shots, driving the lane, crashing the boards and basically dominating the Suns. Dallas got a lead and the Suns couldn’t stop the array of Dallas scorers. The Suns scoring picked up and Nash was just sensational, but they could never get that one stop that tightened things up for the Mavs. Also I thought the Suns missed Joe Johnson today. Suns half-court offense is usually either Nash-Amare pick-and-roll or Joe Johnson doing his thing. Now they are down to one thing and in this game the Mavs made sure they doubled Amare and it was just Steve Nash.
They made a concerted effort to double and triple team Amare and make a shooter out of Nash. Avery Johnson got a lot of credit for this and experts even say that’s why they won, but Nash scored 48 pts on 20/28 shooting. I am not sure it worked. I agree with Mike D’Antoni and Nash that the Suns lost mostly because of their defense and rebounding. They did score 109 and Nash more than made Dallas pay for letting him score. If they could have gotten a few more rebounds or defensive stops, I guarantee that Dallas would be regretting their decision to focus on Amare too much.
But I am glad Stevie Wonder went off. This guy is just amazing! I always knew that he can score anytime he wants. It's just that he is so unselfish that he passes first (and second), but today he showed everybody that he can score at will. I have never seen this kind of a scoring performance in the NBA lately. He looked almost MJ like in terms of how he dominated the game and the Mavs had no answer for Nash. T-Mac and Kobe probably had a few scoring explosions like this in recent years, but I don’t think they ever exerted their will on the game quite like Nash did in this game. Too bad all his efforts went to waste. It would have been awesome for the Suns and especially for Nash to have won the game against his ex-team by scoring 48 pts. I can’t imagine what the Mavs fans and even Mark Cuban would have said if that had happened. After seeing Nash score 27 in game 3, another loss in game 4 with him scoring 48 would have destroyed them.
From the Dallas side, everybody did well. Once again, Dampier played well and they won. It makes you wonder how much the 2 are related. There was a sequence in the 4-th quarter which probably put the game away for the Mavs. Jim Jackson and Amare had 3 or 4 shots from point blank range that Damp either blocked or bothered just enough. This ignited the whole Dallas contingent. He did foul Amare and I am not sure how the refs can miss that, but his block on Jim J was good and might have iced the game. Josh Howard was a pest as usual. He scored 29 and had a bunch of offensive rebounds.
It’s the rebounds that’s killing the Suns. Even the bad defense I can live with. But they got to rebound better if they want to advance. Dallas is having it both ways. They play small. For some reason they are able to bother Amare with Josh Howard, Finley or Stack guarding him. Still, they are able to hit the offensive glass. This lineup also lets them run much like the Suns. I am afraid the Mavs might have found a magic potion here to beat the Suns, especially with Joe Johnson out. Even though the rebounding has been a season-long problem, 2 things make this different. One, the Mavs are not playing big when Damp is sitting. Secondly, when the Suns are running well, the defenses during the regular season usually fell back and did not hit the offensive glass. But Avery seems to be playing this differently. They seem to hit the offensive glass with ease.
Game 5 is back home in Phoenix. Everybody expects both Nash and Amare to play well in game 5. The officiating is getting on my nerves as well. I thought game 4 was badly officiated. The Mavs were aggressive and they got all the calls. Another problem for the Suns has been that the only super-star in this series is Nowitzki. Nash is not perceived as a scorer and Amare is a future super-star. So as of today, Dirk gets all the calls. Suns deserve more calls. Mike D'antoni also looked pretty frustrated in game 4. I hope the Suns become the aggressors and get all the calls in game 5 at home. They have to set the tone early. Amare has to rebound better and dominate the smaller guys on the offensive end. I never understood why Marion consistently out-rebounds Amare. This has been my one criticism of Amare all season long. May be Mike asks him to lay off the boards a little bit because Amare has a tendency to pick up fouls because of his raw athleticism. But it’s time for him to crash the boards and make Dallas pay. I am really glad Charles Barkley called Amare out on these points on TNT. He wants Amare to rebound better. If anybody has the credibility to talk about rebounding, it’s Barkley.
Also the Suns need more from Q and another guy if we are gonna win the series. Q needs to fill in for Joe Johnson now. I wish Charles had called him out too. In any case, I can’t wait for game 5 and it’s a must-win for the Suns.
PHOENIX (109) AT DALLAS (119)
PHOENIX
REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-FGA FTM-FTA OFF-DEF-TOT AST PF ST TO PTS
====== === === ======= ======= =========== === == == == ===
Q RICHARDSON F 34 5-10 1-4 3 4 7 1 5 1 0 13
S MARION F 46 9-18 1-2 4 8 12 3 3 1 1 19
A STOUDEMIRE C 43 3-8 9-11 1 4 5 2 5 0 4 15
S NASH G 44 20-28 4-4 1 4 5 5 4 3 9 48
J JACKSON G 44 4-10 2-2 3 3 6 3 3 0 0 11
L BARBOSA 22 1-7 0-0 1 1 2 2 2 1 1 3
W MCCARTY 5 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0
S HUNTER 2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 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 42-82 17-23 13 24 37 16 25 7 15 109
(.512) (.739) TEAM REBS: 6 TOTAL TO: 15 (18 PTS)
DALLAS
REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-FGA FTM-FTA OFF-DEF-TOT AST PF ST TO PTS
====== === === ======= ======= =========== === == == == ===
J HOWARD F 40 13-21 3-6 6 4 10 2 5 2 4 29
D NOWITZKI F 44 9-15 6-7 2 6 8 3 4 2 4 25
E DAMPIER C 32 6-8 1-4 4 7 11 2 4 1 1 13
M FINLEY G 31 3-8 2-2 0 3 3 1 2 0 1 9
J TERRY G 37 3-9 0-0 0 1 1 8 2 3 1 7
J STACKHOUSE 34 7-16 6-6 2 5 7 2 3 0 1 22
D ARMSTRONG 12 2-3 0-0 0 0 0 2 2 0 1 5
M DANIELS 10 3-3 3-4 2 1 3 1 1 0 2 9
A HENDERSON DNP - COACH'S DECISION
S BRADLEY DNP - COACH'S DECISION
K VAN HORN DNP - SPRAINED LEFT ANKLE
D HARRIS DNP - COACH'S DECISION
TOTALS 240 46-83 21-29 16 27 43 21 23 8 15 119
(.554) (.724) TEAM REBS: 5 TOTAL TO: 15 (17 PTS)
PHOENIX 22 28 29 30 - 109
DALLAS 30 36 27 26 - 119
BLOCKED SHOTS: PHOENIX - J JACKSON, S NASH, A STOUDEMIRE. DALLAS -
E DAMPIER 4.
3-PT. FIELD GOALS: PHOENIX 8-21 (.381), Q RICHARDSON 2-7, S MARION 0-
2, A STOUDEMIRE 0-1, S NASH 4-6, J JACKSON 1-3, L BARBOSA 1-1, W MCCARTY 0-
1. DALLAS 6-14 (.429), J HOWARD 0-2, D NOWITZKI 1-2, M FINLEY 1-1,
J TERRY 1-2, J STACKHOUSE 2-5, D ARMSTRONG 1-2.
TECHNICAL FOULS: PHOENIX - COACH D'ANTONI. DALLAS - J HOWARD.
FLAGRANT FOULS: PHOENIX 1 (L BARBOSA, 1:10 2ND).
OFFICIALS: BENNETT SALVATORE, JOE DEROSA, MARK WUNDERLICH.
A - 20,894. T - 2:28.
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