If game 3 was one of the most satisfying Suns game I have ever seen, game 6 was even better. Steve Nash was just spectacular. Mark Cuban's worst fears came to fruition as the guy he let go, Steve Nash, not only met and beat the Mavs in the playoffs, Nash actually dominated the series and he might have single-handedly killed the Mavs. I have never seen Nash play this good. I never knew he was this great. Every expert on TV says the same thing about him. This was one of the most dominating performances I have seen in a playoff series in a long time, especially from the point guard position. As great as Amare Stoudemire was and Shawn Marion was in game 6, Nash was the storyline of this series. His imprint was all over these playoffs, especially since the time Joe Johnson went down. I wish I was in Dallas listening to their callers on the radio talk about Nash and Cuban. Nash is a class guy who was real popular in Dallas and now he is with the Suns and is the MVP of the league. And in this series against Dallas, he actually looked even better than a league MVP! The fans should have been stunned by what they saw in game 6.
As expected, Dallas started game 6 with a lot of energy. The Suns were not bad themselves. Jason Terry was on fire and Nowitzki and Josh Howard were effective as always. Howard was killing them on the boards as usual and Suns had problems containing Dallas. Amare, Shawn and Nash were scoring on the offensive side, but none of them looked real spectacular in the first half. Suns went in to half-time trailing by 9. I was not too concerned because I always look at how much they score more than how much they are trailing by. They should score more than 50; otherwise something is wrong with their offense. As for the deficit, they can make it up in no time if their offense is rolling. But they came out in the third quarter and quickly fell behind by 16. Amare was in foul trouble and things really looked bleak for the Suns. Then they went on one of their trademark runs and before you know it, the game was tight. Jim Jackson again chipped in with great plays and the Suns went into the fourth quarter on a roll and trailing by just 7. Fourth quarter was nip and tuck and Nash was making plays all over for the Suns. Amare had an extended stint on the bench due to foul trouble. At one point, the Suns looked like they had clinched it, but the Mavs got some stops and hit some shots and suddenly it looked like they are gonna win and push the series back to Phoenix. Amare came back, but quickly fouled out. The Suns were trailing in the last few minutes and Nash hit one big shot after another and kept them close. But Jason Terry was matching him shot for shot. Finally, with just 10+ secs remaining, Suns were trailing by 3. Nash rushed up the court, pulled up and hit a three to push the game to overtime.
In the overtime, it was the Nash-Marion show. Without Amre, they ran the pick and roll for Marion and he was terrific. The Suns won at the end and the Mavs were absolutely shocked. Nash had 39 points and 12 assists in one of the truly spectacular performances. The Mavs had all kinds of problems. Nowitzki was yelling at Terry for giving Nash too much space on that game-tying 3 at the end of regulation. I guess he wanted him to guard the 3 point line. But that was not the last mistake. The Mavs had 5 secs even after that. They didn’t take a timeout and Jerry Stackhouse just dribbled the ball up-court a-la Steve Nash and took an ill advised 3 that missed. In the overtime, Nowitzki took a bad 3 himself when they could have gotten a better look to tie the game. Nowitzki took some criticism for such open expression of disgust at Terry. Apparently people in Dallas have also criticized his friendship with Nash and how the Mavs are probably playing soft on Nash because of that. I don’t buy that, though Nash and Nowitzki seem to be tighter than I thought. Apparently they visited each other throughout the series in both cities and met several times. Nowitzki had spoken openly about it it in the Mavs website as well.
Now onto San Antonio. Suns have looked impressive so far and I hope they take the Spurs series in 6. I can’t wait to see how Amare and Nash play against the Spurs D. Who defends Duncan? And who stops Ginobli? There are intriguing match-ups all over the court and I still think the Suns can pull it off.
PHOENIX (130) AT DALLAS (126)
PHOENIX
REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-FGA FTM-FTA OFF-DEF-TOT AST PF ST TO PTS
====== === === ======= ======= =========== === == == == ===
Q RICHARDSON F 52 4-13 3-4 3 10 13 3 5 1 3 11
S MARION F 51 13-28 8-9 4 12 16 1 4 2 1 38
A STOUDEMIRE C 32 7-11 4-7 1 5 6 0 6 0 5 18
S NASH G 50 14-24 6-6 5 4 9 12 5 0 4 39
J JACKSON G 43 6-14 0-0 1 6 7 0 6 0 1 16
L BARBOSA 9 2-5 0-0 0 1 1 2 1 1 0 4
S HUNTER 16 2-2 0-2 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 4
W MCCARTY 12 0-0 0-2 0 2 2 0 2 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 265 48-97 21-30 15 40 55 18 31 4 14 130
(.495) (.700) TEAM REBS: 8 TOTAL TO: 15 (10 PTS)
DALLAS
REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-FGA FTM-FTA OFF-DEF-TOT AST PF ST TO PTS
====== === === ======= ======= =========== === == == == ===
J HOWARD F 46 7-14 7-8 3 11 14 3 4 2 3 21
D NOWITZKI F 51 9-25 8-10 3 10 13 6 5 0 2 28
E DAMPIER C 30 6-8 1-2 2 4 6 1 4 1 0 13
M FINLEY G 31 2-10 2-2 2 3 5 1 4 2 0 7
J TERRY G 48 13-25 6-9 0 5 5 2 4 2 1 36
J STACKHOUSE 38 4-13 11-12 0 2 2 0 0 0 2 19
D ARMSTRONG 6 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 3 1 1 0
A HENDERSON 15 1-2 0-0 1 1 2 0 2 0 0 2
S BRADLEY DNP - COACH'S DECISION
K VAN HORN DNP - SPRAINED LEFT ANKLE
D HARRIS DNP - COACH'S DECISION
M DANIELS DNP - COACH'S DECISION
TOTALS 265 42-97 35-43 11 36 47 13 26 8 9 126
(.433) (.814) TEAM REBS: 11 TOTAL TO: 9 (8 PTS)
PHOENIX 28 25 24 34 19 - 130
DALLAS 32 30 22 27 15 - 126
BLOCKED SHOTS: PHOENIX - S HUNTER 2, W MCCARTY, S NASH, A STOUDEMIRE,
S MARION. DALLAS - E DAMPIER 2, D ARMSTRONG, J TERRY, J HOWARD.
3-PT. FIELD GOALS: PHOENIX 13-27 (.481), Q RICHARDSON 0-4, S MARION 4-
7, S NASH 5-8, J JACKSON 4-7, L BARBOSA 0-1. DALLAS 7-20 (.350), J HOWARD 0-
1, D NOWITZKI 2-5, M FINLEY 1-5, J TERRY 4-7, J STACKHOUSE 0-2.
TECHNICAL FOULS: NONE.
FLAGRANT FOULS: NONE.
OFFICIALS: BERNIE FRYER, DERRICK STAFFORD, RON GARRETSON.
A - 20,915. T - 2:59.
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