These are exciting times for the Phoenix Suns. They are in the conference finals and there's great excitement all-around. It's no secret that the NBA probably wants them to make it to the Finals. A Miami-Phoenix finals would be a lot more exciting than the San Antonio-Detroit finals. There's a lot of talk about Nash and Stoudemire too. They are becoming the top combo in the league and Amare seems like the future at the 4 spot for the NBA. With all that said, the Spurs are a great team and they showed why in game 1. Flawless execution, aided by poor Suns D helped them win game 1 down the stretch. They led by 10 after the first quarter. The Suns looked bad. But it was not anything the Spurs D was doing, because the Suns came back and dominated quarter 2 and 3.
They led going into the fourth and then the roof caved in on them. Suns kept scoring, but they couldn't do anything to stop the Spurs. Spurs shot 70+ percent in the quarter and the Suns could just watch. Brent Barry killed them from the outside as they had to help out on Duncan, Parker and Ginobli. Barry and Horry got wide-open shots which they kept making. It was Brent Barry show for the most part as he scored 21 pts on 8-of-12 shooting. Amare and Nash were great, but the others didn't show up much like it has been the case since Joe Johnson went down. But the problem was the Spurs offense. The Spurs are a greatly under-rated offensive team. They are good defensively, but they are much better offensively since the days of David Robinson. Parker and Ginobli have helped re-define this team and now they can do it all. They can play any style, score and defend, play inside or outside. In fact, this is how they dealt with the Suns in the regular season as well. They just outscored them by 20+ though the Suns score 100+.
I was afraid this was going to happen since the Suns don't have any answer to Ginobli or Duncan. I was glad the Suns at least played well, scored a bunch and both Nash and Amare looked great. They were probably a little tired too after Friday's win. So I am hoping they can come back and win game 2. But clearly their problem is stopping the Spurs. Pop was joking after the game about how Parker (and probably Ginobli and Barry) might like to score 180 pts every night. The point is, the Spurs can do it if Pop lets them to. And they have proved it against the Suns all season long. Hope the trend stops in game 2. Also, the Suns need Joe Johnson back. They are missing his versatility. They have to find a way to get Q untracked. He makes a couple of nice plays every game, but they need more. It's amazing how the 3 pointers disappear this time of the year. I thought this team will not fall prey to all that, but the pressure gets even to the best I guess.
SAN ANTONIO (121) AT PHOENIX (114)
SAN ANTONIO
REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-FGA FTM-FTA OFF-DEF-TOT AST PF ST TO PTS
====== === === ======= ======= =========== === == == == ===
B BOWEN F 27 1-5 0-0 0 1 1 1 2 0 1 2
T DUNCAN F 40 10-21 8-10 3 12 15 4 3 0 3 28
N MOHAMMED C 23 4-7 1-2 4 3 7 1 5 0 1 9
T PARKER G 36 13-22 1-4 2 5 7 2 4 2 4 29
E GINOBILI G 37 5-10 9-13 0 6 6 5 3 1 2 20
B BARRY 34 8-12 0-0 1 1 2 1 2 3 0 21
R HORRY 27 4-7 2-2 3 4 7 3 2 2 0 12
B UDRIH 12 0-3 0-0 0 0 0 1 2 1 0 0
R NESTEROVIC 4 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
T MASSENBURG DNP - COACH'S DECISION
G ROBINSON DNP - PERSONAL REASONS
D BROWN DNP - COACH'S DECISION
TOTALS 240 45-87 21-31 13 32 45 18 23 9 11 121
(.517) (.677) TEAM REBS: 10 TOTAL TO: 11 (12 PTS)
PHOENIX
REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-FGA FTM-FTA OFF-DEF-TOT AST PF ST TO PTS
====== === === ======= ======= =========== === == == == ===
Q RICHARDSON F 42 3-9 0-0 1 2 3 1 5 2 0 7
S MARION F 38 1-6 1-2 2 7 9 1 4 1 1 3
A STOUDEMIRE C 36 13-21 15-18 6 3 9 1 2 0 2 41
S NASH G 40 12-22 5-5 0 4 4 13 5 1 6 29
J JACKSON G 41 8-16 0-0 0 8 8 1 1 1 1 20
S HUNTER 30 3-6 3-4 4 4 8 0 4 0 1 9
L BARBOSA 13 2-6 0-0 0 0 0 2 1 0 1 5
B OUTLAW DNP - COACH'S DECISION
W MCCARTY DNP - COACH'S DECISION
J VOSKUHL DNP - COACH'S DECISION
J JOHNSON DNP - FRACTURED ORBITAL BONE
P SHIRLEY DNP - COACH'S DECISION
TOTALS 240 42-86 24-29 13 28 41 19 22 5 12 114
(.488) (.828) TEAM REBS: 5 TOTAL TO: 12 (18 PTS)
SAN ANTONIO 30 25 23 43 - 121
PHOENIX 20 29 33 32 - 114
BLOCKED SHOTS: SAN ANTONIO - N MOHAMMED 2, R HORRY, T DUNCAN. PHOENIX -
S NASH, S HUNTER, A STOUDEMIRE.
3-PT. FIELD GOALS: SAN ANTONIO 10-23 (.435), B BOWEN 0-3, T DUNCAN 0-
1, T PARKER 2-5, E GINOBILI 1-2, B BARRY 5-8, R HORRY 2-4. PHOENIX 6-
15 (.400), Q RICHARDSON 1-5, S MARION 0-1, J JACKSON 4-8, L BARBOSA 1-
1.
TECHNICAL FOULS: SAN ANTONIO - COACH POPOVICH.
FLAGRANT FOULS: NONE.
OFFICIALS: JACK NIES, JIM CLARK, JOE CRAWFORD.
A - 18,422. T - 2:39.
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