NBA suspended Amare and Boris Diaw as expected and the Suns are now in a deep hole. Instead of going back home tied 2-2, they probably have to go to San Antonio trailing 3-2. The Suns can still win game 5, but it's going to be hard. They'll play hard and the home crowd will be there, but so will the Spurs defense and it's going to be tough to beat them with a bunch of smalls and Kurt Thomas. There was some hope for the Suns for a while when some people pointed out that Tim Duncan actually stepped on the court earlier in game 4 when Elson and James Jones were involved in a minor incident. Bruce Bowen went in as well to get Duncan and drag him back to the bench and some people claimed both of them should be suspended as well. But Stu Jackson was very clear on this point. He said Timmy was on the court, but it was not an altercation and hence wouldn't be suspended. Since the Horry incident was an altercation, he said the rule is clear on this and Amare and Boris had to be suspended. He even said something to the effect that it may not be fair, but it is the correct call based of the rule. I sure hope they change this stupid rule next year, but who cares now? The Suns have been punched in the gut anyways.
Utah as expected closed their series out today against Golden State. They are a tough team and they showed it today. The Warriors played hard and stayed close. They even led at the half, but Utah bottled up Baron again. This started in game 4 and Baron's fatigue might have become a factor in this series as it played out. The second half was not kind to the W's. All the banging and scrambling took it's toll as they just scored 33. Thats what they usually score in a quarter, sometime more. But the 3 was not falling. They shot 6/30 from 3 and Jackson was horrible from the floor shooting 3/17. He lost his composure as always and took some bad shots in that second half. Davis shot 5/16 and ended with 21-2-8 in this game. There were some hard fouls and the W's complained a lot. Barnes fouled Matt Harping hard and was involved in some arguments with the refs. Utah kept missing their free throws and kept the W's in the game, but their offensive execution was awesome.
Utah has been so consistent for 8 quarters now. AK-47 had a great game again with a 21-15-1 game with 3 steals. This guy is now fully back. Boozer had 21-14 and Okur had 14-10 to complete a total front-court domination for the Jazz just like coach Sloan drew it up. Another 59-35 rebounding advantage for the Jazz. But the real stud today for them was D-Fish. What a dramatic series for this guy? He is now not just playing, but dominating games. He hit 4/5 3's and scored 20 to cover for the horrible 1/11 shooting by Deron Williams. All in a all, an efficient series for the Jazz. As the Chuckster pointed out on TNT, they have now beat a slow-paced, defensive team in Houston and a up-tempo team in Golden State. He says they should be able to give both the Spurs and the Suns a tough series and I agree.
As for the Warriors, a fantastic run has come to an end. They ended their 13 year playoff drought in style and they are now a story in the NBA. They should be on national TV a lot next year with their fun style of play. One bad note for them is they got a little bit of a bad rep due to all the complaining, technicals, ejections etc and a lot of it is justified. Everybody says "they are an emotional team, they play on the edge" and Nellie even says he wouldn't change anything. But that should not be an excuse for anything. The W's did go over the line many times in this series and even some Bay Area fans are upset at their behavior. Utah fans just thought they were thugs. Though some of it is due to the bad image of Jacko, he does do some things that kind of re-inforce that image. I think Nelly has to rein in Jacko and Baron next year. Nelly says they are his team leaders and they are actually being a bad influence on Barnes, J-Rich, Monta etc - guys who don't mis-behave usually. Anyway, the Bay Area got it's money's worth from these dudes and it was a fun run.
In Detroit, Chicago came through big time and took this series back home. Suddenly, Deng can't miss a shot and Ben Gordon finally joined them in game 5. He had 28 to go with Deng's 20. Hinrich had a great game with 17 and 13 dimes and played some good D as always. Rip Hamilton had 16 on 5/14 and Billups 17 on 5/12. That has been the story of this series. Good guard play means victory. The Pistons guards have had bad games in game 4 and 5 and the Pistons lost as the Bulls guards played better in those games. This series might now come back to Detroit for a game 7. Pistons are playing with fire here. They should have closed it out in game 5.
Chicago @ Detroit - 108-92
Golden State @ Utah - 87-100
Playoff schedule for 05/16/2007
San Antonio @ Phoenix - No Amare, no Boris, probably no victory for the Suns. Tough one to take.
New Jersey @ Cleveland - Cleveland better close this one out.
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