Great win for the Suns tonight in a must-win game. This game had a very un-Suns feel to it at times as it happens every time against the Spurs. But the good thing is, this Suns team is a good team and is not really limited when it comes to playing in the half-court. It's amazing how good Steve Nash is. This guy makes everything go for the Suns in the half-court (and the full-court) and he has clearly improved this season after winning 2 MVPs the last 2 years. Bruce Bowen's defense seems to hardly bother him and he just finds a way to create baskets for himself and his team. The TNT guys repeatedly said today that he willed this team to a win today. He came out aggressive and though he missed a lot of shots early, he did set the tone. The Suns got their offense going early, but couldn't knock down shots. So they actually trailed after 1 scoring only 19 in the first.
But then they got on a roll little bit in the second quarter. Shots started falling for Nash and the gang and the most important thing was, for whatever reason, Tony Parker was not killing them. I think it was part good D by Marion, part good team D because they started Kurt Thomas to defend Timmy and that changed the way the paint was patrolled and it was also part Tony just missing shots. In any case, he was not killing the Suns and Manu was still bottled up. So it was basically Timmy's offense. Kurt played him well and more than anything, it allowed the Suns to play him one on one and also kept Amare out of foul trouble. But Timmy was still being Timmy. He had 29 on 12/20 shots and 11 boards. The bank was open all night and it was amazing how easily he scores off the glass from all kinds of angle and trajectory. I thought the Suns could have still sent another body at him, but D'Antoni played it right and sent the message it's Timmy V our team and with the Suns offense doing well, he didn't have a problem letting Timmy get his.
Amare and Shawn didn't do much in the first half, but Amare came alive in the third. He was unstoppable for a stretch and that put the game away from the Spurs. The Suns didn't even need him in the fourth as they quickly built a huge lead behind Nash, Kurt and the gang. Diaw had a decent game tonight and his no-look pass to Amare in the third was just spectacular. Nash had 20 and 16 dimes. Thats how the Suns win. Amare ended with 27 big ones and the solid mid-range shooting from Kurt was as invaluable as his defense on timmy.
All in all a great win for the Suns. The Suns lost both home games 2 years back in the playoffs against the Spurs and if they are really better now, they should have won both, but they'll take a split given they lost a tough game 1. The good news is, they have looked good in both games. Spurs are going to be tough for them, but at least they showed us they are very capable of beating them at home. Now they go on the road, and thats a whole different story. I think they can get a split. Nash is playing so well right now that the contrast between his performance and how bad Nowitzki was in his playoffs is just too obvious to everyone. Nowitzki might have stolen Nash's 3-Rd MVP trophy and everybody can see it now.
Teams 1 2 3 4
San Antonio 25 17 22 17 81
Phoenix 19 30 22 30 101
San Antonio
SHOOTING REB
name fg ft 3pt o-t ast to stl blk pf pts
Bruce Bowen 5-10 0-0 3-6 0-2 0 1 1 0 2 13
Tim Duncan 12-20 5-7 0-0 2-11 1 2 0 2 4 29
Francisco Elson 2-3 1-1 0-0 1-4 0 1 1 1 2 5
Michael Finley 4-9 0-0 3-6 0-3 2 3 0 0 1 11
Tony Parker 5-14 3-6 0-1 0-2 3 4 0 0 0 13
Manu Ginobili 3-9 0-0 0-2 1-5 5 2 3 0 1 6
Robert Horry 1-1 0-0 0-0 2-4 0 2 2 1 2 2
Jacque Vaughn 0-3 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0 1 0
Fabricio Oberto 0-1 0-2 0-0 2-4 1 2 2 0 3 0
Brent Barry 0-2 0-0 0-2 1-2 1 1 0 1 2 0
Matt Bonner 1-2 0-0 0-0 2-2 0 0 0 0 0 2
Beno Udrih 0-3 0-0 0-1 1-1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Melvin Ely - - - -
Jackie Butler - - - -
James White - - - -
TOTALS 33-77 9-16 6-18 12-40 14 18 9 5 18 81
FG %:.429; FT %:.563; 3PT %:.333
Points of TO:13
Team rebounds:6
Technical fouls:
Illegal defence:0
Phoenix
SHOOTING REB
name fg ft 3pt o-t ast to stl blk pf pts
Shawn Marion 2-4 0-0 1-2 0-10 1 1 1 3 2 5
Kurt Thomas 6-7 0-0 0-0 0-4 0 1 3 0 3 12
Amare Stoudemire 10-16 7-8 0-0 1-9 0 3 2 0 3 27
Raja Bell 6-9 5-6 1-3 1-3 0 4 1 0 2 18
Steve Nash 7-17 5-5 1-2 0-1 16 3 0 0 0 20
Boris Diaw 3-9 0-0 0-0 2-7 5 2 2 1 1 6
Leandro Barbosa 6-13 0-0 1-3 2-3 3 2 0 1 1 13
James Jones 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-2 0 0 1 0 1 0
Marcus Banks 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Pat Burke 0-1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 1 0
Jalen Rose - - - -
Jumaine Jones - - - -
Eric Piatkowski - - - -
Sean Marks - - - -
TOTALS 40-76 17-19 4-10 6-39 25 16 10 6 14 101
FG %:.526; FT %:.895; 3PT %:.400
Points of TO:24
Team rebounds:4
Technical fouls:
Illegal defence:0
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