The first big game of the young NBA season happened tonight in San Antonio. Suns were visiting the Spurs and the game was as good as advertised. It was much more important for the Suns to win because they are always looking up at the Spurs plus the Spurs were without Tony Parker. But the Suns had their own handicap since this was a road game for them and they were in the midst of a surprising losing stretch having lost 3 of 4. I should have jinxed them because they had lost 2 of 3 before today since the day I wrote about them having only 5 losses.
They lost at home to Miami and then on the road to the Hornets. That match-up was billed as CP3-V-MP3, but Chris Paul got the better of Nash. There is one weakness of Nash which is getting harder and harder to miss as the Suns try to become a championship team and thats his defense. In any of these great point guard match-ups, he never defends the other star because he just can't. He can't stay in front of Chris Paul or Tony Parker or Baron Davis while those guys can guard Nash. They are not going to stop Nash either, but they can at least guard him as well or as bad as anybody else on their respective teams. The only exception are the Spurs where they put their defensive specialist Bowen on Nash instead of Tony Parker. Whereas with the Suns, we have to hide Nash and use Marion or someone else to guard these PGs. This is one weakness in his game that is big.
Back to the game today. The Suns fought their way through it and toughed it out. It was not easy. It never is with the Spurs. The Spurs were very good and it's just too easy for Duncan against the Suns. He had 36-17 on 15/25 shooting to totally dominate the paint. But the Suns did a decent job defending the rest of the guys and the game was really close the entire 4-Th quarter. Finally, Grant Hill and good free throw shooting took us home. How good has Grant Hill been for this team? He was huge today and he is doing everything. I saw him guard Chris Paul the other day and if he can add to the perimeter defense and free up Raja and Marion in that department, it's a huge bonus. I was not expecting that. His offense has been as good as I had expected but he means more to this team than his numbers suggest. He had 22-7-3 today and hit some big free throws. With Nash having just a mediocre game thanks to Bowen, LB, Diaw and Grant carried the day for the Suns.
Speaking of talented veterans, how good has Finley been for the spurs the last few years? Apparently he is getting 19 million this year from the Mavs and 3 mill from the Spurs. Thats nice. He seems to kill the Suns every-time we play and has just been a huge part of that team since he came in. He has been averaging 25 mins and 10 points the last 3 years. The Suns handled Ginobli, Finley and Barry fairly well today and their D carried the day because they just can't run and gun against this team. The blur had a couple of run-outs, but thats about it in the open court. So they had to dig in defensively to have any shot at winning. I wish the Suns play this kind of defense against every team. If they do, they may beat every other team in the league by 20 points! In any case, it was a big win for the Suns as the Spurs lost their first home game this season. Now on to the second big game of the season as the Suns play the Mavs on Wed. Should be another dandy. To be fair, it will be the third big game this season (and this week) because the Celtics play the Pistons just before the Suns game on Wed and thats a legit big game as well.
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