Three of the four second round match-ups in the NBA playoffs are at 3-0. It's unusually one-sided and I am glad that the Suns are one of the teams thats ahead 3-0 on the hated Spurs. Jazz gave a tough game to the Lakers today, but they just fell one point short and an inch or two to the side as a late game tip-in that would have won the game rolled off the rim. For a couple of minutes before that, the game was played at a very high level as both teams hit shot after shot and traded the lead back and forth. It was probably the best game of the playoffs so far, but the Lakers are still up 3-0. The Magic crushed the Hawks again and they have not lost a game in the playoffs yet. They have won 7 games straight and many folks are saying they are the best team in the playoffs right now. I don't quite buy that because they have beat up so far on Charlotte and Atlanta - 2 mediocre teams in my opinion. You can't really compare them to the Lakers playing the Thunder or even the Cavs against the Celtics. The Cavs won yesterday behind a tremendous performance by the King (38-8-7) to get that series to 2-1. Ironically, Cavs, the supposed best team going into this round, are the only team not leading their series 3-0.
The most surprising and satisfying 3-0 lead is owned by the Suns. They had an amazing game yesterday that was just unbelievable to watch. We have seen this movie over and over again through the decade and the ending was always a Spurs win. But yesterday, the Suns on the road, came back from an early 18 point deficit and won by 14 points in the fourth. Thats a 32 point turnaround against the Spurs defense. Granted, the Spurs D is not what it used to be - no Bruce Bowen these days, but they are still the Spurs. But this Suns team is great. They still run and gun and with Steve and Amare, they look similar to the Mike D'Antoni teams, but this is really a different team. I love Alvin Gentry and he has definitely improved on the Mike D'Antoni blueprint. He has put the right emphasis on defense and rebounding by just mildly tweaking the players and their minutes. It's subtle, but significant because these moves have convinced Nash and Amare and everybody to work just a little bit harder on defense. The extra minutes to Jared Dudley through the season and starting Robin Lopez or even Jarron Collins now are the kind of moves that emphasizes defense and rebounding and the message has gone very well with the team.
I really doubt if D'Antoni would have ever played these bench guys the way Gentry uses them. Anytime a starter got injured, D'Antoni just couldn't wait to insert Barbosa into the starting lineup and score 10 more points and give up 15 more. I personally thought some of the defensive criticism that D'Antoni received was a little overstated. But I definitely was a big critic of his lack of use of the bench. And Gentry is proving my point everyday. The biggest difference between the two is how Gentry trusts and uses his bench. This is something he has built through the season and it is paying huge dividends right now. The only reason they won yesterday on the road was because of Goran Dragic. He dropped 26 points, all in the second half and the starters never even had to get off the bench to wrap this game up. The problem with D'Antoni was that there was just too much pressure on Nash to make things work. When you play only 5 or 6 guys, you have only 3 or 4 different things to run on offense and defense. In the playoffs, you are playing good teams and on top of that, they scheme and plot and focus on every little detail over a 7 game series. So when a great team like the spurs shut off Nash and the 3 or 4 schemes D'Antoni had, there were no answers or counter-punches.
With Gentry, it's different. He has many things to goto. He has a bench that can help him out if the starters stall. Even on defense, he relies on Hill, J-Rich, Dudley and Dragic at different points against different people and the team is just better because of all the variety and versatility. They are not great defensively, but they can get a stop or two when it matters. Same story on offense. Is Dragic as good as Nash? Of course not - except for yesterday when he looked better than Nash, Amare and Duncan combined! But Gentry lets him play with a group and lets them do what they do best and keep scoring even when Nash is on the bench. This is the point D'Antoni never got. He was over-reliant on Nash and his run-and-gun philosophy and never stopped and looked at his bench players to see how they can help. It's the job of the coach to try and leverage the strengths of the players. NBA players are very skilled and are varied in their skill level and what they bring to the table. I am really happy with what Gentry is doing with the roster he got. I think D'Antoni probably had a better bench a couple of years he was coaching the Suns, but he never let them play. If he had done that, may be the Suns would already have a championship.
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