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I had recalled the game going into an overtime session or probably two, but I had forgotten that it amounted to a triple-overtime affair. I had remembered Nash as perhaps posting a 20-20 game in terms of points and assists, but instead he just missed at 19 points and 20 assists. It is, however, the only game in NBA history with at least 20 assists and 5 made three-point field goals by the same player.

http://bkref.com/tiny/wwTRs

Nash did commit a couple of bad turnovers in the third overtime where he dribbled into defensive congestion along the sidelines. Also, in the overtime periods, he twice fed Channing Frye in the post after a Laker switch on the pick-and-pop. Frye had successfully scored on this maneuver early in the game, but Los Angeles had adjusted later in the contest by swarming Frye, who was not accustomed to playing through—or passing through—pressure in the post. Instead, Nash should have cleared Frye out and taken advantage of his own switch off the dribble, even if Lamar Odom proved effective at switching onto guards. I remembered being frustrated by Nash's unwillingness to do so back in 2011, but I had forgotten the major reason why—the Lakers had adjusted to smother Frye after he received the post-entry pass, unlike early in the game. Nash should have made the adjustment, or Alvin Gentry should have told his point guard to make the adjustment. The result was that Frye twice lost the ball in the overtime sessions and overall posted 4 turnovers against 1 assist.

Frye enjoyed an incredible performance, though: 32 points and 14 rebounds!

https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201103220LAL.html

Vince Carter started well with ten first-quarter points on two treys, a slashing layup in the half-court, and a fastbreak layup off a Nash feed. Yet he finished 7-23 from the field, including 2-13 on threes! Yikes.

I had forgotten that Robin Lopez was still starting, with Marcin Gortat coming off the bench. Of course, since Lopez only played 9:55 in this game, compared to Gortat playing 53:05, it hardly mattered. Also, the Suns possessed a strong bench with Aaron Brooks, Jared Dudley, Mickaël Piétrus, Hakim Warrick, and Gortat. Naturally, their starting lineup was a bit weaker with Lopez instead of Gortat, but since Lopez was playing limited minutes, the starting lineup was not bad, either. Of course, Vince Carter and Grant Hill were past their primes and about ten years past their respective peaks, but there was still enough talent to make the playoffs—that roster was more talented that I had remembered, and the Suns were 33-29 before finishing the season just 7-13. Phoenix was 35-33 entering this game, and then this loss sent the Suns on a 5-9 spiral to conclude the campaign.

The fact that Phoenix failed to make the postseason with that roster speaks to the depth of the West, obviously, but also to the difficulty of enjoying success amid in-season turnover and the importance of continuity and chemistry in basketball. Brooks, Carter, Pietrus, and Gortat all joined the Suns during the season, and achieving optimal cohesion amid a roster in flux is tough. And then, of course, Nash's "pelvic instability" and resultant slump in the second half of that campaign hurt. It was, perhaps, a preview of what would happen to him once he joined the Lakers a little over a year later.

Brooks played really well in reserve, with 15 points (6-9 FG), 3 assists, and 0 turnovers in 13:40. He played some good games with the Suns, and he was a talented offensive point guard with quickness, fine footwork, a nice shooting stroke, and definite functionality in a pick-and-roll game. The previous season with Houston, he had started all 82 games and averaged 19.6 points and 5.3 assists while shooting .398 on threes in 6.4 attempts per contest. Unfortunately, Brooks departed for China during the 2011 lockout, leaving the Suns with Ronnie Price and Sebastian Telfair to back up Nash in 2012.

https://www.nba.com/suns/news/suns-gm-headed-china-visit-brooks#

Overall, that 2011 season proved strange, and the aftermath was even stranger. Once the Suns bought out Carter, lost Brooks, and declined to re-sign Pietrus, they probably should have traded Nash as he entered the final year of his contract, especially if they were not going to offer him the kind of deal that he wanted in free agency. (And that decision proved wise, as giving a a thirty-eight-year old point guard a three-year contract at major money would have been risky and possibly disastrous, as the Lakers soon learned.) Instead, the Suns replaced those guys with the likes of Price, Telfair, Shannon Brown, and a broken-down Michael Redd. Even though Carter constitutes one of the most overrated players in NBA history (impressive longevity aside) and was somewhat past his prime by the time that he landed in Phoenix, he remained better than Brown and especially a decrepit Redd. The Suns ended up missing the playoffs again in 2012—their third lottery appearance in four years—and then lost Nash in free agency.

Back to the game, I had remembered Kobe Bryant scoring plenty of points, but I had not recalled him posting a 42-12-9 stat line. I had correctly remembered that while Grant Hill played his usual tenacious defense, he fouled Bryant too often, and indeed Hill fouled out in the third overtime.