2008 Playoffs R1: Suns vs. Spurs

[Farsi Man]

CMON LETS GO SPURS! TAKE OUT THAT FAKE HUMAN WASTE KNOWN AS SHAQ! HE DOESNT DESERVE CRAP.

[Amen316]

Look Im a Suns fan and you guys played a great comeback game all game long.... That is just basketball at its best

[Blame Rasho]

Look Im a Suns fan and you guys played a great comeback game all game long.... That is just basketball at its best

It was a great game... you shouldn't ask for more as a basketball fan.

[DBMethos]

Great momentum for Game 2!

[Blame Rasho]

Let also point out that there is a pretty good chance that their coaching will leave alot to be desired during a 7 game series.

Coaching was the difference in game 1....

[Magz50]

Today made me realise why i'm a Spurs fan. Absolutely f'in incredible and heart warming. Duncan serious is close to being the GOAT right now.

[Blame Rasho]

Credit to ESPN

Three Phoenix Mistakes

April 19, 2008 6:49 PM

Credit the Spurs with a marvelous against-all-odds come-from-behind double overtime win against Phoenix.

There is a ton to say about this amazing game, but through it all, three times I found myself looking at something Mike D'Antoni was doing and wondering: "Is that smart?"

Let me say here, that I recognize Coach D'Antoni knows a ton more about basketball than I do. There are probably excellent reasons for all these things. But here is my view:

* In the second quarter, the Suns were rolling, and had a 16-point lead. The Spurs were staggering a little. I think almost everyone in the gym thought that, as long as the Spurs were unsure what to do on defense, the Suns had a moment there when they might just crack the game open. But then a few Suns got their third fouls, and D'Antoni sent them all to the bench, radically altering the line-ups, and dumping ice water on that Phoenix hot streak. It was anybody's game by halftime.
* Phoenix was down, and inbounded with about 35 seconds left -- and went really slowly. I thought they should step on it, and try to get two possessions. That's the rule of thumb -- shoot with around 30 seconds left, right? Instead they gave the ball back to San Antonio with less than 24 seconds left, and were forced to foul, which almost sealed the game.
* After Manu Ginobili's game-winning layup, Phoenix had no timeouts and no idea what to do. That was one major flaw. But it was born of using too many timeouts earlier. I remember the one with 19.5 seconds left, when the Suns used their final timeout. I cringed when I saw that. They were down three. Almost no matter what happened, to win this game they were going to have to score twice. Tell me, would you rather move the ball, scheme, make substitutions, and stop the clock with 20 seconds left, or the paltry few that the Spurs were likely to leave you after they got it back? D'Antoni's timeout did lead to Nash's good luck at the game-tying three-pointer, so it's hard to question that. But I do.

I think you also have to point out that Barbosa was covering Mike when it should have been Hill who is much longer and a better defender.

[HarlemHeat37]

next game..

-Manu and Parker need to start out better..we can't afford to fall behind by that much again..surely the Suns won't make the same mistakes again..

-Parker NEEDS to play better D..his defense was atrocious today..TWO fouls for 3? ridiculous..Finley needs to rotate better defensively as well..

-smarter basketball..it was a lot better in the 2nd half, but still erratic..the 1st half was bad..Manu was making bad decisions, like passing up an open 2, so he can go shoot a contested 3..Thomas made a poor decision in the 4th, where he doubled Nash and left Stoudemire open, resulting in an and1..we had a lot of these today..

-Oberto needs to grow some balls..

-have some confidence defensively..make them prove themselves..no doubling Shaq before he makes some shots, unless he's really deep..make Nash score a few before putting too much attention on him in the p&r..

[Ballings7]

I think a part in Parker's early play was that bump he took right after the jumpball...

[SMRattler]

I thought TP's D was excellent. We didn't need to use Bowen on Nash at all hardly until he fouled out. Nash made some big shots and drew some contact on a couple of others. That's why he's a 2-time mvp, you can't ask for him to get nothing for a whole game.

But Manu and TP do need faster starts. I think both will too, everyone is back in rythm now. Just look at the second half versus the first. We shot below 40% in the 1st half and went nuts to start the 3rd quarter. But Nash will also be in rythm from here on too though, I expect him to be more of a scorer if they get a lead to sustain it.

Finley needs to keep shooting, he's shooting well right now. If Barry hits a couple of shots a game, Thomas and Udoka too, Bowen will find a open looks from the corners too soon, we should be fine. But our big 3 carried us in game 1. We need more production from the others though.

I loved our defense (in the second half especially). I liked our game pace. Pop is a genius and TD/Manu have ice in the veins. This is gonna be a great series to watch. 7 games, I'm sure of it.

[Blame Rasho]

Yeah... I thought that TP D'ed up quite well... We didn't have to depend on Bowen to play that much who is a big offensive liability when we aren't scoring. Bowen was also very fresh in OT who helped Limit Nash to 0-4 shooting in the last OT.

[HarlemHeat37]

I disagree about TP..

he missed many rotations..

Nash's numbers are deceiving..he had a good amount of open shots that he just missed..

Parker had 3 stupid fouls, one of them where he got beat and had to recover..

I didn't have a problem with his 1 on 1 D, but I really didn't like his rotations and bad fouls..fouling TWICE for 3? inexcusable..

[johnnyjohnnyjohnny]

next game..

-Manu and Parker need to start out better..we can't afford to fall behind by that much again..surely the Suns won't make the same mistakes again..

I agree, fortunately Timmy was able to single-handedly keep us in the first game. We certainly cannot expect him to do the same for the remainder of the series / playoffs. Tony AND Manu both need to come out productive. I expect Phx to come out gunning in game 2, they realize how important it is for them to win one on our home court. we have to be in full control from the opening tip-off.

-Parker NEEDS to play better D..his defense was atrocious today..TWO fouls for 3? ridiculous..Finley needs to rotate better defensively as well..

I think he made a few bonehead fouls, but I'm not sure we can really expect much more from him, defensively.

-smarter basketball..it was a lot better in the 2nd half, but still erratic..the 1st half was bad..Manu was making bad decisions, like passing up an open 2, so he can go shoot a contested 3..Thomas made a poor decision in the 4th, where he doubled Nash and left Stoudemire open, resulting in an and1..we had a lot of these today..

This will be key. Especially in the opening quarter. I think we had 8 TO's early in the game? We are lucky to have been able to keep it competetive, consdering. we cannot afford this again. TP cannot foul 3pt shooters while they're in the act of shooting. Our defensive rotations HAVE to be better. Snaq and Amare will foul, that's what they do. We have to keep taking the ball to them. Be ready to draw the charge when Amare has the ball, because his first thought is to take it to the basket.

-Oberto needs to grow some balls..

In the second half of the season, I've found myself often questioning what exactly it is that Oberto does. he ususally does not get the ball unless he's wide open. he needs to be able to put it in. He also has a decent mid-range jumper, USE IT.

-have some confidence defensively..make them prove themselves..no doubling Shaq before he makes some shots, unless he's really deep..make Nash score a few before putting too much attention on him in the p&r..

Kurt on Shaq. Historically, Shaq has been able to have success against TD. Historically, Shaq has been able to have success against anybody. One thing that you generally don't hear about Shaq is his basketball IQ. Use that to our advantage. KT is strong enough and crafty enough to make life difficult on Shaq. One thing that I DEFINITELY don't want to see is the Nash penetrate and dish to Shaq / Amare play. Every single time they did that play our bigs left their man to help double Nash, thus leaving Snaq / Amare wide open for an easy basket in the paint.

[wizardg]

Pop coached a great second half.
The line up the won the game for us was

TD
Thomas
Finley
Manu
Parker

...for the most part.

Bowen isn't really slowing Nash down so offensively we lose a lot with him out there I think he shpould play about ten minutes less in this series esp when Manu is on the bench.

One of the side benefits of the Hack a shaq is that if we have to play our big three long minutes it allows for them to get and stay rested during the free throws.

[UDRIH14]

for us to win this series, we need to shut at least 3-4 guys playin on the court like in 05 how was played 5 on 2 with the suns.

[Ballings7]

Steve Nash on PTI on ESPN now...

[Ballings7]

I think the Suns have a legitimate chance to beat us now, whereas the last three years I didn't think so (in the case of a series for 2006).

Of course, I'm just not sure, who will win the series because the new-look Suns aren't proven in the playoffs, and still aren't a consistent defensive team, despite improvement. We aren't that proven vs. the Suns from the last two games, but there's more to things there. Manu will be ready to go, Barry relativaly also. Horry will be back sometime in the series, will practice Friday, but questionable how effective he'll be.

However, we'll play noticably better in the playoffs, than from those two games and some other games lately.

I will admit the Suns have done better with Shaq than I thought originally, in the early stages of it. But on the long-term outlook, I still see it being a mixed bag trade for Phoenix.

To side, I'm leaning to the Spurs in 6 games. Can see seven.

Ultimately, I think it can go to either team.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Suns win the series, like I would have been in the past.

I could just be going too much on the regular season, and then we turn out to have a noticable edge on the Suns again.

Regardless, going to be one hell of a series, and one team will end up ultimately being the better team, this season.

haha...

So now, with what my pre-series mind-set was on this series, I definitely did take the last two regular season games into consideration too much. Which played into me swaying away from possibly seeding up with the suns. As well as, thinking the Suns had a legitimate chance to win this series - that stayed after G1, lessened after G2, and now has just completely dropped off.

I also overlooked the pick and roll situation as being more of a factor, than I thought it'd be. Just incredible.

Hill being a non-factor because of injury also, was a variable pre-series, but became an actuality.

We layed things out on the side-lines during the season, preserved, and executed in incredible fashion.

This is why the games are played.

This is why this team is so good.