In this game, Amare makes all the difference. When he loses focus like in the first half and a couple of minutes in the middle of the fourth, we are in big trouble. Then most of the second half and particularly the final minutes, he was paying attention, sticking a body on Duncan to allow Marion get the rebounds, the sick block, etc.
And Joe was really huge. Calm, particularly down the game. Made only a few unwise decisions. He is getting tougher. But the savvy and grittyness Manu has over him is still huge.
Q was quietly great. He was containing Manu as well as anybody can. But on switches, he still showed what Dunleavy said that he didn't play much defense back in Clippers, in that he couldn't stick his body to Duncan the moment he hit his screen. His taking charge on Duncan was huge too.
You have to give it to the Spurs that they dictate how the refs call the game. Amare's decisive block would have been a foul, had Duncan and Horry not shrown in much more body into his layups without being callled particularly late in the game. Manu got his continuation and-1 right away, while in exactly the same case it took them minutes to give it to Nash after Horry's foul. Horry was clearly in the non-charge circle where Nash was called for offensive foul late in the 4th. The last second drive in the first half, Manu was extending his leg way too long that kicked the body of Hunter without anything else, another and-1.
However, the preached non-contact philosophy by the Suns is partially to blame. The refs were already forced to call when Duncan was tricked by Nash's fake, but Nash didn't change his mind from passing to making a last-minute shooting motion, which everybody on Spurs' and Mavs' team would have done. Sigh!
We were also lucky that Duncan missed so many free throws.
But we showed heart late in the game and if we can keep our focus a bit more consistent at protecting defensive rebounds like we did in the second half, we still have chance. Most of us had hoped for a split in SA anyway. Now we got it, we got confidence, or at least I hope so.
PS: DA did better job taking timeout and slowing down the pace. In the fourth, while Duncan was out, we had two turnovers both involving Amare when we were rushing to shots, and DA made them slow down to go back to the patient halfcourt game that just led to a 3pt initiated by Joe's mismatch with Parker downlow that forced double team and we passed 3 times to the corner. That's good sign. The Spurs didn't get our shooting % down to win games. They did it by controlling the offensive boards and forcing turnovers via their defense. We have to overcome these two issues to come back into the series.
Go Suns!
