The revelation from game 7 win against the Clippers: We have a solution of the Nash dilemma and could be become invincible the rest of the playoffs for the first title in Suns' history.
The Nash dilemma is that when Nash plays too long and handles the ball too much thus subjecting to constant hounding and pounding the whole game long, he wears out over the course, either of the same game, or of the series, or of the whole playoffs. With him clanking, turning balls over, the whole team loses confidence with him.
In game 7, we did a couple of adjustments, maybe just out of necessity, but with huge positive implications.
1. Nash handled the ball much less than usual. LB and sometimes Diaw did it with Nash spotting on the 3-pt lines. I think he made at least 3 3pt shots by catch and shoot. Two positive effects are induced. For one, he saved a lot of energy. Secondly, Ross become useless for them. Since we had always some kind of mismatch on offense too, we kept pressure on the other defenders and Nash's 3s were results that Ross had to help out else where.
2. We actually controlled the tempo, particularly in the second half, and only occationally did the Suns benchmark fastbreaks to keep the defense honest that achieves the effect to tire them out a bit.
As a matter of fact, Clippers and Mavs are deep teams. Maintaining an absolute high speed throughout every game is a two-edged blade and may backfire like we saw how painfully Nash played in the 3 games before game 7 with a short bench as we have.
So, saving our own energy by selective fastbreaking should become the norm against the Mavs.
3. With more duties for LB, Diaw, they have a chance to become even more confident, and thus our offense much harder to figure out. With fresh legs, Nash could take over the game if other options ain't working due to defense adjustments. So, with the same personell, we can kind of play deeper and with more variations.
Anyways, we shouldn't make it a trackmeet against the Mavs. Besides Nash, one of LB, TT, and Diaw may have a slight matchup advantage on offense. We should exploit them more methodically. With Nash rested and reserving the energy to take off anytime, we have a good chance to beat the Mavs and the Pistons or Heats.
More specifically, Diaw will cause problem for Mavs no matter whether Dampier/Diop or Howard cover him. The same with TT, though he'd not have enough stamina to back down Howard/Stack in the low post and still finish strong. LB should learn how to gain adv. against Harris/Terry over the course.
Oh, with fresher legs, Nash's defense as the weakest link on the team is also much better.
Suns in 6! Go Suns!
