Az Republic:
Suns drop tough one to Pistons
Paul Coro
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 24, 2008 07:26 PM
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - The Suns have had excruciatingly close losses and frustratingly bad ones. They have been embarrassingly overwhelmed and knowingly outworked.
But not once all season had the Suns been as angry after a loss as they were following Monday night's 110-105 overtime defeat against Detroit at the Palace of Auburn Hills. They headed for Boston feeling good about the way they scored and defended against a powerhouse team despite having a seven-game win streak end.
They just felt outmanned.
"We played well enough to win," Suns forward Grant Hill said. "It's just hard five against eight."
The Suns could find fault with themselves for losing a 94-89 lead with 2:40 to go in regulation, with one Detroit offensive rebound providing a late Rasheed Wallace 3-pointer and another denying them a chance at a winning shot. But it was hard for them to focus on those plays or the missed shots down the stretch of overtime when they were so furious with the officiating.
"We had our chances to win," Suns guard Steve Nash said. "We didn't get the calls."
Suns video coordinator Noel Gillespie was the most popular man in the postgame locker room, because players wanted to look at the calls that had them seething after Detroit had scored the game's final six points. Two particular calls raised their ire.
With the Suns leading 94-92 after Wallace's 3-pointer off a Rodney Stuckey rebound, Shaquille O'Neal missed inside when he was hit across the face by Antonio McDyess and slapped across the left arm by Stuckey with no call. McDyess said after the game that he was fouling in hack-a-Shaq mode.
"I wish they wouldn't have had help," O'Neal said of the Pistons. "I sure wish those people (officials Joe Forte, Michael Smith and Sean Wright) would get a little more consistent in how they call a game. I know I got fouled down there. It ain't no all ball. (Expletive) that. I know I got fouled, and there's a ref standing there. He should have (expletive) called it. I got chopped in the head. He should have (expletive) called it. Period.
"It'd been a different game if they'd done what they're supposed to do. They had help."
A blocking foul on Nash for a Chauncey Billups' 3-point play with 1:01 to go also had Phoenix fired up. The Suns led 105-104 when Nash tried to take a charge on Billups' drive. Billups converted for a 107-105 lead. Nash missed a jumper to tie the score, and O'Neal was called for a foul on the rebound, setting up two McDyess free throws that made the lead 109-105 with 45.9 seconds to go. Wallace blocked an Amaré Stoudemire fadeaway on the next play.
"We got hosed down the stretch," Hill said. "It was just bad. Rasheed's agreeing with you about the foul situation. Then you know you got screwed."
The Suns still came a long way from the team that lost to Detroit by 30 in Phoenix on Feb. 24, when O'Neal was in his third game with the Suns.
They were outrebounded for just the third time in O'Neal's 17-game Suns career. The 16 second-chance Pistons points hurt as well as 16 Suns turnovers for 20 Pistons points.
Stoudemire led Phoenix with 33 points, including 15 on free throws, but Billups countered with his own 15 free throws to finish with 32 points.
"It's not a really bad loss," Nash said. "Everyone's disappointed and angry. We felt like we played well enough to win and feel like, in some ways, it was taken from us."
