Spurs @ Suns - Game Thread - Tuesday May 8, 2007 - 7:30 pm - TNT

[slinslin]

So Mike D'Antoni's coaching IQ rises to the level of the average Suns fan on the internet and he plays Thomas and we win big and control the boards, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......

..

 

[arwillan]

Seriously?

It doesn't affect where we play...

It's a best of 7 series; we had home court advantage, which meant that 4 of the 7 games are played at home. All we had to do to win the series was win our home games. Since we lost at home one game, now all San Antonio has to do is win their home games. They HAD to beat us in Phx to win the series. They've done that. Now we HAVE to beat them on their court to win the series. We've lost the advantage of only needing to win our home games.

oh ok i understand now. so we dont change location of any games. i was a bit worried about a game 7 in SA. i like our chances of winning 1 game in san antonio.

 

[Linderbee]

correction:


20 points/15 assists.

i assume you got that though

Yeah, I just like giving people a hard time!

Actually, I wasn't paying THAT close of attention to the stats...I thought maybe you just had your numbers reversed. I got it now.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Alright D'Antoni, lets see James Jones and the rest of the bench guys get some time now

Don't give him any bright ideas, Jones might hit a couple shots and get the starting nod again.

 

[elindholm]

So Mike D'Antoni's coaching IQ rises to the level of the average Suns fan on the internet and he plays Thomas and we win big and control the boards, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......

Exactly. Let's hope it lasts. With luck, every writer and talking head in the country will talk about Thomas's value so much that even D'Antoni will get the message.

 

[Linderbee]

would you rather me pound 10 beers to put me to sleep cause it's one or the other if we win!

START DRINKING!!!

 

[Black Jesus]

Kurt Thomas won that game for us today, pretty good effort from Marion. Nash was unbelievable as usual, but Amare needs to pick it up just a bit, he could still play a little better.

 

[NastyOne]

Great defensive effort by all our guys tonight and especially Kurt Thomas.

Hopefully D'Antoni realizes that we don't need to play small to win.

We might not score as much points but we play way better defense and rebound way better with Kurt Thomas and Amare on the floor at the same time.

Stick to the same game plan and go into San Antonio and steal either game 3 or 4, hell maybe even both if we wanna be greedy

 

[NastyOne]

but Amare needs to pick it up just a bit, he could still play a little better.

27 points and 9 boards on 10-16 from the field aint good enough for you?

 

[Sundance]

It pains me to think how many more games we could have won in the regular season, if Kurt had just been in the starting lineup and was actually given minutes.







p

 

[Mike Olbinski]

If we can continue to play that kind of defense...let Duncan score 29, and shut the others down...we can win this thing.

 

[slinslin]

Amare was the key to winning this game. 15 of our 22 points in the 3rd quarter.

 

[Mike Olbinski]

Amare was the key to winning this game. 15 of our 22 points in the 3rd quarter.

While I agree he had a good game, Kurt was the MVP of this game.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Big props to marion, i dont know what his offensive numbers were, and I couldn't care less.

His defense on parker was great, you could see he was focused on d from the jump. Needs to play like that every game for us to have a chance in this series. He should not even focus on his points, his d is much more valuable.

as an avowed Marion-critic, I couldn't agree more. GREAT PLAY by the MATRIX!

DB!

 

[hsandhu]

as an avowed Marion-critic, I couldn't agree more. GREAT PLAY by the MATRIX!

DB!

Marion had 5 points, and I couldn't be happier with him. Chuckster is yapping that we need to find a way to get him going, but that is the exact opposite of the mindset he or the team needs.

We have enough people who can score, his only focus (along with grabbing some boards) is to guard parker with everything he's got.

You could see he was focused on only that tonight, as Mike challenged his ass. For the first time I can recall, he actually had some bend in his knees when playing d, doing everything to keep parker in front of him.

 

[mjb21aztd]

great win by the suns tonight they didnt fold and call this a series after losing the first one at home now lets go to their place and take not 1 but both games I can dream cant I... But great overall effort by the suns tonight nash and amare both had great games and diaw showed some signs late in the 4th qtr GO SUNS BEAT THE SPURS

 

[cly2tw]

With Kurt, our offense is also much smoother all around, besides solid defense. And his defensive value is not limited to man-on TD. His positioning and help-timing was crucial for a lot of successful defense of p&r.

We had two stretches of not-so-good offense:

1st, in the 1st qrt Nash stuck to the ball a little too much without much gain of space. Spurs were exactly prepared for that and as an adjustment we better had gone to Diaw for low post mismatch to spice it up. Later on, Spurs' defensive focus lacked the concentration, that's when both Amare and Nash had their ways.

2. LB made a couple of bad decisions late 3rd, early 4th in a row. Luckily, we adjusted again by going to Diaw for low post and stopped the offensive drought before it became a disaster.

 

[Covert Rain]

Nash was fantastic but Kurt was the key. I really thought Barbosa was going to be the X-factor but I was wrong. Kurt will be the x-factor the entire series. If he can keep duncan out of the circle and make Duncan work hard, it only helps. Ducan will still get 30 a night but if he is too tired on the other end that is huge.

Also, my hats off to Marion. I didn't think he could guard Parker. I have no idea what was different tonight. I still don't like Marion covering him all series long but I guess he proved he is capable.

Last but not least, Raja Bell. He was so agressive out of the gate. He has started doing something that I think he got away from...driving to the hoop. When Bell was in Utah he used to drive drive drive. He has been in love with the 3 pointer since he got here. I love it when he drives because then they have to respect him giving him some room to shoot.

 

[SO91]

Marion and Kurt were the co-MVP's of the game. We knew Duncan would get his, but they had to make him work for it and that's what Kurt did. But everybody that bashed Marion, myself included, he stepped up big time today, totally shutting down a guy that averaged 29 points against us. Who knew the Suns could win a game on the defensive end!

 

[az1965]

I loved Bell's aggressiveness tonight! He drove to the basket consistently instead of jacking up 3's...

 

[cly2tw]

I loved Bell's aggressiveness tonight! He drove to the basket consistently instead of jacking up 3's...

It's smartness realising mismatches. As DA said, we do have more talent on the team. We are on average more athletic for sure. So, Bell can drive by Finley or Barry at will if they follow through on Pop's instruction to deny easy 3s at all cost. That's the problem why marion is often criticized: he is just unable to exploit any such advantages consistently like Bell and Diaw are.

 

[TBaslim]

START DRINKING!!!

Start? Haha! You mean stop, right?

Only way to get through the start of this game...

 

[msdundee]

GREAT GAME! and we needed a great game. They played through some dumb calls and they all played tough, nice to see. Looks like this series will go the distance.

So right about now elindholm should be smiling and humming, and cheese is no doubt delirously happy and doing damage to his liver -- one way or another. Mine's pretty traumatized too, but it was worth it.

 

[Cheesebeef]

GREAT GAME! and we needed a great game. They played through some dumb calls and they all played tough, nice to see. Looks like this series will go the distance.

So right about now elindholm should be smiling and humming, and cheese is no doubt delirously happy and doing damage to his liver -- one way or another. Mine's pretty traumatized too, but it was worth it.

you damn skippy!!!!!!

 

[msdundee]

you damn skippy!!!!!!

It's not nice to swear at females ..........