Suns at Sterns 6:30

[FArting]

Suns at Sterns 6:30 MY 45 HD

The San Antonio Spurs capped last season with their fourth NBA championship in nine seasons. A controversial playoff series against the Phoenix Suns helped them do it.
For the first time since that contentious Western Conference semifinals matchup, the clubs square off on Monday in San Antonio as the Spurs try to continue their success against the slumping Suns.Phoenix and San Antonio finished the 2006-07 regular-season with the second and third best records in the league, respectively. After cruising through the first round of the playoffs, the teams met in the conference semifinals.Phoenix's two-time MVP point guard Steve Nash missed a crucial stretch in the final minutes of Game 1 because of a bloody cut on his nose, and San Antonio stole a 111-106 victory in Phoenix.Game 4 in San Antonio, however, delivered a far more crushing blow to the Suns' title hopes. Phoenix won that game 104-98 in San Antonio to even the series at two games apiece, but Robert Horry's flagrant foul on Nash with 18 seconds remaining led to a scuffle on the court. Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw left the Phoenix bench briefly, and though they returned to their seats without incident, they were each suspended for the next game."You know we do have the most powerful microscopes and telescopes in the world in Arizona," Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said after the NBA announced the suspensions. "You could use those instruments and not find a shred of fairness or common sense in that decision."San Antonio took advantage of the short-handed Suns, winning Game 5 88-85. They closed out the series with a 114-106 victory in Game 6 and won eight of their next nine games to capture the title.That was the second time in the three full seasons since Nash joined the Suns that San Antonio eliminated Phoenix from the playoffs. The Spurs are 8-3 against the Suns in the postseason and 7-3 against them in the regular season since 2004-05.This year's Spurs (18-5) are again near the top of the league despite having Tim Duncan sidelined for four games last week because of a sprained right ankle. Duncan returned on Saturday and had eight points and five rebounds in San Antonio's 102-91 win over Denver."It was great to have him back," said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, whose club went 2-2 without the two-time MVP. "Just having him on the court is a confidence builder for everybody."Duncan's return gave San Antonio a big boost, but point guard Tony Parker remained sidelined, missing his second consecutive game because of a sprained left ankle. Parker, leading the team with 20.1 points per game and 6.8 assists per contest, could return Monday.The Suns (17-7) have lost three of four games after winning 13 of their previous 15. Their current slump includes defeats against Minnesota and Miami, the teams with the two worst records in the NBA.On Saturday, Phoenix lost 101-98 at New Orleans as Nash was held to 12 points and seven assists, snapping his streak of eight straight games with at least 11 assists. After falling behind by seven points with 3:20 left, the Suns nearly orchestrated a comeback, but fell just short."When you're on the road against good teams you have to play hard from the start," Suns forward Grant Hill said. "We can't wait to turn it up just because we're a good team. We have to be ready to go. We are going to learn from this and get better and just realize that we are marked and people are going to come at us."

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/preview?gameId=271217024

Suns 103
Sterns 98

Nash

 

[Covert Rain]

Nice thread name.

 

[Bufalay]

Suns 426
sterns 111

I hope to see some violence

 

[LV-Suns]

Suns 426
sterns 111

I hope to see some violence

Raja Bell is your man

 

[PHX04]

Bell close-line ginobili then stare at Horry right after....then id be a happy camper

 

[Cheesebeef]

Spurs 110
Suns 101

 

[nowagimp]

This game is meaningless, either way. Injuries on both sides, some playing(suns) and not playing(spurs). I would like to see skinner knock Bowen out, or at least down hard. Other than that, I dont care who wins.

 

[Roca Dolla]

Phoenix Suns 110

Fuccin Sterns 96

Amare 40/20

 

[arwillan]

spurs 111
suns 98


Duncan

 

[Bufalay]

Spurs 110
Suns 101

damn you that sounds like the same boring crap that always happens.

 

[phxrising]

Just as a note, I saw this on Jalen Rose's Daily dime page about STAT playing against the Spurs.


http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-071217&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos2


The first of four regular-season meetings between the Spurs and Suns is set for Monday. Amare Stoudemire has a history of success against the Spurs, just not as pronounced since coming back from microfracture surgery last season.


Amare Stoudemire vs Spurs
2004-05 8 Games
PPG 37.6
FG pct 60.8
RPG 8.8
BPG 1.6

2006-07 8 Games
PPG 23.4
FG pct 50.0
RPG 11.3
BPG 1.4

 

[Stargazer]

Sweep the leg.

 

[scXfreakX]

lol, I love the thread name. I don't know if Phoenix can win. Last year, I would have said something like "Phoenix will break out of their funk, its time."

But, they're just different this year, and I don't think they can take Duncan. Maybe tonight because of his recovery for his injury, but, I just see us getting overpowered.

Spurs 103
Suns 99

 

[Errntknght]

I expect Pops to hold Duncan out of the game tonight... he does crap like that against the Suns at every opportunity - in the regular season. He knows there's no way the Suns can 'win' if he does that and besides its one less game for the Suns to get used to the Spurs team they'll face in the playoffs. The worst of it is that the Suns will probably relax because Tim's not playing and lose the game outright.

 

[arwillan]

The worst of it is that the Suns will probably relax because Tim's not playing and lose the game outright.

unfortunately, you're right.

 

[nowagimp]

I expect Pops to hold Duncan out of the game tonight... he does crap like that against the Suns at every opportunity - in the regular season. He knows there's no way the Suns can 'win' if he does that and besides its one less game for the Suns to get used to the Spurs team they'll face in the playoffs. The worst of it is that the Suns will probably relax because Tim's not playing and lose the game outright.

Yeah pops is one of the only coaches that pulls that chickenshit, he doesnt want the suns to gage them, and doesnt want to give them a win. Avery did that last year at the end of the season with the mavs vs warriors, held some guys out, but this aint the end of the season. I dont know how he gets away with it with the NBA office, the sponsors and ticketholders would be pretty upset, bad for business, but he does have a history of doing it.

 

[Nasser22]

Tim is playing...Parker is out.

 

[devilalum]

Suns 426
sterns 111

I hope to see some violence

You stole my guess!!!!

 

[Errntknght]

I guess with Parker out there's a good chance Duncan will play - but it still wouldn't surprise me if he Pops held him out, too. He has an excuse since Tim was recently injured.

 

[Cheesebeef]

oh man, are you guys serious with this stuff again? Hasn't it been shown that when Pop held Duncan out two years ago that he then went on to miss like the next 6 games? And Parker was out for their previous game, so it's not like this is a made up injury. Sometimes things are just as they seem, especially with a coach who knows the regular season doesn't mean squat, which is this: if you're hurt, you don't play.

 

[Cheesebeef]

since 2004, we've played the Spurs 10 times in the regular season. Only ONCE have we faced them with any of the big three out and both of those guys missed time right before our game and right afterward. The idea that Pop's a chickenshit or they're afraid to let us gauge ourselves really goes to show how much they not only own our team mentally, but apparently our fans as well.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I expect Pops to hold Duncan out of the game tonight... he does crap like that against the Suns at every opportunity - in the regular season.

at every opportunity? It's happened ONCE in ten games previous to tonight and the only time it did happen, both Manu and Duncan missed several games after ours.

 

[Errntknght]

sheesh, there's always someone in the crowd that has to go dredging up facts to ruin a good theory.

 

[Proteus]

This should be interesting even if Parker isn't playing. There are a few things I'm particularly interested in:

1 Will the Suns put forth a full game's effort/energy? It seems like for most Suns games this year the energy/effort has only present for a quarter or a half.

2 How well can Skinner defend Duncan? Kurt did a good job against Duncan although Duncan did still end up scoring a lot. If Skinner can come close to Kurt's level of defense against Duncan and actually enable the Suns not to double Duncan and stay at home on the Spurs shooters that would be a big help.

3 Can Hill facilitate the offense when Nash is being manhandled by Bowen? I like how Hill's played this year but it doesn't seem to me to that he's taken that much of the playmaking burden off of Steve like he was supposed to do. The offense definitely struggled at times in last season's series, so hopefully Hill can help the offense flow more smoothly.

4 Can Raja actually defend Ginboli again? Raja was brought in mainly for his ability to defend Ginobli yet Ginobli went hog wild in the last few games of last season's playoff series.

 

[az1965]

The P2p stream has chineese commentary going on. Is there an American stream?