After Game 1 loss, Gentry commented "All the games we play against them are going to be just like this." I assume he meant the slow pace, low scoring affair and not the final result, but even so, isn't that conceding a bit too much? Isn't that like saying "the Blazers want to play at a slow pace and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it."
The team that gets to dictate the pace throughout the game will generally be in a good position to win. The Suns cannot think that if they want to win this series, they have to play Blazers' style of basketball. That's not how we got to 54 wins and that's not how we play. The problem is, we knew exactly what Blazers were going try to do and how they were going to do it, and, with three days to prepare, we just basically let them execute their game plan to perfection. I wonder what were they practicing for the past three days prior to the game. Clearly, the game plan has to be to run the Blazers out of the building and not to try to beat them at their own game.
