Suns @ Spurs - Game Thread - Monday, May 14, 2007 - 6:30pm - TNT

[sunsfn]

I watched the replay with Amare and he went quite a ways out to the scorers table, but he is walking slow like he is going to check into the game. Not sure that will hold up, but it really does look like that. He is walking and casually taking the towell off from his neck, he is not in a hurry and it does not look like he is going to confront anyone about anything.

He also did not appear right away, it is after they send Diaw back and the coaches were halfway out to where Nash was, then Amare appears and the coaches grab him and send him back. He went quickly back to the bench.

 

[TBaslim]

Amare clearly threw his towel to the ballboy or Jalen (same thing) and looked intent on checking in when the melee happened. I honestly don't expect anything to happen.

I think one thing that is being overlooked is the excellent defense Marion played down the stretch. I have my doubts about him, but his quick double team and overall play in the 4th was outstanding.

Yup. Marion seemed to be Stretch Armstrong out there in the last 5 minutes. All over the place. Crazy good run of defense for a few.

 

[Cheesebeef]

oh - and considering I just RIPPED Marion unmercifully most of the game, he WAS AWESOME IN THE FOURTH - AWESOME.

The Big Three - Amare, Nash and Marion - this is a game where champions are born and you know what, if we're suspended for Game 5 and Pat Burke and the Fitness crew has to play - we'll probably lose but dagnabit, THE SERIES WON'T BE OVER BECAUSE GAME 6 WILL BE A WAR.

I won't be able to sleep tonight because of the end of that game - damn Robert Horry. Even in a loss, he still might provide a knockout blow that dirty SOB.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

BTW, you rock Chris (and the other mods). Keeping the board safe for legitimate conversation.

Someone just registered as Chrissandershasasmallpenis

I just want to know how they know?

 

[TBaslim]

So, I retract at least part of my comments on Kerr. He still slobs the Spurs, but he did a nice announcing job as the Suns got back into it at the end. All the stuff about 'teams defined by moments like this'. Not bad, for a UofA alum.





I kid - I kid. I have no AZ U allegiances.

 

[Ciani]

If anyone off the Suns bench gets suspended for being on the side off the court after Nash blatantly gets bodychecked out of bounds next to the Suns bench, I seriously don't know what this league is doing and Bowen still playing every game.

Im with you. It would be a shame for the league.

It was a huge steal by the way. Coach D was doing a great job in the last quarter imo (especially with the Amare&Marion double team on Duncan).

 

[Suns_fan69]

I think one thing that is being overlooked is the excellent defense Marion played down the stretch. I have my doubts about him, but his quick double team and overall play in the 4th was outstanding.

Yup, D'Antoni alluded to Marion's strong play down the stretch as well. He also made the big 3 that kept the game from getting out of hand (cut the Spurs lead to 7 I believe).

The other guy who was monumental was Thomas. He's been playing Duncan strong all series but today in particular I thought he did a great job (I loved that block when Duncan tried to go baseline). The pick & rolls between Parker and Duncan were handled extremely well. Thomas and Marion essentially enabled the rest of the suns to stay home on the Spurs shooters - for the most part anyway.

 

[hsandhu]

oh - and considering I just RIPPED Marion unmercifully most of the game, he WAS AWESOME IN THE FOURTH - AWESOME.

The Big Three - Amare, Nash and Marion - this is a game where champions are born and you know what, if we're suspended for Game 5 and Pat Burke and the Fitness crew has to play - we'll probably lose but dagnabit, THE SERIES WON'T BE OVER BECAUSE GAME 6 WILL BE A WAR.

I won't be able to sleep tonight because of the end of that game - damn Robert Horry. Even in a loss, he still might provide a knockout blow that dirty SOB.

You know what'll hurt like a mother? I can live with losing fair and square. I've said that since the beginning of this series. But if we lose like this, that'll be as bad as Paxson. At least with Paxson, they beat us fairly on the court.

 

[sunsfn]

It is hard for me to post and watch the game I get to intense.

After the game I came here and read all the posts.

Some of you do not seem to know what it takes to beat the Spurs on their home court? It is a battle!! You think the suns played bad yet they won! The spurs are an excellent team that has been together a lot longer than the suns team has. Every game is going to be a battle and it may have looked like the suns were playing very bad, but they really played hard and no matter what some of you think, Marion had a heck of a defensive game tonight! D'Antoni said it afterwards, we won because Marion guarded everybody on their team, that is a heck of a compliment, he also had 12 points and 12 rebounds.

There is no doubt that Nash, KT, and Amare had excellent games also, and it appeared they were not playing well. Did you see how bad the other teams players looked at times?

This is playoff basketball and it is not not very pretty at times, get used to it.

 

[Heavy D]

I haven't seen anything from mrkneebar tonight. Where could he be? He's probably in his room feverishly "pillaging Gilligan", while listening to "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" by Boyz II Men, over and over.

And where are 82CardsGrad and arwillan tonight? They only show up after losses to spread their particular brand of joy?

Now that I've gratuitously mocked those who deserve it, we stole that game. We played like crap and won. Who's in who's head now, I wonder.

If the league didn't suspend Bowen because they couldn't prove he meant to knee Steve, then they shouldn't suspend Amare and Diaw. Because they can't prove that they weren't running to check into the game. That being said, I expect that pinche David Stern will suspend them both. Thanks again, Robert Horry, you filthy creep.

 

[TBaslim]

And one more thing - props to DA and staff. I really liked the late doubles they threw at Duncan in crunchtime. Nice adjustment.

I actually wonder if it was intentional to wait on bringing in the fast doubles until the end of game, assuming they could keep the Spurs lead within 10 or so. If they had overused it too early, the Spurs would have adjusted and torched them from the outside (even worse then they did anyway). Seemed just enough to rattle Duncan at a critical time.

It seems like in so many of the recent close games between these teams, Popovich makes nice adjustments that throw the Suns off their game for just a possession or two - and that makes all the difference. This time might have been DA's turn.

 

[hsandhu]

Damn, I just saw Jerry on 12 news talking about the incident, you can tell a suspension might just kill him. As long as he's waited for this title.

 

[clif]

Does someone have a link to the actual rule? Isn't the rule you can't leave the bench if there is a fight? There was no fight. Amare left before any fight started so how can the NBA make a judgement on that?

 

[sly fly]

Just amazing.

If anyone but Horry is suspended, it will be shame. I hope the NBA uses common sense on this.

Nash could have easily separated his shoulder, and been gone for the year. The NBA needs to look at the severity of his actions and the evenual restraint showed by everybody involved.

No need to suspend anyone but Bob. And, the Spurs know it.

Congratulations you friggin moron. Instead of talking about the Suns nothing but heart comeback, the front pages will be plastered with this cheap shot. And, the media will have worn this topic out by 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning.

 

[az1965]

And one more thing - props to DA and staff. I really liked the late doubles they threw at Duncan in crunchtime. Nice adjustment.

I actually wonder if it was intentional not wait on bringing in the fast doubles until the end of game, assuming they could keep Spurs lead within 10 or so. If they had overused it too early, Spurs would have adjusted and torched them from the outside (even worse then they did anyway). Seemed just enough to rattle Duncan at a critical time.

It seems like in so many of the recent close games between these teams, Popovich makes nice adjustments that throw the Suns off their game for just a possession or two - and that makes all the difference. This time might have been DA's turn.

I was hoping for some double team on Duncan to throw him off. Looks like it happenned the right time!!

 

[Gambit]

It was a really dumb move by a young player...he won't make that mistake again but a hell of a time to make it...could jeopardize home court once you wrestled it back.

Terrible end to the game...Big Shot Bob may have hit a big shot yet again, indirectly.

There's rules and then there's rules. I don't really have a dog in this fight (that is to say, I'm not Michael Vick) but if Stoudemire is suspended for reacting to his team-mate getting cheap-shotted then that is ludicrous. Zero tolerance regardless of the circumstance = zero sense.

 

[sly fly]

And one more thing - props to DA and staff. I really liked the late doubles they threw at Duncan in crunchtime. Nice adjustment.

I actually wonder if it was intentional not wait on bringing in the fast doubles until the end of game, assuming they could keep Spurs lead within 10 or so. If they had overused it too early, Spurs would have adjusted and torched them from the outside (even worse then they did anyway). Seemed just enough to rattle Duncan at a critical time.

It seems like in so many of the recent close games between these teams, Popovich makes nice adjustments that throw the Suns off their game for just a possession or two - and that makes all the difference. This time might have been DA's turn.

Good call on that. I was waiting for the doubles all game, and they finally came.

The Suns played with passion on D most of the night. Through 3 quarters NOTHING worked, yet they kept digging.

The last 5 minutes are what champions are made of.

 

[clif]

Seriously I think we all are under the assumption that a fight was going to happen, but can we truely consider that a fight? No punches were thrown just yelling and players on the court in each other's faces. Does that constitute a fight?

 

[Cheesebeef]

whatever weight JC still has in the league, he has to throw ALL OF IT to make sure the Spurs don't prosper from their ridiculous thuggery. First the Bowen shot to Stat's foot, then the knee to Nash's groin, then Horry tries to put him completely out of commission and our guys react, but jump back not to get into a fight.

for either of those guys to be suspended would be CRIMINAL.

 

[hafey]

Thank god Jerry probably knows where all the bodies are buried in the NBA. We'll see.

 

[az1965]

I hope the league is smart enough. How stupid will it be to reward someone for beating someone innocent.

 

[AzCards21]

So can't we get just a tech1 for them both?

Nash got a shot to the dang nutz and all that happened was a tech1. Let's be fair here eh?

 

[hsandhu]

The only loophole I can see, is the "in the vicinity of the bench" part of the rule mentioned in another thread. They could argue both guys were still near the bench. It has been announced J-Rich and Baron wont be suspeneded for yesterday's actions.

It is gonna suck waiting for this to be announced.

 

[TBaslim]

Ok. One more thing that was great to see - the way the Suns offense fired at the end of the game.

So many times in crunchtime, teams play inside out and drain a big three to win.

This was amazing because of the degree of difficulty on the last couple of plays. Nash into the gullet of the defense, with the SICK wrap around, behind the back pass to Amare, who THEN doesn't dunk, but drops the nice floater over the attempted block? SICK SKILLS these guys have. Nash looked exhausted, but made it all happen, rather then just setup a standard 'end-of-game' play that I am sure the Spurs were ready to defend.

 

[TBaslim]

Thank god Jerry probably knows where all the bodies are buried in the NBA. We'll see.

That's the truth about the Godfather. Be interesting to see what Stern does in this case. I think they have some wiggle room to just suspend Horry and let the rest play in Game 5.

Would guess we see a fairly called game for both teams throughout, though.