Suns @ Spurs - Game Thread - Sat. May 12, 2007 - 5:00 pm

[SirStefan32]

Oh, and please, PICK your poison- Parker and Manu OR Duncan. you can not let all three of them explode and dominate. Let KT play Duncan one on one. Stay with Parker and Manu. Let Duncan try to beat your entire team. He is good, but he is not THAT good. And block out, please. When San Antonio takes a shot, put your body on SOMEBODY and don't give them 2 or 3 shots per possesion.

 

[slinslin]

Its hard to take it to the hoop and throw it down when Tim Duncan just stands under the hoop the whole play and hacks you with no call when you get there..

 

[TheHopToad]

The one problem I have with D'Antoni is that he waits too long to call timeout during an opposing run. Early in the third after consecutive 3's, he should have taken a TO right there, but waited until after they gave Bowen a shootaround 3 to hit before calling it.

Meanwhile, Popovich called one right after Nash got his first FG of the game, sensing that he was starting to get his rhythm back.

 

[SirStefan32]

Its hard to take it to the hoop and throw it down when Tim Duncan just stands under the hoop the whole play and hacks you with no call when you get there..

Dunk on his whiney ass a couple of times and you'll see how refs are gonna start calling fouls. Refs are going to give calls to the more aggressive team. That's just the way it is. Amare needs to show the refs that he wants this more than Duncan.

 

[Cheesebeef]

The one problem I have with D'Antoni is that he waits too long to call timeout during an opposing run. Early in the third after consecutive 3's, he should have taken a TO right there, but waited until after they gave Bowen a shootaround 3 to hit before calling it.

Meanwhile, Popovich called one right after Nash got his first FG of the game, sensing that he was starting to get his rhythm back.

well, there's really NO doubt - Pop is head, shoulders and torso above DA coaching wise. Personally, I think DA's a bit of a fraud who will be completely exposed the moment Nash begisn to slow down even a little, but that's me. I think we have to win in spite of DA (much like the Barkley teams had to with Westy), which makes it all the more difficult against a champion.

 

[panfolk]

I suppose I'll get lambasted for throwing this out there, but I think it was a promising game for Diaw. Though he lost his touch when Amare re-entered the game. It gives me visions of Amare calling out "hey frenchie, you frenchie. Eat any croissants lately?" during practice or something. I know I'm alone on this one.

 

[panfolk]

well, there's really NO doubt - Pop is head, shoulders and torso above DA coaching wise. Personally, I think DA's a bit of a fraud who will be completely exposed the moment Nash begisn to slow down even a little, but that's me. I think we have to win in spite of DA (much like the Barkley teams had to with Westy), which makes it all the more difficult against a champion.

We've gotten to the point where leads are advanced with Nash on the bench. I don't think he's a fraud, just dense and uncompromising.

 

[TheHopToad]

We've gotten to the point where leads are advanced with Nash on the bench. I don't think he's a fraud, just dense and uncompromising.

LOL....I'm not ready to say that the reason they did better with him on the bench in the first half was due to Nash being old and washed up. He just had a bad game. It happens, ask Dirk.

However, even when Nash plays like crap and can't make a shot, he is still a leader on the team in many other ways and keeps trying hard to keep the team in the game. The guy never gives up and eventually he got his game back in the fourth quarter. That's the difference between Steve and Dirk...

 

[TJ]

After this game, the wind was really sucked fgrom my sails. I was anticipating a win, and it looked that way before the Spurs went on that run to close the half. It was doomsday when nash couldnt hit the broad side of the barn in the first half

 

[cly2tw]

I suppose I'll get lambasted for throwing this out there, but I think it was a promising game for Diaw. Though he lost his touch when Amare re-entered the game. It gives me visions of Amare calling out "hey frenchie, you frenchie. Eat any croissants lately?" during practice or something. I know I'm alone on this one.

I don't think Amare has anything to do with Diaw's problem. Diaw was still drawing double teams in the low post. But due to lack of stamina and lack of moving and cutting of others on court, we failed to profit from this advantage. And Amare played only 20 min and most of them without Diaw.

It's the coaches' duty to prepare and adjust for Spurs' counter measures.

 

[elindholm]

After this game, the wind was really sucked fgrom my sails. I was anticipating a win, and it looked that way before the Spurs went on that run to close the half. It was doomsday when nash couldnt hit the broad side of the barn in the first half

Actually the doomsday was when Stoudemire picked up his third and fourth fouls within the first two minutes of the fourth quarter. At that point the wind went out of the Suns' sails.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

The two hour mark has long passed. Just making sure everyone is aware.

 

[slinslin]

What does Amare have to do with Diaw being soft and basically never trying to dunk, instead he misses layups..

I am upset D'antoni didn't get himself tossed from the game.

 

[panfolk]

LOL....I'm not ready to say that the reason they did better with him on the bench in the first half was due to Nash being old and washed up. He just had a bad game. It happens, ask Dirk.

However, even when Nash plays like crap and can't make a shot, he is still a leader on the team in many other ways and keeps trying hard to keep the team in the game. The guy never gives up and eventually he got his game back in the fourth quarter. That's the difference between Steve and Dirk...

Whoa man! I'm not suggesting Nash is bad. I'm just saying that Nash doesn't need to be in the game for us to be competitive like last season. We suffer sure, but I don't think it's all on Nash's shoulders anymore. Part of that should be due to D'As work with the team, right? I mean last year I would have agreed with anyone that said that Nash is the ONLY PG who could make D'As system work. This year I'm thinking we just need a PG who makes better decisions than Barbosa and has better court awareness. I really think Barbosa is awesome as an undersized 2 but I don't think he's the solution at the point. I do believe that if this team were built right D'A would be in the reins even when NAsh declines.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

I just want Amare, Marion, and Nash to all have good games just once. Unfortunately I don't see all 3 going off against the Spurs for the myriad of reasons we saw tonight.

I was honestly suprised ABC was replaying all the manhandling Nash was getting. Usually the Networks try to gloss over such stuff because it makes for bad TV when you feel the game is one sided.

 

[jbeecham]

I just want Amare, Marion, and Nash to all have good games just once. Unfortunately I don't see all 3 going off against the Spurs for the myriad of reasons we saw tonight.

I was honestly suprised ABC was replaying all the manhandling Nash was getting. Usually the Networks try to gloss over such stuff because it makes for bad TV when you feel the game is one sided.

I was surprised by how many times the announcers disagreed with the refs foul calls or no calls against the Suns. There were quite a few calls where they said " that was an obvious flop" or "I can't believe Duncan got away with that, you have to call that a foul", etc.

BTW Chris Sanders, nice reference to Weird Al Yankovich in your signature.....that's a funny song.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

I was surprised by how many times the announcers disagreed with the refs foul calls or no calls against the Suns. There were quite a few calls where they said " that was an obvious flop" or "I can't believe Duncan got away with that, you have to call that a foul", etc.

BTW Chris Sanders, nice reference to Weird Al Yankovich in your signature.....that's a funny song.

Precisely. I know some people think the officiating was not a factor, but the ABC announcers felt it was a big enough factor to mention it repeatedly.

Was it the main reason we lost? I would say it was a piece of a puzzle. No team can really afford it's top 2 players and it's top bench guy to be limited in effectiveness and expect to win.

 

[jbeecham]

Precisely. I know some people think the officiating was not a factor, but the ABC announcers felt it was a big enough factor to mention it repeatedly.

Was it the main reason we lost? I would say it was a piece of a puzzle. No team can really afford it's top 2 players and it's top bench guy to be limited in effectiveness and expect to win.

Refs were a contributing factor, but poor games by Nash & LB and average defense certainly didn't help. Having a well officiated game probably would've been enough to get the Suns the win, but just not calling the 3rd & 4th bogus fouls on Amare also might've been enough for us to win.

 

[TJ]

Lets put things in perspective. We only lost by seven on the road when Amare barely played due to foul trouble, Spurs' big three were on their games, and Nash was off. We need to take tomorrow's game to get home court back and "defend our house." Im still saying <gulp> Suns in seven. Plus I have tickets to game seven

 

[sly fly]

- The only thing I'll say about the officiating is I really don't know how Tim Donagy gets to officiate in the postseason.

- One set of refs should be used for 1 series. Give me Sean Corbin, Danny Crawford, and Billy Kennedy any day (who lives in Glendale btw).

- PHX built a 10 point lead in the 1st half with the same refs, so I'm not ready to say they cost us the game. The inconsistency was the only problem I had.

- The inability to keep Raja Bell involved in the offense was a terrible blunder. Hell, he didn't even get a chance for a "heat check".

- I'm with Cheese on this one. PHX will win Game 4. And, the momentum swings right back into our corner. If having to choose which game to win between 3 & 4, I'll choose 4. Going back home Wednesday 2-2 would send shivers down my spine. We'll get to USAC an hour before the game welcoming the Spurs.

- I wouldn't mind seeing Mike D mix in the zone defense on occasion. Not all the time, but from time to time. This would keep additional pressure off Amare, allow us to front Duncan w/ help, and force SA to hit some 3's. Most of all, it would PHX to dictate the tempo... and possibly cause the SA coaching staff to piss their pants.

- Game 4 is all Nash. Mark it down.

 

[spurs817]

I am a troll please ban me!

 

[Chaplin]

Took you 3 games to show up, eh, coward? Sounds like you're on the fast track to banning.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

Took you 3 games to show up, eh, coward? Sounds like you're on the fast track to banning.

 

[spurs_817]

not sure why I keep trying to post and failing.

 

[Muggum]

Forget about the refs. Please. We're losing because:

Amare's basketball IQ is about 50 points lower than Duncan's. We inserted Kurt Thomas to guard Duncan in order to try to keep Amare out of foul trouble. Amare rewarded us by hacking the likes of Horry and Oberto. Terrific. When we finally did take him out, he responded by committing a new foul within thirty seconds of being reinserted into the lineup... TWICE. Amare is a double-edged sword for us. He's the only way we CAN win a championship, and yet he's also the reason we're not GOING TO. At least not this year. If we could switch Amare's brain with Duncan's, we'd take the series in five.

Barbosa has been neutralized. Not sure why. Not sure how. But he has. Yesterday, he looked like he'd regressed two years. For the life of me, I can't understand why we can't take advantage of his speed against the relatively slow-footed Spurs. Is it largely because Duncan's waiting to inhale him at the rim? Somebody explain this to me.

We still don't play consistent, smart defense. D'Antoni said that if the Suns consistently scored above 100, we'd win the series. Well, we HAVE scored above 100, in EVERY game so far. But we're down 2-1. Last night was a great example. Late in the game, when we were desperate to get a stop, we suffered lapse after lapse, most criminally leaving The Spurs' 3-point-shooters wide open in the corners. I don't mean open. I mean WIDE OPEN. We got away with it in the first half when the Spurs went 0-7 from distance. But it came back to haunt us in half number two. Ironically, the Spurs are not a dominant offensive team. But they seem to be able to find 110 point games against us with startling regularity.

We're suffering from the big brother / little brother syndrome. We saw it when the Pistons couldn't get over the hump against the Celtics. We saw it again when the Bulls couldn't get over the hump against the Pistons. Both teams bided their time, waited for the other team's stars to age, improved as a team, and ultimately got over the hump. If we can stay patient, this still may be our future... possibly this year, but more probably next year or the year after that. The Spurs are old and getting older.

Finally, we can't seem to tap into what the Mavs tapped into last year. I keep asking myself, how the heck did the soft Mavs beat the Spurs last year? I can't answer it. But we need to look at tapes of that series, both for strategy and for inspiration. If that stay-puff Nowitzki can do it, we should be able to.

It all comes back to Amare, particularly on defense. Amare. Amare. Amare. As long as Duncan outclasses him the way he did last night, we're cooked.

M