#1. Whether real or imagined, the Suns have a reputation of being soft. Nothing says "soft" like quitting because things didn't go the way you had hoped.
But it's not quitting. The whole point is to try to win the series. It's like a tennis player who gets behind two service breaks and eventually says, "Screw it, this set is lost, time to focus on the next one." It happens all the time.
#2. The Suns have some 15,000 fans with very expensive playoff tickets tomorrow. These people have made arrangements plans to be there and are entitled to watch and root for their team.
We'll just have to see what a privilege it is to watch the game. I doubt anyone is going to enjoy it.
#3. If the Suns are exhausted come Game 6 (which is fairly difficult since two of their top 7 get an extra day off), then the blame goes on D'Antoni for mismanaging the game.
So what you're proposing is a pseudo-forfeit by limiting the minutes of the core players. Why bother going halfway, if the result is the same?
#4. You still have Steve Nash. The real MVP. He can beat the Spurs by himself. If you listen to the Spurs fans they feel he did it last night.
I'm not really all that interested in the analysis of Spurs fans. I seem to recall that it was Stoudemire making those tough finishes down the stretch. Who's going to do that now?
#5. The pressure on San Antonio is enormous. They absolutely must win this game.
Considering that they've won three of the last eight titles, I don't think they have much of a problem with playoff pressure.
I am not going to insult your opinion or anything Eric, I just disagree with your stand on this.
I appreciate that.
Tell you what: If the Suns lose by less than 15, I'll admit I was wrong. (If they're down by 25 with four minutes to go and randomly cut the gap to 13 in the final seconds of garbage time, that doesn't count.) But I'd set the line for this game at about -18 for the Spurs, and even then I'd bet the favorite.