Suns-Spurs

For those of you who stayed up last night to watch the Suns-Spurs game, you'll probably agree with the following observations:

1. Amare Stoudemire crapped his pants last night. He scored 20 points in the first half and then virtually disappeared in the second, going completely ice cold from the field. In the first half he was making outside jumpers, fade-aways, and his patent slash and dunk plays to the rim. It was awesome to watch and I think he went 9/11. In the second half, however, he just kept throwing up bricks, going 0/6 in the third quarter and eventually scoring a few more points. What gives?

2. The Suns looked like Denver last night: A lot of scoring, a lot of pizazz, but virtually no defense. The result: Parker and Ginobili had clear paths to the rim the entire night, and made the Suns suffer. My sense is that the Suns coaching staff told their team to lay off the fouls last night. Shaq and Amare stayed out of foul trouble and the paint was virtually uncontested for the Spurs perimeter players. But this strategy backfired because the Spurs play good defense and completely shut down the Suns on offense. For this strategy to work, your team has to match the points you're giving up on defense.

3. Ginobili is a soulless robot. He actually looks like an alien, cold and emotionless, just sitting there on the bench doing math problems in his head. He rarely shows emotion, let alone a smile or even a scowl. His 6th Man of the Year award really drove this point home: he couldn't even smile or say thank you for the award when they handed it to him. At least look like you're happy, you damn fool!
4. Nash had a horrendous game and the Spurs completely shut him down. The best example of this was the way the Spurs shut down Nash's feeder passes from the top of the arc. Every time Nash brought the ball down court, Bowen and Parker smothered him and denied his initial passes or pick and roll opportunities. The result was Nash doing those stupid behind-the-back passes to Amare which he couldn't handle.

5. Shaq is still out of shape and after 22 minutes, he looked gassed and lethargic. The Suns need to do a better job managing his minutes so he doesn't flame out in the 3rd quarter like he did last night.

6. Down 17 with 4 minutes left to play, I still thought the Suns could make it a game...and they did, but ended up losing anyway. Very frustrating to watch.

7. Diaw and Barbossa had terrible games, and for the Suns to get back into this series, they'll need help from these players.

End That Streak

Those people who for one reason or another still didn't see the Celtics as a serious title contender got a jolt last night when the C's climbed out of a 22 point hole to defeat San Antonio on the road. Last night's win was a major statement in my mind. One of the knocks on the Celtics has been that they can only win big. They out-poised and out-clutched the most poised and clutch team in the league last night, and they did it without the help of Ray Allen (remember, we also beat the Spurs earlier this season without KG). I can't say enough about the way the entire team played, but we are going to throw a quick spotlight on Sam Cassell's 17 points (including the three pointer that put the C's in front at the end of the game). Tonight will provide a task just as great, as the C's will attempt to take down the NBA's hottest team. What the Rockets have put together, particularly the portion of the streak that has been without Yao, is impressive. It's one of the best stories in the NBA. But, I still can't take them seriously as title contenders. Hopefully tonight won't hit me with the same jolt Celtics nay-sayers got last night. But, the big question you have to ask yourself is: Do they have an answer for KG? If they do, I haven't seen it.