The Suns tired out quickly in Game 3 and never recovered. (NBAE Photos)

I never saw this one coming. Oh, even through my rose colored glasses I could see the Spurs quite possibly winning. But I never thought I’d see them run the Suns right out of their own building in such embarrassing fashion.

How embarrassing was it? Well, given the circumstances, I am hard pressed to recall a more embarrassing performance EVER by a Phoenix team in the postseason. The Suns were outplayed, out-coached, out-hustled, out-maneuvered, and out-poised. And even hard boos weren’t enough to ease the pain for the stunned citizens of Planet Orange.

The Suns eventually did manage to shift their offense into high, or at least second gear, but they never got their defense out of neutral.

Mind you, I don’t want to take anything away from the Spurs. They were simply superb in every phase of the game. And if you were a basketball purist who didn’t care who won you had to love watching them exploit every Phoenix weakness with almost surgical precision.

Tony Parker was especially magnificent, and not just because of his playoff career-high 41 points and 12 assists. An even bigger problem than those numbers for the Suns was their complete inability to stop him from going anywhere he wanted to with the ball at any time.

Even notoriously hard to please San Antonio coach Greg Popovich said his team couldn’t play any better (and Coach Mike PMtered a fervent, “I certainly hope not.”) And truth to tell, the Spurs never looked this good on their way to the title last year.

The series isn’t officially over yet, of course, but the cold hard truth is that the Suns have been reduced to playing for pride in Game Four here on Sunday. If they can string together a series of miracles, so be it, but just proving Game Three was more of an aberration than a reflection of who they really are is the only realistic goal for the nonce.

This game raised some serious questions about the team’s future. And, sadly, one of those questions has to be just how much gas Steve Nash has left in the tank. Had he not built such a large reservoir of good will for his superb play over the last few years he would probably be catching some serious heat.

The most comforting answer is, hey, it’s only one game for gosh sakes, and Nash and the Suns WILL bounce back, if not necessarily in this series then most definitely next year. But I’m not sure I buy all of that.

Oh, I don’t think Steve is washed up by any means. But there is a platoon of young point guards posed to take their teams to the Promised Land in the next few years, which makes it hard to shake the thought the window of opportunity you heard closing last night may have been nailed shut for the foreseeable future.

The bottom line: Same as the top one: AAAAaaaagh!!!!

Friday, April 25, 2008
9:58 pm
Stefan Swiat

If the Suns are going to make a comeback, they are going to have to do so with contributions from their main three role players: Barbosa, Bell and Diaw.

When two out of the three of those guys score 15 points or more, the Suns are 17-2. LB has hit for 20 points already, whereas Diaw only has six and Bell has two. One of those guys are going to have to get hot and make the defense pay for when they collapse on STAT, Shaq and Nash.

Nash, who was quiet the first half, became more aggressive in the third before going out of the game for his usual fourth-quarter rest. Look for him to attack voraciously when he re-enters the contest.

It’s do or die time Suns fans… [Read more...]

After the first two games of the Suns/Spurs series, this playoff beard needs to be a rally beard.

Here’s how I have spent my playoffs thus far: For Saturday’s Game 1, I was in an Urgent Care facility in central Phoenix, having arrived in town Thursday with a 102-degree fever and severe chills. It was right around the time the physician’s assistant diagnosed me with acute bronchitis that I checked my Blackberry and saw the final score of the game (Inexplicably, the television in the lobby was tuned to the Disney Channel).

For Game 2, I was again home in Los Angeles, stretched out on my couch, having consumed a giant bowl of matzoball soup for lunch, feeling a smidge better, certain that a Suns victory in Game 2 would push me ‘round the corner toward full recovery. Two and a half hours later, the Suns were in an 0-2 hole, and I was doubting the curative powers of “Jewish penicillin.”

Now, the situation – neither the Suns nor my own – isn’t fatal. Teams are supposed to win at home, and that’s all the Spurs have done. They’ve taken care of business on their own floor, and now the Suns are on their way back to the Valley to see if they can’t do the same. The Spurs deserve a good deal of credit – the Suns had them in deep holes in both games, and the defending champs showed the grit and resolve that’s won them so many trophies over the years. In short, they played like champions when they most needed to.

But oh, the chances the Suns squandered! The leads that got away…The easy baskets given up in the paint…The uncharacteristic mental lapses…The turnovers at the most inopportune times…The missed free throws down the stretch…It’s enough to make you want to throw a matzoball through your flat screen.

The Suns had all of their big men in foul trouble in Game 1, and still they were right there. Tim Duncan riddled them for forty points and fifteen rebounds, and still, the Suns were right there. In front of a hostile crowd and facing years of playoff heartbreak, the Suns were right there. And they couldn’t close the deal.

In Game 2, the Suns had the specter of Game 1 looming over their shoulder, and they came out roaring. They played the first half with heart, focus and intensity. They commanded the tempo, the big men played aggressively, cautiously, but above all, effectively. Once again, the Suns were right there. And again, they couldn’t close the deal.

If only NBA games had no halftime. The Spurs stormed back in the third quarter. The Suns couldn’t see, let alone find, the bottom of the net. The lead dwindled, then vanished. Suns fans around the world watched in agony as San Antonio sprinted out to the front. Suns fans around the world tore their hair out when the Spurs went to the Haq-a-Shaq in an effort to extend their lead – a perfectly legal strategy that Shaq defused by calmly hitting his charity shots under extreme duress (and may I say here that Shaq has been everything a Suns fan could have ever hoped). Suns fans moved to the edges of their seats when the Suns made a final run. They were right there.

And once again, the game slipped away.

What’s a poor, ailing, beard-growing Suns fan to do in the face of such repeated frustration?

There’s only one answer, the same answer Suns fans have told themselves since this franchise began forty years ago: Back the team even harder. Back them as they tug on the knee pads and go play Games 3 and 4. Take care of the home court. Send this back to San Antonio with the series reduced to a best-of-three, with two of those games in Texas. Where the Suns have been before. Where they know they can win.

The fat lady has not sung yet. But the Suns have to stop trying to hand her the microphone.

I’ve got a mound of work waiting for me when I reconnect to the Internet on the ground, but for the moment I’m looking out the window wrestling with a strange feeling.

For the first time in my life, I’m glad to be leaving Texas.

My conversion to a Phoenix Suns fan is nearly complete. I know ahead of us is a long day of listening to people worry about the Suns’ chances but looking around this cabin, I find comfort in the team I’ve followed all season.

There are no hanging heads or pointing fingers. The same group that was playing cards on the way to San Antonio is enjoyng the same game on the red eye back home. DVD players are still lit up with the latest movie releases and every few minutes a laugh will cut through the flight noise. Panic? No thanks.

The Spurs did what the Spurs have done for years – find a way to win. In Game 1 they used a comeback fueled by big shots. In Game 2, it was hack-a-Shaq and oppessive defense. It’s nothing new.

But now we’re headed to the place where the Suns have their own bag of tricks. It’s time for the Suns to do what they did __ in the regular season. Defend their home.

I can already hear some of you saying, “But the Spurs are too hard to beat.”

Tell that to the 2004 Los Angeles Lakers. The group of veteren stars (sound familiar?) fell down 0-2 to the defending NBA champion Spurs (sound very familiar?) and headed back to the Staples center where they decided the Spurs would get no closer to the trophy.

Tell that to the 2005 Detroit Pistons. They also stumbled out of the gate in San Antonio and flew to Detroit with their backs against an 0-2 wall. They answered the challenge and evened things up with two convincing wins.

Oh yeah, and tell that to the 2008 Phoenix Suns.

Saturday, April 22, 2008
10:52 pm
Jeramie McPeek

The locker room is never a fun place to be after demoralizing losses like tonight’s. The last thing the players feel like doing after getting soundly beaten is answer questions asking why?

Why did you collapse in the third quarter after such a strong first half?

Why did Parker and Ginobili go off?

Why were you struggling with your shot, Leandro?

Why did you not play down the stretch, Grant? [Read more...]

The AT&T Center has caused a lot of pain for the visiting teams.

I’ve explored every level and I assure you that there is no death star being constructed in a secret room. It’s just a building… or is it?

The Suns’ playoff opener goes down as one of the most thrilling games in recent memory, but it was just par for the course for an arena that has haunted opponents since 2003. Shaquille O’Neal has been around long enough to know the history. When asked about his foul trouble in Game 1 Shaq said, “I’m used to things like that happening in this building. We’ve just got to find a way to continue playing.”

Other Suns remember all too well “The Incident” in Game 4 last year when a fourth-quarter flagrant foul sent Steve Nash to the floor and the Spurs to the Western Conference Finals. The Nuggets also know what it’s like to draw the wrath of the the building. Twice they opened the playoffs with a win on the Spurs’ home court and both times that was their only win of the playoffs.

The AT&T Center has seen the Spurs crowned champions twice (’03 and ’05) and it will pull out every trick in the book to see it again. Tim Duncan hits a clutch three-pointer in the closing seconds? Only in that arena.

But not so fast. Before we run and hide from the mysterious power of that building, let’s remember that it has turned on the Spurs in the past. In the 2004 playoffs, the Spurs hosted Game 5 in their semi-final series against the Lakers. With the series tied 2-2, the pivotal game went down to the wire and the Spurs, thanks to an incredible shot by Tim Duncan, had the lead with 0 seconds remaining. Actually, there was 0.4 seconds remaining. I was in the building for Derek Fisher’s miraculous shot that crushed the Spurs spirit and for the first time I tasted the bitterness that building has fed to so many opponents over the years.

The Suns have a chance to harness the power of the AT&T Center and give the Spurs a taste of their own medicine once again. They were a Tim Duncan three-pointer away from winning Game 1 and as Shaq famously remarked back in 2004, “One lucky shot deserves another.”

If that’s true, we’re due.

“That’s one of the best games I’ve ever seen in all my years in the NBA” Those were the words of ABC analyst Jeff Van Gundy during the telecast Sunday in LA between the Lakers and Nuggets. He of course was referring to the double over-time thriller in game one between the Suns and Spurs.

Steve Nash has willed his team to victories in the past and will do it again in this series. (NBAE Photos)

It was a bitter, painful loss for the Suns, but I look at it as an encouraging game for Phoenix. It was a heavyweight fight, with the Spurs throwing all their punches, but the opponent, the Suns, are still standing and are ready for round two.

I don’t think the Spurs can play any better, but the Suns can, and Ithink they will! How many times will Duncan hit such a big three point shot, or will the Suns get in as much foul trouble early? I question if the Spurs have enough fire-power, if they can score enough points to win the series.

The series features two of the best big men to ever play the game in Duncan and Shaq. They are bigger that life. Each man wants a coveted 5th ring. Duncan may be the best power-forward to ever play the game,but how many 40 point games does he have in him? Shaq, one of the mostdominating big men of all-time, doesn’t need to have such an outrageous game, as he has a better supporting cast. The Spurs have no answer for Amar’e. He can dominate. He is the best player on the floor. As VanGundy put it, “He just has to think he is the best.” Steve Nash has willed his team to victories in the past and I believe it’s going to happen again! He is too good to be denied a first round series win. Grant Hill will continue to get healthier, Diaw and Barbosa will bring crucial bench points and Raja will get under Ginobili’s skin.

It’s just the Suns time. It’s their time because this series is deeply personal. It’s about settling a score! Bring on round-two!

Saturday, April 19, 2008
5:30 pm
Jeramie McPeek

I always wondered what that would be like.

You may have caught a quick glimpse of me late in regulation. At least I think it was regulation. It’s all a bit of a blur at the moment.

At some point late in the game, I was sitting in my corner, filming the Suns reserves standing and screaming in front of the bench to my right, when suddenly i heard footsteps. Loud footsteps. [Read more...]

Brad wears a Michael Finley jersey in better times – when Finley didn’t play for the Evil Empire.

There I am, maybe 15 years of age hanging out in Sun City in a Michael Finley Suns jersey. Surprisingly, the key statement there isn’t the fact I was in Sun City (boy, those were some crazy times), but rather the now-throwback jersey I was wearing of a guy who currently calls himself a Spur. It got me thinking about just how deep the roots to the Suns-Spurs Western Conference are and just how long I have loathed the NBA’s Evil Empire.

The first time these two ballclubs ever squared off in the postseason was back in the 1991-92 season – a time when grunge dominated the music industry, Terminator 2 dominated the box office and a certain forward by the name of Grant Hill was helping his Duke Blue Devils to two straight NCAA Championships. Phoenix swept San Antonio in three games, led by young up-and-coming superstars Cedric Ceballos, Kevin Johnson and Dan Majerle.

The following year the two teams met again, with the workload being carried this time by new Sun Charles Barkley. In the series clinching victory, the Round Mound of Rebound and 1993 MVP would contribute 28 points and 21 rebounds. The Spurs, meanwhile, were led by their future MVP David Robinson, who in 1996 would have his revenge, dispatching the Suns in four quick opening round games.

Finley was a rookie with the Suns that season, while I was in the early stages of being an NBA fan. The Suns were the most entertaining team in the league that 1995-96 season, boasting a great combination of veterans (Barkley, Johnson) and rising, young stars (Finley, Wesley Person).

The Spurs also had a Person on their squad at that time, a sharpshooter by the name of Chuck, who wasn’t the only crafty veteran on the team’s roster. The Spurs that season were led by Robinson but had a plethora of talent surrounding him like Sean Elliot, Avery Johnson, Vinny Del Negro and Doc Rivers. [Read more...]