duncan228
08-31-2007, 01:18 PM
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/MYSA083107.01D.NZ.Metro.1Dbuck_0831.en.3a242a1.htm l
Buck Harvey: Short in size and in luck - Hammon as another Nash
Buck Harvey
Express-News Staff Writer
"We'd like to repay the favor," the Phoenix coach had joked before the game.
And then that very thing happened.
A bloody nose wasn't required, nor was an equally messy decision by David Stern. But San Antonio and Phoenix still picked up where May left off.
They played another playoff basketball game, in another second round, and this time overtime seemed unavoidable after drama rare for the WNBA in South Texas. Then a ref stepped in as if there just hadn't been enough controversy lately.
With that, the Phoenix Mercury repaid the favor, just as the coach, Paul Westhead, had hoped. The Mercury had turned everything around, leaving the Silver Stars feeling as the Suns had before, and it came with specific role reversals.
Playing the part of Steve Nash, for example, was San Antonio's Becky Hammon.
It's as if the Spurs and Suns won't go away, and that was true this week in Las Vegas. Then, during Olympic qualifying, Puerto Rico committed a hard foul against a U.S. player, leading to a technical foul, and Amare Stoudemire immediately jumped out of his seat.
An assistant coach and a trainer rushed down the bench to warn players not to go on the court, because FIBA has similar rules to the NBA. As the story goes, Stoudemire assured everyone he had learned his lesson. "I ain't going nowhere," he said.
So that series lives on, and Westhead isn't the only member of the Mercury who carried this theme to San Antonio. "No NBA officials and no Robert Horry," Diana Taurasi joked before the game. "So we should be all right."
Taurasi and the Mercury were. They ran past the Stars, and Taurasi was especially efficient. She scored 20 points on only 11 shots, and the team that swept Seattle in the first round looked in control.
Enter Hammon, a candidate to win her league's MVP award, acting like the NBA's two-time MVP. She's Nash in size and in creativity, and sometimes in form. At times she extends her left arm for a wrong-foot layup — just as Nash does.
Being Nash can be fun, and it was Thursday for Hammon. Toward the end of the third period, on her way to 32 points, she drove through a gaggle of Phoenix players, switching hands before somehow snaking in a layup.
"If there's a player with better presence, I haven't seen it," said the Stars coach, Dan Hughes. "That's Tim Duncan at 5-foot-6. I always feel, with her, you have a chance for something to happen."
Phoenix was the better team in Game 1, but the Stars had a chance — also thanks to Taurasi. First she fouled the Silver Stars shooter, Shanna Crossley, on a 3-point attempt with 15 seconds left.
Then she stumbled out of bounds, committing her only turnover of the game. "I became handicapped from the neck down," Taurasi said.
That left 11 seconds for Hammon to make something happen, which she did. "I just saw a little gap and let it fly," she said, knowing all she ever saw this night against the Phoenix defense was a little gap.
Her NBA 3-pointer tied the game at 100, and, for a moment, the Stars had captured what the Spurs have known for a decade. But just for a moment. What followed was a call against Crossley that would lead SportsCenter had this been the Spurs and Suns.
"I just wanted more basketball," Hughes said afterward of the call. The ref, instead of deciding the game this way, should have applied similar logic.
Afterward Hammon sounded like, well, Nash. She had just lost her only home game in this too-short series, and she had just missed the kind of opportunity the Stars needed to upset favored Phoenix. Yet she measured her words without anger.
"The referees are part of the game," she said, "and they make mistakes. The whole world saw what happened (on the replay). It's a shame, but we have to move on, and I'm sure the refs aren't feeling too hot right now either."
She's never won a league title, just as Nash hasn't. And now she heads to Phoenix, where she has to win two games to advance.
The role of Nash?
It can be heartbreaking.
Buck Harvey: Short in size and in luck - Hammon as another Nash
Buck Harvey
Express-News Staff Writer
"We'd like to repay the favor," the Phoenix coach had joked before the game.
And then that very thing happened.
A bloody nose wasn't required, nor was an equally messy decision by David Stern. But San Antonio and Phoenix still picked up where May left off.
They played another playoff basketball game, in another second round, and this time overtime seemed unavoidable after drama rare for the WNBA in South Texas. Then a ref stepped in as if there just hadn't been enough controversy lately.
With that, the Phoenix Mercury repaid the favor, just as the coach, Paul Westhead, had hoped. The Mercury had turned everything around, leaving the Silver Stars feeling as the Suns had before, and it came with specific role reversals.
Playing the part of Steve Nash, for example, was San Antonio's Becky Hammon.
It's as if the Spurs and Suns won't go away, and that was true this week in Las Vegas. Then, during Olympic qualifying, Puerto Rico committed a hard foul against a U.S. player, leading to a technical foul, and Amare Stoudemire immediately jumped out of his seat.
An assistant coach and a trainer rushed down the bench to warn players not to go on the court, because FIBA has similar rules to the NBA. As the story goes, Stoudemire assured everyone he had learned his lesson. "I ain't going nowhere," he said.
So that series lives on, and Westhead isn't the only member of the Mercury who carried this theme to San Antonio. "No NBA officials and no Robert Horry," Diana Taurasi joked before the game. "So we should be all right."
Taurasi and the Mercury were. They ran past the Stars, and Taurasi was especially efficient. She scored 20 points on only 11 shots, and the team that swept Seattle in the first round looked in control.
Enter Hammon, a candidate to win her league's MVP award, acting like the NBA's two-time MVP. She's Nash in size and in creativity, and sometimes in form. At times she extends her left arm for a wrong-foot layup — just as Nash does.
Being Nash can be fun, and it was Thursday for Hammon. Toward the end of the third period, on her way to 32 points, she drove through a gaggle of Phoenix players, switching hands before somehow snaking in a layup.
"If there's a player with better presence, I haven't seen it," said the Stars coach, Dan Hughes. "That's Tim Duncan at 5-foot-6. I always feel, with her, you have a chance for something to happen."
Phoenix was the better team in Game 1, but the Stars had a chance — also thanks to Taurasi. First she fouled the Silver Stars shooter, Shanna Crossley, on a 3-point attempt with 15 seconds left.
Then she stumbled out of bounds, committing her only turnover of the game. "I became handicapped from the neck down," Taurasi said.
That left 11 seconds for Hammon to make something happen, which she did. "I just saw a little gap and let it fly," she said, knowing all she ever saw this night against the Phoenix defense was a little gap.
Her NBA 3-pointer tied the game at 100, and, for a moment, the Stars had captured what the Spurs have known for a decade. But just for a moment. What followed was a call against Crossley that would lead SportsCenter had this been the Spurs and Suns.
"I just wanted more basketball," Hughes said afterward of the call. The ref, instead of deciding the game this way, should have applied similar logic.
Afterward Hammon sounded like, well, Nash. She had just lost her only home game in this too-short series, and she had just missed the kind of opportunity the Stars needed to upset favored Phoenix. Yet she measured her words without anger.
"The referees are part of the game," she said, "and they make mistakes. The whole world saw what happened (on the replay). It's a shame, but we have to move on, and I'm sure the refs aren't feeling too hot right now either."
She's never won a league title, just as Nash hasn't. And now she heads to Phoenix, where she has to win two games to advance.
The role of Nash?
It can be heartbreaking.