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Suns Rise When Nash Falls
Marc Stein
ESPN.com
SAN ANTONIO -- You can't exactly call it the sweetest possible revenge. Steve Nash still needs two more wins over the Spurs for that . . . as well as the knowledge that Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw won't be suspended for Game 5.
But this?
Pretty high up there on the sweet meter.
Nash answered that knee to the groin from Bruce Bowen and his coach's calls for some over-the-hump, breakthrough toughness in the manner he would have scripted if he could have: With a steely fourth quarter, namely, that willed these Suns to the biggest victory they've ever recorded and a simple toss of the ball to referee Steve Javie at the final buzzer to cap it.
There's a reason Nash is the only Sun who has consistently refused to voice any public frustration with the Spurs' handsy defense in the first three games of this second-round showdown: That's how his soccer-playing English father raised him. When you're being kicked, John Nash always taught his son, you make the guy kicking you think you're drinking tea.
That was Nash on Monday night. He finally lost his cool after Robert Horry hip-checked him into the scorer's table in the final minute -- "It's hard, I guess, to always take the high road and turn the other cheek," Nash admitted afterward -- but only after he had spent the rest of the evening by dribbling through every barrier and spurring Phoenix to a series-tying 104-98 triumph in San Antonio.
Six immediate reactions to a heating-up series that will now go at least six games:
• First things first, since it's obviously what everyone wants to know about: The suspension question. By the letter of the law, Stoudemire and Boris Diaw have to be hit with one-game suspensions for leaving the bench after Horry cracked Nash. This is a virtually iron-clad NBA rule, except for the time back in 2002 that Doug Christie was attacked in the tunnel by Rick Fox in a Lakers-Kings exhibition game and several Kings players left the bench to assist him. The league ruled that time that no one, in the heat of the moment, knew exactly who Christie was tangling with, resulting in some unexpected pardons. In this case, Stoudemire clearly strayed into the court for a brief moment and even Suns coach Mike D'Antoni couldn't stifle a postgame laugh when Phoenix tried to suggest that Stoudemire was heading to the scorer's table to check in after the foul.
However . . .
Stoudemire and Diaw never made it near the scrum, as Suns assistant coaches scrambled them back to the bench. Nor did Monday's incident ever become an actual brawl, with referees Joe DeRosa and Javie getting between Nash and Horry before it could escalate. There is also a growing perception, most of all, that Bowen was shown a good deal of leniency by the league office after being accused of intentionally kicking a dunking Stoudemire in Game 2 and kneeing Nash in Game 3 . . . and going unpunished in both cases. Doesn't the league have to balance that against the notion of "staying consistent" on leaving-the-bench suspensions?
"That would be terrible if that silly play at the end of a game, when the game is really over, if that causes a detriment to the rest of the series," Nash said afterward. "That would be ridiculous."
He then tacked on a pretty shrewd argument about literal interpretations when he pointed out that cheering subs technically leave the bench when they stray onto the court to celebrate big plays.
• The above bit of sharpness from Nash can't surprise you if you watched the way he finished this Game 4. As good as you can look when you finish with eight turnovers, that was Nash in the final period, highlighted by the tidy dropoff to Raja Bell and subsequent screen that sent Bell in for an uncontested layup and then the behind-the-back specials with each hand to set up Stoudemire for the two biggest hoops in crunch time. You can pardon the turnovers and Nash's two late missed free throws when you factor in how much he created for his team -- especially at the finish -- in a 24-point, 15-assist performance.
• Spurs coach Gregg Popovich opened himself to some rare big-time criticism by keeping Tim Duncan on the bench too long after Duncan picked up his fifth foul with just over six minutes to play. Don't you let a wily veteran like Duncan play more with five fouls? Stoudemire has been ragged in this series for his occasional lack of playoff savvy but did pretty well with five fouls, lasting all the way to the end and finishing with 26 points. With all the trouble San Antonio had getting scoring from anyone else when it mattered, Duncan needed to be out there sooner.
• Even more inexplicable is the Horry hip check. He is known as perhaps the greatest role player of all-time, as Big Shot Rob, as a longtime class act. Perhaps my memory is failing me at a late hour, but I'm struggling to remember a cheap shot from Horry's past . . . apart from that towel he tossed in Danny Ainge's face when Ainge was coaching him years ago. With an elbow aimed at Bell during the ensuing pushing and shoving, Horry could be looking at a multi-game suspension.
• Was this the Suns' breakthrough moment? Not sure yet. We'll only know for sure if the Suns can actually win what now becomes a best-of-three, with Phoenix possessing home-court advantage. Just don't forget that San Antonio was down 3-1 to Dallas in this same round last year and would have won that series if Dirk Nowitzki hadn't snatched Game 7 from them. The Spurs are more than capable of winning another game in the desert.
That said . . .
If there's such a thing as a 2-2 lead, it looks like Phoenix has one after this grittier-than-ever comeback. The Suns got stops in the fourth quarter. They had plenty of chances to fold and hung in instead. As D'Antoni noted, Shawn Marion was a one-man defensive wall in the fourth, with a few timely double-teams thrown at Duncan -- the first we've seen from Phoenix -- to slow the hosts down.
• Oh, yeah: The Suns just saved the whole second round with their rally. We'd be looking at four separate 3-1 series if the Spurs hadn't relinquished control of Game 4. Now we're looking at a good 24 hours of debate about what kind of punishments we should and will see . . . and what should be a pretty tasty Game 5 on Wednesday.
