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I think he called Tony a girl.
10 paragraphs down..
by Paul Coro - Apr. 25, 2008 10:21 PM
The Arizona Republic
The Suns' spirit and championship hopes are looking about as good as the storage cabinet door on Amaré Stoudemire's locker.
The door was missing, with only a strip of wood around the hinges - roughly the same shred of a chance Phoenix has to survive this first-round series after a 115-99 loss gave San Antonio a 3-0 lead and a viselike grip on the Suns.
Phoenix went all season as the only NBA team to not lose three games in a row. When it mattered most, these three Suns losses have left them waiting for last rites. The visitors in black were dressed more appropriately for the ceremony than the orange crush of Suns fans that was booing by the third quarter.
A Valley swept over with enthusiasm when Shaquille O'Neal arrived in February is on the brink of seeing its Suns swept by the Spurs, who have won five consecutive playoff games against Phoenix. No NBA playoff team has rallied from a 3-0 deficit.
A loss on Sunday - or Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday - would mean Phoenix's third playoff exit to San Antonio in the past four years.
The Suns' theory that it should shut off San Antonio's role players and see whether the Spurs' big three could outscore them is exploding in their faces. Tony Parker handed out 12 assists and scored 41 points, a career-best total in regular season or postseason play, and did it primarily with jumpers after riddling Phoenix with drives in the first two games. Manu Ginobili (20 points) and Tim Duncan (23 points) still scored above their season averages, too.
"It's not working, is it?" Suns guard Steve Nash said. "So we should probably adjust."
The Suns keep making the Spurs look like something more than the NBA's third-lowest-scoring offense of the regular season. With the season essentially on the line, Phoenix could not respond like the other playoff teams facing 2-0 holes have. Instead, they either showed little home-court pride or little defensive ability to give up 61 points in the first half and 56.1 percent shooting for the game. It started innocently enough because the Suns were keeping the Spurs on the perimeter, but Parker hit his first four jump shots and the Spurs scored on their first nine possessions for an 18-8 lead.
The pick-and-roll defense continued to be decimated, isolating Nash, O'Neal and Stoudemire repeatedly for scores. D'Antoni was reaching for anything, even the zone defense he hates to implement.
"Tony Parker was a maniac out there offensively," Stoudemire said. "He was scoring the ball from all different angles. We tried to take out the king (Duncan) but when playing a game of chess, there's always that queen that steps up and hits you from the blind side."
It looked like it could not be any easier for Parker to dice up the Suns in the first two games, when he scored 40 of his 58 points in the paint. But the Spurs point guard, against whom Phoenix once used Shawn Marion to defend, had his best game yet with mainly jumpers and floaters.
Everything that was easy for Parker was hard for Nash, who was hounded by Bruce Bowen.
"It was very frustrating for me to feel out of control," Nash said. "I felt like an outsider most of the night."
Between Parker's scoring deluge and the deflating, rhythm-breaking employment of Hack-a-Shaq, the Suns never found an offensive beat to counter the Spurs.
"That's the best I've seen someone play," Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said.
The Suns trailed 61-47 by halftime and it grew only worse in the second half, when the Spurs used the space Phoenix provided on pick-and-roll defense, zones and switches to knock down shots. Parker, Duncan and Ginobili made 33 of 52 shots (63.5 percent).
Aside from one Leandro Barbosa fourth-quarter flurry that helped cut it to 13, there was about as much chance of Phoenix winning Game 3 as there is with the series now.
"It's going to be hard to bounce back from a 0-3 situation that's highly impossible but we're going to give it a shot," Stoudemire said.
I think he called Tony a girl.
hahahaha What an asshole
Naaa, I doubt that, I seriously think it was just a reference to chess and nothing more. I am however suprised he knows 2 pieces on a chess board. I would have thought he would use a checkers reference.
that joke just went right over your head, didn't it?
A better analogy would've been the Knight which comes at you from crazy angles.
Tony was a speedy "hoss" that wove around and through the befuddled Suns all night.
And I think he just said that Duncan was slow and needs others to protect him (Just like theKing
in Chess). I hope TD uses this as motivation
Horry is the rook he'll run straight at you and knock you over
I guess this is as good a thread as any to say good job, Spurs. I hope you finish 'em off and go on to get another 'ship. Spurs seem to be coming together at the right time (once again).
Where is Snaq and his big mouth now?
If the Suns want any chance of winning one game, yeah that's right just one game, they need Shaq to play Duncan straight up and cover the rest of the Spurs players straight up and then try to take away the middle with their help defense. Otherwise, the Suns are going to get swept. Do I think that'll happen? No I think the Spurs win in 4.
I don't think he is smart or clever enough to have meant it like it could be taken.
The image of Amare Stoudamire playing chess - staring at the board with a puzzled look on his face - is priceless. "Now which one of these little guys can slam on the others?"
There's a reason why Amare shines in the wide-open offense the Suns run. He doesn't have to think a whole lot.
I wonder if he's even aware that "queen" is, by definition, female?
tony was player of the game, no doubt, but my favorite sequence was duncan giving amare the facial then rejecting him the next trip down. SCHOOL IS IN SESSION!
Suns are emotionally destroyed, all the Spurs need is to have a good first half in game 4 and they will mentally concede to their season being over.
Naaa, I doubt that, I seriously think it was just a reference to chess and nothing more.I am however suprised he knows 2 pieces on a chess board. I would have thought he would use a checkers reference.
Wow, Amare actually made a good reference.
Although I think its akin to in Tommy Boy when Chris Farley got the butcher's analogy right as well.
Uh, they tried that, but that plan falls apart on about the 3rd pick and roll of the 50 that we run at them. They suck badly at defending it. Suns don't really have any kind of help defensive scheme anyway.
I think Black Jesus meant to say "highly improbable" instead of "impossible". That's rather defeatist.
D'antoni has been helping Amare study for his GED and teaching some chess on the side.
Marc Stein said in his Daily Dime that Amare wasn't trying to insult TP by calling him a "Queen". He just meant he was the second most important piece of the game behind Duncan.
the le of this thread is misleading
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