Spurs at Suns Game Two Previews: Confident Spurs: Mistakes can be fixed for Game 2

[phyzik]

Did Timmy REALLY say that? Huh. Seems out of character for him. Like the confidence, though...I guess.

Gotta admit, the Jason Terry-hating Spur fan in me feels a little hypocritical right now.

Yeah, thats as close to a guarantee as I have ever heard from ANY Spurs player.... Tim must be really pissed off about game 1.

[duncan228]

Game 2 Preview: Spurs Must Slow It Down
SportingNews

Three things to watch as the Suns look to take a 2-0 series lead over the Spurs:

1. Spurs’ transition defense. The Suns put up 111 points in Game 1, and that’s just not the kind of pace that the Spurs can handle in this series. San Antonio, generally, plays solid transition defense, but they failed to do so in the opener. After allowing 14.8 fast-break points per game in the first round against Dallas, the Spurs yielded 27 to the Suns in Game 1—it didn’t help that Suns point guard Steve Nash was having a 13-for-19 shooting night, finishing with 33 points and 10 assists. George Hill will have to do a better job, individually, on Nash. As Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said, “He ran it down our throat.”

2. Wing men. There were some signs in the first round that Spurs small forward Richard Jefferson might come around. He averaged just 9.2 points, but shot 54.1 percent from the field and actually had a 19-point effort in Game 2. But against the Suns in Game 1, Jefferson was once again invisible, scoring five points on 1-for-3 shooting. Worse, he was utterly torched by Jason Richardson, who scored 27 points on 10-for-16 shooting. Richardson has been unstoppable in the postseason, averaging 24.0 points on 54.1 percent shooting.

3. Suns’ brains. Phoenix players have heard quite enough about how they can’t beat the Spurs, thank you very much. They got off to a blitzing start in Game 1, withstood the Spurs’ runs and came out with a pretty convincing victory. But they’ve got to know the momentum of that win can be erased pretty quickly by a Game 2 letdown. San Antonio got the usual big games from stars Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan, but the Suns can’t count on the rest of the Spurs scoring just 29 points on 37.0 percent shooting. They need to continue to show some mental toughness. “They’re just a really, really good team and as I said to our guys, they’re not going to give up, they’re not going to lay down,” Suns coach Alvin Gentry said.

[EVAY]

Yeah, thats as close to a guarantee as I have ever heard from ANY Spurs player.... Tim must be really pissed off about game 1.

I hope that he is pissed off at his own inconsistency and inability to deliver at the foul line. We all love, adore him, give him a zillion excuses and guarantee that he 'will always come back stronger', but I have to say that I'm getting ticked off at the team's predictably poor mental set for game one of virtually every series.

The guys are, according to Pop, 'grown', so they don't have to be told how important something is. I think Pop may be assuming facts not in evidence.

[duncan228]

Phoenix Suns center Robin Lopez doubtful for Game 2 vs. San Antonio Spurs
by Paul Coro
The Arizona Republic

Suns coach Alvin Gentry said it would be a long shot for center Robin Lopez to play in Game 2 tonight against San Antonio.

Gentry said that he would assess Lopez's availability again at Thursday's practice before going to San Antonio.

"He's getting better and making progress," Suns General Manager Steve Kerr said. "We just take it day by day. We won't rule anything out but it (playing Wednesday night) is doubtful."

When Lopez returned from a foot fracture in November, the Suns waited until a road trip for his return. Lopez's main issues are conditioning and right leg strength due to a nerve that was pinched by the bulging disk that sidelined him in late March.

[duncan228]

Preview: Phoenix Suns vs San Antonio Spurs, Game 2 (Throat Stepping Time)
by Seth Pollack
Bright Side of the Sun

Did you hear the news? It's Cinco de Mayo and the Suns will be wearing their "Los Suns" unis. There's some politics mixed in with that, as well, which Steve Nash after shootaround wanted no part of.

Asked about the reaction, he would only say, "I haven't really heard about any reaction, so I don't know. I haven't been to any rallies."

Asked a follow-up question, he would only say, "I just want to talk about the game tonight."

So that's all I'm going to say about that. We'll let Keith Olbermann and Sean Hannity duke it out from here.

Game 1 Chess Match

Thinking more on this, it seems pretty clear that the Suns won the chess match in Game 1. Everyone and their brother expected Amare to get going early and continue his domination against the Spurs. The Spurs included. So they they committed to keeping McDyess glued to his side and the Suns hit them where they weren't looking, with a quick Canadian jab to the bread basket.

The Suns insist that Nash was only "taking what the defense gave," but you have to wonder how much of that was a planned reaction to an anticipated Popovich move. I choose to think it was. Both sides felt that early boost set the tone for the game and was a deciding factor.

Gentry 1, Popovich 0

***

Game 2 Adjustments

Parker starting

The common question is if the Spurs will start Tony Parker or not. I don't think this matters in the least. Not only will Tony get his 35 minutes regardless, the Suns are obviously not going to try the same Nash quick punch again.

Starting Tony to help slow down Nash at the start of the game will only play into the Suns' hands by giving the Suns a smaller help defender to worry about. It also would be a huge boost for Dragic and Barbosa, who would be coming in against Parker after he'd already played more minutes.

Mostly though, Popovich loves George Hill and I don't see him benching the kid just because he had one bad game. The Spurs need Hill to play well to win this series and benching him this early isn't going to help.

My guess is that George starts, but if not, it won't make a difference.

Small vs Big

This, to me, is going to be the biggest decision (no pun intended) that Pop will have to make in this series. His small line-up was used at the end of the 1st half and again to close the game. It was effective in the fourth quarter and sparked a 13-0 run, but I don't think the Spurs can count on that for the entire series.

Steve Nash seems to think Pop will use it, while Amare yesterday said he doesn't think that the Spurs small-ball will get as much play. We will certainly find out.

If/when the Spurs do use it, there are two match-ups the Suns need to exploit. Duncan guarding Amare is the first and most important. 4 times in Game 1, Amare iso'd Timmy from the high elbow and he scored on three of those plays. Amare knows that Tim can't guard him from there. As does Tim and everyone else, which is why you won't see Duncan on Amare until later in the game.

On the other side, that leaves Amare having to guard Tim in the post which isn't great either, but the Suns did a much better job with their team defense against Duncan's post play, holding him to 1 of 7 -- and that was against a rested Tim.

The other match-up is Channing Frye. If Gentry leaves Frye on the court against Jefferson, the Suns have to take advantage of this by having Amare pull Duncan out of the paint. Frye isn't a great post player but he can score on Richard.

Other Adjustments

Both teams will throw some different looks at the others' pick and rolls, but there's really only so many ways you can cover that and these guys will adjust on the fly.

In the end, it comes down to the Suns pushing the tempo, which is always easier when they are winning on the glass.

Not a Must Win, but a Deadly Blow

I read or heard a stat that 2nd round playoff teams that go up 2-0 win 113% of time (or thereabouts). A loss tonight for the Suns won't be a big blow and will only mean this series is going to go long as everyone expects.

If, however, the Suns can clean up the fouls -- which Gentry talked about today -- and get a little more bench production, this game could easily go to the Suns. In fact, a big win wouldn't surprise me. I just don't think the Spurs defense can slow down this Suns team and, while they can score some points, they will be playing from behind just as the Suns did in past years. We know how that went.

Other Notes:

Nash said he's feeling great going into tonight's game. Gentry said Robin won't play today but is hopeful for the near future.

The Spurs didn't hold shoot around. I guess they just hung out in their cushy robes and enjoyed a nice brunch at the Ritz.

[duncan228]

Game 2 preview: Spurs at Suns
by Michael Schwartz
Valley of the Suns

Game 1 was the type of satisfying victory Suns fans have yearned for since the start of the Nash Era, taking their first series lead on the Spurs since Stephon Marbury’s shot banked in in 2003.

Just don’t expect the Suns to savor it for long because, you know, they have a kind of important game coming up tonight.

“I’m going to be happy for about an hour, oh, 15 minutes, and then [Tuesday] get ready to get back to business,” Channing Frye said after Game 1.

There’s no question that winning game one could set the tone for a series that the Suns hope to be different than all the rest against San Antonio this past half decade.

But that will only be the case if the Suns follow that up with an equally monumental win in Game 2 tonight against the Spurs.

If the Spurs win, then they got what they came for, the split that they needed to regain home-court advantage.

If the Suns win they will have a stranglehold on the series and we can forget about whether any curse has any bearing on this series. (Well, that is unless the Suns choke up that lead). But if history is our guide, Suns fans would be comforted to know that home teams that win the first two games in the conference semis boast a sterling 84-3 record in those series (.966 winning percentage).

“We’ve still got to hold home court in the next game,” Steve Nash said. “We haven’t really done anything yet. We did our job in Game 1, but we’ve got to have a better performance in Game 2. They’re going to come out extremely desperate in Game 2, and we’ve got to match it.”

In the Portland series, the more desperate team often won that basketball game. In that series’ Game 2, the Suns gave an inspired effort while the Blazers were content to take Game 1. The Suns should not be content with anything. They put themselves in a good spot, sure, but much of the luster will be taken off that Game 1 win if it’s not complemented by a victory in Game 2.

Just as Gentry made the genius move to switch Grant Hill onto Andre Miller between Games 1 and 2 of the Spurs series, you know both coaches will be cooking up adjustments before this battle.

Many people expect the Spurs to start Tony Parker at point guard instead of George Hill. To me it’s not such a big deal whether Parker starts or not because he still logged a hair under 36 minutes in Game 1, more than any Spur not named Tim or Manu. He will play a lot, and he will play a lot with Hill regardless.

We all know that Nash can’t guard Parker — who can? — nor can he check anybody else in San Antonio’s starting lineup if Parker starts. At the same time, as we saw in his 33-point, 10-assist Game 1 effort, not even the great George Hill can stop Nash either.

After Game 1 Grant Hill was talking about how the Suns played well, but there are some things they can improve upon. For one, their 16 turnovers were a tad high, and they can’t rely on the Spurs hitting just 4-of-19 three (21.1 percent) every game. The Suns will also need to get more offensive production from their role players after nobody outside of Nash-Amare-Richardson scored more than seven points.

On a night that will be charged by the Suns’ political statement of wearing “Los Suns” on their jerseys, the Suns have a chance to make the Spurs play catchup after the first two games in a series for the first time in the Nash Era.

This team knows that the Game 1 win doesn’t matter if they don’t also win Game 2, so their level of desperation should match that of the Spurs.

“You can’t get too excited,” Amare Stoudemire said. “They’re a team with a great pedigree that knows how to come back in a series. I think we played well on both ends, did a phenomenal job on the boards, but we’ve got to stay hungry and get ready for Game 2.”

[mingus]

i have to give props to amare this year. he's really improved his basektball IQ and he doesn't sound like the d-bag that he sounded like in years prior.