another reason why nash shouldnt be mvp

[Cry Havoc]

And Amare needs to take a lesson or two from Kurt Thomas about defending your man before he gets the ball. KT would push Duncan at least 5 feet further from the basket than Amare before TD even touched the ball. It's just a classic example of young, athletic guys thinking their physical gifts will win out every time. I like Amare but he wasn't really doing on the offensive end, so he needed to pick it up defensively and you can't play team defense when you're letting Duncan catch the ball 2 centimeters from the basket.

I agree with what you said, but if you notice KT wasn't stopping Duncan from getting close to the hoop. A lot of Duncan's shots were close -- he was just very off in the first half. Several attempts just rattled out for him.

I give credit to KT for good D last night, but I'm not sure he'll be as effective come playoff time.

Were I the Suns, I would run Nash at Duncan for the double-team. It's not like Nash can contain his man on D anyway, and with his quick hands he might force a TO. Of course, you leave Spurs players open for that, but if you rotate well enough, you might force Bowen or Finley to drive, which is exactly what Phoenix wants over Duncan taking easy inside shots or Barry/Bowen freeing up on the wing for open 3s.

The problem with Duncan is that you always always always have to double-team him, unless you want him to go off. He's so clutch in the playoffs that he just commands more than one defender, and sometimes that isn't enough. So either you give up 30+ a night to him or you allow open looks for other players. I wouldn't want to be a post player in the West right now unless I played for SA. Duncan is starting to look more and more like the beast of "old" (as some, myself included, said he would).

[td4mvp21]

Three years in a row for Nash would be bull -he still doesn't play defense and Dirk is leading his team to a franchise-best regular season. It's not really a compe ion to me. Dirk is the obvious candidate.

[RonMexico]

CryHavoc, Thomas still was able to put a little more of a body on him and Amare has the athleticism to disrupt more shots if he plays more solid defense in the first 10 seconds of the shot clock.

Additionally, I think they were trying to let Finley and Parker shoot from the outside and finally Findog comes out and hits five 3's... I bet if he'd been doing that all year, we wouldn't have seen those "trade Finely and get Maggette" threads earlier.

There's a point where the wing players (Parker and Finley) start nailing the outside shots and the Suns stop doubling Duncan where he can take Diaw inside at will. Hence, that's why those 3 players had scored 35 straight points by themselves at one point.

[mabber]

CryHavoc, Thomas still was able to put a little more of a body on him and Amare has the athleticism to disrupt more shots if he plays more solid defense in the first 10 seconds of the shot clock.

Additionally, I think they were trying to let Finley and Parker shoot from the outside and finally Findog comes out and hits five 3's... I bet if he'd been doing that all year, we wouldn't have seen those "trade Finely and get Maggette" threads earlier.

There's a point where the wing players (Parker and Finley) start nailing the outside shots and the Suns stop doubling Duncan where he can take Diaw inside at will. Hence, that's why those 3 players had scored 35 straight points by themselves at one point.

I missed the game last night...break down what happened for me please. I've read that the Spurs ran the Suns shooters off the 3 pt line and then played decent interior defense. Was that the main difference?

[RonMexico]

thanks for spreading some of that love fillmoe!


RonMexico, good points about both Nash and Amare. BTW, did you catch JHO's stat line the other night when Dirk sat out for the game? I was hoping you would log on so we could *discuss* this little matter!

Let's not bring up this Josh Howard character, right now. Talk about the worst 24 hours of my life: get terribly drunk last night, see Suns blown out in 3rd quarter then tease me by cutting it to 85-81 and then prove in the last 2 minutes how they can't execute in the halfcourt, then I wake up late with a terrible hangover, find out Billy Gillispie is going to Kentucky, cry all the way to the airport, then get stuck in a middle seat behind some fat guy who leaned his all the way back. And now I have to head to a friend's b-day party at a sushi restaurant I hate.

Done complaining - time to try and get some ass.

[RonMexico]

I missed the game last night...break down what happened for me please. I've read that the Spurs ran the Suns shooters off the 3 pt line and then played decent interior defense. Was that the main difference?

Suns were 2-11 from 3 point... they made some bad decisions because interior defense was pretty good and so the A/T ratio was terrible... however, they had plenty of good 3pt looks and probably would have shot more than 11 if they weren't at 18%.

Got dominated in the 2nd half and then made a nice run in the 4th to cut it to 85-81... then they let the Spurs execute in the halfcourt while the Suns thought it was a good idea to throw the ball away and get layups blocked.

[mabber]

Suns were 2-11 from 3 point... they made some bad decisions because interior defense was pretty good and so the A/T ratio was terrible... however, they had plenty of good 3pt looks and probably would have shot more than 11 if they weren't at 18%.

Got dominated in the 2nd half and then made a nice run in the 4th to cut it to 85-81... then they let the Spurs execute in the halfcourt while the Suns thought it was a good idea to throw the ball away and get layups blocked.

Was the game played w/playoff intensity? I thought the Suns/Mav game in Dallas (that Suns won in 2 OT's) was played like that but not the game in Phoenix (just as my point of reference).

[mardigan]

Was the game played w/playoff intensity? I thought the Suns/Mav game in Dallas (that Suns won in 2 OT's) was played like that but not the game in Phoenix (just as my point of reference).

If by intensity you mean the Spurs dominated almost the whole second half then yes

[lurker]

Tony scores 235 points and Finley scores 19 points and 10 points. Amazing.

[mFFL03]

"San Antonio is a way better defensive team than Dallas is," Phoenix's Shawn Marion said.

"I think Dallas is the overall best team in the league right now. We might as well just end the season now and give them the trophy so that we can get down to Playa del Carmen already," Phoenix's Steve Nash said.

[RonMexico]

Was the game played w/playoff intensity? I thought the Suns/Mav game in Dallas (that Suns won in 2 OT's) was played like that but not the game in Phoenix (just as my point of reference).

Spurs played with the intensity they needed (especially defensively) in the 3rd quarter. Suns decided to show some semblance of intensity for about 85 seconds in the 4th quarter and then went back into "fold mode" once the 2 minute mark hit. This was their achilles' heel in the 2005 WCF: unable to execute in the half court down the stretch, while the Spurs execute perfectly and it played out the exact same way on Thursday.