Monroe: No Lead Is Safe When Spurs And Suns Play

[duncan228]

No lead is safe when Spurs and Suns play
By Mike Monroe

PHOENIX — Spurs coach Gregg Popovich makes no claim that he can see the future, but he remembers the past.

Before tipoff of the Spurs' Christmas Day game against the Suns at US Airways Arena, he told his players the outcome would be decided in the final one or two plays.

Indeed, it took a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Roger Mason Jr. for the Spurs to overcome a layin by Phoenix's Grant Hill on a perfectly executed out-of-bounds play for the Spurs to claim a 91-90 victory.

Popovich's message to his team served it well after the Suns jumped out to an 11-0 lead. History, Popovich said, had taught him that leads typically don't last when the Spurs and Suns play.

“We say (it's going to be close) because, historically, it's happened so many times,” he said. “Somebody gets a lead, and it never really sticks, and it comes down to the last couple of plays, as it did tonight.”

Point guard Tony Parker said the Spurs' veterans needed no persuasion to buy into Popovich's warning.

“It's always been like that,” Parker said. “We should just play two minutes, and then it's over. Just give us a ball and two minutes.

“It's always a hard-fought game, and it's going to be emotional and very physical. I'm very happy we ended up with the win.

“Both teams could have won it, and it went down to making big shots, and Roger made the biggest shot tonight.”

No appeal: It was a good day and a bad day for Parker on the technical-foul front.

First, he heard from league officials that the technical foul he had been assessed in Monday's victory over Toronto, and the $1,000 fine that went with it, had been rescinded.

Then, he was called for a technical foul with 1:01 remaining, and the score tied, in Thursday's game.

Parker was angry that Steve Nash wasn't called for fouling him as he launched a “teardrop” floater near the basket.

“Steve was riding me,” he said. “I don't shoot air-ball teardrops, so I was kind of ticked off. But that's emotions, and I should know better. Even if it's a foul like that, at the end of the game the referees rarely are going to call the foul, so you have to play physical.

“It's a tough game. I've been here eight years, and I know I should not do something that could cost my team.”

This time, it didn't cost the Spurs, but it will cost Parker $1,000, and he won't appeal.

Dangerous hacks: Spurs center Kurt Thomas was one of the players Popovich asked to commit grab fouls on Suns center Shaquille O'Neal as he applied his Hack-a-Shaq tactic to force O'Neal to the foul line.

Thomas thinks the tactic has merit, but he wishes someone else were asked to commit the intentional fouls.

“He gets those elbows up, so it definitely can be dangerous,” Thomas said. “That's a big man we're talking about. So, no, I do not like that.”

O'Neal made six free throws in a row during one series of Hack-a-Shaq fouls and 9 of 16 for the game.

With a fourth-quarter miss, O'Neal became just the second player in league history with at least 5,000 missed free throws. O'Neal has missed 5,002 free throws. Wilt Chamberlain missed 5,805 during his career.

[Blackjack]

O'Neal made six free throws in a row during one series of Hack-a-Shaq fouls and 9 of 16 for the game.

It really is amazing how much better he seems to shoot free-throws when the hack-a-Shaq is employed. I'm not ambitious enough to crunch the numbers, but it would be interesting to see what they were.(Memo to pop, you might want to try and be a little more subtle.)