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San Antonio Spurs 91, Phoenix Suns 90
Phoenix opened the game with an 11-0 run, led most of the way, perfectly executed an out of bounds play late in the game to score the go ahead layup--and still found a way to lose to their nemesis, the San Antonio Spurs. This time the dagger came in the form of a Roger Mason three pointer at the buzzer, delivering a 91-90 win for the Spurs. Tony Parker scored a game-high 27 points and tied Steve Nash for game-high honors with eight assists. Tim Duncan added 25 points and a game-high 17 rebounds. Amare Stoudemire led Phoenix with 25 points and 13 rebounds, while Shaquille O'Neal powered his way to 23 points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots. O'Neal looked better than he has in quite some time; he opened the game with a spin move leading to a powerful dunk and a no look feed to Stoudemire for a slam dunk. Before he came to Phoenix, the Suns were routinely outrebounded and had trouble matching up with the Spurs in the paint; with O'Neal, the Suns beat the Spurs three straight times in the regular season prior to this contest and outrebounded San Antonio 50-43 this time around while outscoring the Spurs 34-20 in the paint.
For much of this game, the Suns showed that there does not have to be a conflict between being a running team and feeding the ball to O'Neal in the post. The reality is that Phoenix' problem has nothing to do with offense; the problem is being able to get key defensive stops. Amare Stoudemire can be a fantastic weak side shot blocker but his defense against his own man often leaves much to be desired. O'Neal did yeoman's work against Duncan--holding him to 5-13 field goal shooting in the first half--but he has never been a great screen/roll defender and it it not clear whether he is in condition to play at this level game after game. The Suns have enough talent to be a very dangerous team in the West but they don't seem to be able to execute well enough to consistently beat the upper echelon teams.
One interesting subplot emerged again near the end of the third quarter. The Suns led 71-66 with less than one minute remaining when Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich decided to resort to the Hack a Shaq (intentional fouling strategy); I have discussed this issue at length here, most recently in my post about the Suns' opening night victory over the short handed Spurs. The bottom line is that in the NBA a possession is worth roughly one point, so as long as O'Neal makes half of his free throws the fouling team cannot realistically expect to gain much of an advantage. Cavs assistant coach Hank Egan--who used to be Popovich's assistant coach in San Antonio--told me that Popovich knows this math but that he employs this tactic for psychological reasons. In this game, neither team gained an advantage from the Hack a Shaq: O'Neal made five out of six free throws but the Spurs were fortunate enough to score on two of three possessions so that Phoenix was still only up by five (76-71) going into the fourth quarter--but if the Spurs had not snared an offensive rebound and converted that extra possession into a Manu Ginobili three pointer they would have actually fallen further behind as a result of the intentional fouling.
Another interesting set of strategic moves took place after Duncan got his fifth foul at the 3:44 mark of the fourth quarter with the Spurs clinging to an 86-84 lead. Popovich elected to keep Duncan in the game, switching him from guarding O'Neal to guarding Stoudemire. The Suns could have then posted up O'Neal against Kurt Thomas but instead they elected to keep going to Stoudemire to try to draw Duncan's sixth foul. Stoudemire missed three consecutive shots but the Suns only trailed by one when Jason Richardson hit a three pointer to answer Parker's jumper. Nash tied the score at 88 at the 1:01 mark by making a free throw after Parker received a technical foul for arguing about a call. Neither team scored for the next :57 until Phoenix took the lead with a great inbounds play: Grant Hill passed to Amare Stoudemire and it looked like Stoudemire would go one on one but then Hill cut baseline and Nash set a back pick on Michael Finley, enabling Stoudemire to feed Hill for an uncontested layup. All the Suns had to do now was guard the three point line, not foul and make the Spurs shoot a contested jumper to try to tie the score. Instead, Richardson left Roger Mason open in the left corner in order to double team Parker and Parker passed to Mason, who calmly hit the game-winning shot. It is hard to understand how the Spurs could give up a crucial layup on a late inbounds play but it is befuddling that the Suns lost to a buzzer beating three pointer when they had a two point lead.
The player who for some reason always gets a free pass for the Suns is Steve Nash, their two-time MVP point guard. He controls the ball, so it is up to him to understand when to run and when to slow the game down but this season he seems more determined to complain about Coach Terry Porter's system than to find ways to make it work. Also, Nash has consistently been a defensive liability and that leads to various matchup problems/switches that invariably burn the Suns in close games against good teams. For instance, on the last play, the Suns put small forward Grant Hill on Parker instead of the natural matchup with Nash guarding Parker; how many teams have won championships when their best player cannot guard the opposing team player who plays his position? The Suns are blessed with a lot of talent now and they have had talented teams throughout the Nash era but no matter how well they play they somehow manage to come up just short. Nash is the only MVP in NBA history who has never played in the NBA Finals--and he is not only an MVP, he is in the select group of multiple MVP winners. For a time, Nash was the best point guard in the NBA but he was never the best player in the league and I still say that objective observers looking back on this era are going to be dumbfounded that Nash won two MVPs over a field of candidates that included (in various years) Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.
Good read.
Everyone knows Hack-a-shaq is used to disrupt the Suns' offensive flow, it's just that its not that appealing to the fans. Is it a good strategy? No for the fans, yes for the Spurs. It is a great weapon to use against them so they wont gain any momentum and to rattle shaq's ego. The goal is to exploit the weakness.
Nash being the best PG is debatable because I always thought when Nash was the MVP that Kidd was still the best PG, Nash is also a product of the Suns' D'Antoni system, he just thrive in the role of distibution, Kidd thrives in any system when it comes to distrubution he just can't have a coach telling him what to do everytime down court like Avery did. Kidd was still a better defender than Nash and he was clutch from trey when they needed him to be even wheen he wasn't a great shooter, now remember this is back when Nash was the MVP and I could probably make an argument for Kidd now. Kidd never has to score to be effective, never!! That's a great player period, but Paul is the reigning best traditional pg in the league with Deron a close second.
Nice article. I cannot be as critical of Nash in his MVP years. I think he was right there with the top 2 players at that time, but Steve is not a defender and never will be. He is a true playmaker who thrives in up-tempo, motion offenses. He is also an amazing scorer. I'm sure he misses the slashing of Marion, Diaw and the spotting-up ability of Bell. Grant Hill, Amare and Barbosa are his only slashers and Hill is not the quick slasher of days gone by. J-Rich is more of a scorer with hops and not much of a slash-to-the basket type player now. PHX looked like they were using J-Rich in the manner the Spurs use Mike Finley. J-Rich was lost defensively, which makes sense...he has only been with the Suns 4 games.
Amuseddaysleeper, you made a good point about the Suns going to Amare in crunch time due to the foul situation. It's not a bad strategy...it just didn't work. Amare is a better FT shooter than Shaq, also. You didn't mention the offensive adjustment the Spurs made, so I will. The Spurs were smart by going to cross-screens in the post to get Shaq off of Timmy. That worked well and made a difference in the outcome.
The Spurs.For instance, on the last play, the Suns put small forward Grant Hill on Parker instead of the natural matchup with Nash guarding Parker; how many teams have won championships when their best player cannot guard the opposing team player who plays his position?
Bowen has guarded the best player in multiple positions in the last three le runs. He has guarded the best small forwards, shooting guards and point guards (and sometimes PFs). But that doesn't mean Manu and Tony suck. It's about utilizing your assets.
Most of Nash's assists don't come off the fast break. If you really watch him, his assists are most often as a result of his continued dribbling until he can make a pass off the pick and roll or a pinpoint pass to a breaking teammate.
Its always been amazing to me how he simply won't pick up his dribble and slowly strolls around and under the basket and back, avoiding defenders, until he can find a seam in the defense.
I completely agree with what you said Solid D, however I wasn't the one who wrote this article
There should be a rule against it but in the meantime more teams should use it on teams other than the Suns and on players other than Shaq.
Rhythm offenses like that of Phoenix do get killed by this. If LA is up by a decent amount towards the end of the 3rd with Kobe resting and the other team is in the penalty, hack-a-odom would work because Odom's ego is very fragile and he isn't a good FT shooter in the 2nd half of big games.
Same thing with Cleveland if LeBron is sitting and Wallace is playing with a little bit to go in the quarter.
Yeah aside from not realizing that the Spurs too will sub for defensive matchups at the ends of games the article was a good read.
And he brings up a good point. The offense is not the Suns prob it's the defense. Same thing that it has always been . IMO
I like Steve Nash, but it's shocking how people can overlook his lack of defense. He was the best offensive PG at one time, but his lack of defense knocked him down to 3rd or 4th best pg in the league.
I think you misinterpreted the writer's statement. I believe the writer meant to say how many teams have won a le when their best player (in the Suns case: Nash; in the Spurs case: Duncan) could not guard their OWN man.
So, in order for the Spurs to qualify for this statement, their best player, Duncan, would have had trouble guarding his own man defensively, and Pop would then consistently cover for him by switching another big on the player Duncan couldn't guard.
While the Spurs actually do this sometimes, it's not because Duncan can't guard his own man - it's to keep him out of foul trouble.
The problem with this statement is that Amare is our best player, not Steve Nash.
This year, you're probably right. But in his MVP years, Nash was better (Amare wasn't even playing in 2006). I believe that's what the writer is referring to.
Totally agree with this article's criticism of Nash. I've been saying for year that THE MVP OF THE NBA CAN NOT BE A DEFENSIVE LIABILITY. How can you just dismiss the fact that his defense sucks? It isn't even average. DEFENSE IS HALF THE GAME. Nash's defensive suckness has been a big part of them never getting to the Finals.
If the MVP only has to be good on one side of the court, why shouldn't Bruce Bowen be the MVP. People think that's ridiculous, but it is only logical. After all, Bowen's defense has been a huge part os the Spurs championships, while Nash's offense hasn't ever got them to the Finals.
As far as him being the best PG in the NBA, that is a joke. He gets BURNED by the best PG's every time they play. I would much rather have had Billups as a PG in 2003-2005 than Nash. It isn't even close in my mind.
Don't get me wrong, Nash is a brilliant player on the offensive end. But his defense weakness is far too great of a hole in his game to call him "MVP."
Shaq looks like the best player over there to me, when he plays anyway.
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