Spurs vs Suns, January 21, 2005
Phoenix - America West Arena
by: MistiLynn
How do words describe such an emotional evening?
The highs (Gino!) and lows (3rd quarter) and highs (Gino!) and lows (Rasho is hurt) and so much more.
I found a spot next to the Spurs tunnel and waited, chatting with the players as they emerged and exited and all the while waiting to see if Horry would play. I chatted with Malik Rose and asked when he was going to do more with his website. He sounded a bit frustrated and said that the forums are supposed to be working but they aren’t yet, he told me to keep checking back because he wants it all up and running soon.
Duncan walked straight through onto the court without stopping but I managed to asked if he liked the video I gave him. He kept walking but looked at me like ‘what?’ and finally he remembered and gave me the thumbs up and a smile. As he was walking back to the tunnel later he stopped by and thanked me for the video and said that he loved it.
I said hi to Sean Marks, Rasho Nesterovic, Tony Parker, Devin Brown, Tony Massenburg, PJ Carlisimo and RC Buford.
Manu Ginobili took the time to make sure he signed every autograph (there were a lot of people there), I thought that was very cool of him. I told him I was the one that made the video for him and he looked at me surprised, “You’re the one?” Gee, sounds familiar. He thanked me for it and said that he loved it. I told him that I was from LA and would see them play there on the 3rd but had flown out to see this game. I asked if Robert Horry would be playing and he didn’t know. I told him he does an awesome job on his website and we really appreciate it.
Sean Elliott is milling about and Bill Walton is here as well, Walton signed a lot of autographs for people around. Turns out that Horry made the trip to Phoenix but did not play, I hope his knee heals soon.
Warm ups
Bruce Bowen was working on his outside shooting from the left corner, his favorite spot. Parker is working on driving layups. Duncan and Beno Udrih are again doing what I’ve seen them do a couple times. They stand at the top of the key, each with a ball, and shoot at the same time to see who can get it to go in, they did that for a while and it was quite amusing. Next Duncan worked with Parker for a bit, TP was guarding TD and when Tim made his move in, Tony flopped then looked around for the foul call. Sorry Tony, it’s still warm ups, no fouls on the 2-time MVP.
The Game
Both teams started off at a frantic pace, it was a running game from tip-off sparked by Duncan's steal. Nesterovic just couldn’t quite keep up to start and got two shots blocked in the opening minutes. Malik Rose was the energy player of the night, he came in and brought a new level to the game each time. Grabbing offensive boards, tapping rebounds to teammates, nailing that mid-range jumper or doing whatever he could to contribute. Not to say that he didn’t have his share of butterfinger moments, but he was working really hard out there.
Rebounding has much improved, especially compared to the Clippers game. They are moving the ball well but no one seems to want to take the shot. They keep passing it around the perimeter, drive and kick, drive and kick and eventually someone has to shoot.
2nd Quarter
The second quarter started lazy, the Spurs players seemed to be throwing the ball directly to the Suns. Can that really be called a steal? The game was progressing well until 9:20 remaining in the 2nd quarter; Nesterovic nails a basket and twisted his ankle as he landed. The medical staff ran out to him and helped him to the locker room, he seemed to be able to put a little weight on it as he was walking but it was very ginger. He did not return. Without Nesterovic or Horry, both valuable big men, the Spurs were very thin inside. They managed to keep it close, ending the half 56-55 off a Devin Brown 3-pointer.
3rd Quarter
Then the third quarter happened. I’m sure there are a couple players that would love to just wipe that quarter out of their memories but there were some definite lessons to be learned in there. The Suns came out nailing every shot and their lead skyrocketed quickly. There were a few good plays, few and far between, but the best was definitely the Brent Barry steal to Manu Ginobili SLAM dunk about halfway through the 3rd quarter. He dunked it so hard, it broke the net and had to be replaced!
The Spurs were playing good defense in stretches and then there were moments like the easy bucket they allowed off an inbounds pass at the 3:52 mark. What I don’t understand is why Massenburg replaced Rose so early in the quarter, Malik was playing well and making a big difference in there. He came back towards the end of the 3rd and immediately scored.
Start of the 4th: Suns lead 88-71
At this point I’m thinking the best thing about this game has got to be the Bourbon Street Breakers. They were AMAZING! Sliding across the floor on their head, break dancing and doing all kinds of other crazy things that just don’t look natural. If you haven’t seen them, it would definitely be worth your while.
Then I realized that the best part of the game is Manu Ginobili. The Spurs played with a little more fire, their dunks were a little more emphatic and their D a little more consistent, all lead by Manu. But everytime San Antonio would make a run to get back into it, the Suns would hit a couple 3’s and their lead would go back up.
The Phoenix fans were thunderous, jumping to their feet on every slam dunk by Amare (and there were plenty of those). The ones sitting behind Jules and I were not the most intelligent fans I’ve ever encountered. They kept calling for the Spurs to give the ball to Duncan since Duncan sucks, whenever a Suns player would miss a free-throw they’d yell, “You’re shooting like Duncan”. Every play the Spurs made was a “lucky play” and every mistake/turnover by the Suns should have been a foul. It was getting quite heated towards the end of the 4th and I had to switch seats with Jules. I just assured her that they were all jealous because they don’t know what it’s like to win a championship.
Thankfully there were plenty of Spurs fans in attendance to support the Black and Silver. Chants of “Go Spurs Go” and “MVP” were prevalent throughout the game and, I’m quite sure, could be heard on TV.
The final minute of the regulation had the Spurs and Suns swapping baskets, up by a point then down by a point. Brent Barry hits a clutch 3 to tie the game. Amare Stoudemire gets a layup but Barry hits another 3, Spurs up one. After Duncan makes both free throws, temporarily silencing the fans and haters, Shawn Marion hits a leaning 3 to tie the game and send them into overtime.
Overtime
By this point, my voice is all but gone from screaming and I just don’t feel like my heart has enough strength to survive overtime, but we stuck it out. Phoenix may have scored the first basket of OT but San Antonio got the last laugh. Duncan was a man on a mission, he wasn’t playing around and he went inside for an emphatic dunk that lead the Spurs charge ahead. The fans cleared out when the Spurs took a 125-117 lead off a Ginobili bucket with 42 seconds remaining. I told Julie, “They must not have seen the Houston game, this is not over.” Just then Steve Nash nailed a 3 to cut the lead to 5 and I told her, “Well, someone saw the Houston game.”
But it was to no avail as the Spurs were able to pull out a win behind Ginobili’s career-high 48 points, plus 5 rebounds, 6 assists and a steal. Duncan had a very quiet 30 points (how does he score 30 points so quietly??) while Shawn Marion scored 37 points and Stoudemire got 35 points in the losing effort for Phoenix.
Afterwards I turned to the Suns fans around me and told them, "Now THAT's what a REAL MVP looks like!"
more pics following .....
Great job and excellent pics. I remember seeing that Malik Y Manu sign on TV.
Me too.
The people with the sign rock!
Late in the game you could hear the Spurs fan in Phoenix chanting MVP. I don't know if it was to TD or Manu.
HOW IN THE WORLD DO YOU GET TO TALK/MEET WITH THE GUYS ALL THE TIME?
If Horry wasn't on the team- would you still be making all these games?
Thanks for the clip, I love the music for the action-packed changing of the net scene lol.
Last edited by Kori Ellis; 01-22-2005 at 11:19 PM. Reason: We can't post links to video.
I heard the "Go Spurs Go" chants, although until I read your report I though Phoenix had stolen it as a "Go Suns Go" cheer.
Thanks! I thought it was a high-energy video and needed high energy music. LOL
It's luck, good seats and a voice. The people around me couldn't understand how I could talk to the players so naturally but they are just people. I talk to them and they talk back, most fans just ask for an autograph so the guys probably feel like a e-bay product. I don't ask for autos and I don't take pictures so they probably feel more comfortable talking to me.
No, if Horry were not on the team I would not be flying to see them play. I would probably go to the games that were here in LA though.
By the way, what is the song called and who is it by..?
I think I've heard it in one of the movies I have.Not sure though...
people they are not gods
they just play ball that is there job
they are human beings
if you treat them like human beings not gods they will talk to
It's Linkin Park - the song is called Session. It's one of Joe Hahn's works on the Meteroa album. It has been in a movie but I can't remember which one right now.
I think I might have heard it in The Transporter
Great pics Misti. I'm glad you got to go. That was one of the best games to go to. By the way, what's up with the 4th picture. It looks like Rasho is attacking Manu
Someone else said that, too.Great pics Misti. I'm glad you got to go. That was one of the best games to go to. By the way, what's up with the 4th picture. It looks like Rasho is attacking Manu
Miss Mizzy
Use PaintShop Pro 9 or equivalent to fixup you photos.
1. automatic color balance with "remove color cast" checked. nearly all of yours have red cast so the whites are pink. you can then play with color balance until the whites are white, called manual 'white balance"
2. increase the contract a little
3. increase the saturaton a little (and most times a little more again)
Pix from digital cameras and scanners always need some tweaking that results in more natural colors, saturation, contrast. Then you'll get compliments like "wow that's a fantastic camera" when actually it could be cheapo point-and-shoot consumer camera.
Thanks for the photos.
Her "whites" don't look pink at all to me; maybe it's your monitor. They are crisp white for me.
Boutons - I use PaintShop Pro 6, I like it better than the more recent versions. I use the Gamma Correction to take out the red cast that happens in some pics and lack of red in others and in some I adjust the contrast.
I worked these through quickly but I think the pics turned out pretty okay.
Kori, since we can't see each other's monitors, this side-by-side should show ya'll what I'm talking about. Mizzy's original, and my corrected.
That picture and this one: http://www.mistilynn.com/game/01-21_spurs01.jpg are the only ones that are slightly off for me. The rest of her pictures are very crisp.
The later versions of PSP have certainly taken some getting used to (I've been using PSP since 1995 or so), but PSP9 has some seriously improved/new features for processing photos.
"Gamma Correction to take out the red cast"
Gamma correction is how PSP can be adjusted to display a picture differently due to gamma problem in the monitor. In PSP9, it's called "Monitor Gamma correction". Correcting your monitor gamma in PSP does nothing to the image.
Prove this to yourself, by correcting/screwing up the monitor gamma in PSP, and then display the image in your browser (has no gamma correction). An image in gamma-correcting PSP will look different from the same image in non-gamma-corrected browser.
The song Linkin Park - Session is from the Matrix Reloaded Sound Track if you're thinking about movies.
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