Shyonelung at the Game

Went to see the Phoenix Suns play the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena in Oakland last night. Shaq was in the building, folks although he was in street clothes. I did notice he was joking and laughing with his new teammates. Alas, the Suns lost in a track meet but they did seem a little more freer than they've been this season. Like maybe they were having fun again. Ah, the weight of expectations. The impact of the big fella will interesting to see, the most interesting game coming up on Feb. 20, right after the All-Star Break against the Lakers and their new acquisition.

Here's some pictures from the game Wednesday night. Click on any of them to see them actual size.

Steve Nash, using his feet in pregame warmups




Shaquille O'Neal sighting. (He's the one in street clothes).



Baron Davis in the lane. Grant Hill (33) and Raja Bell closing in.



Mismatch. 6-2 Baron Davis tries to guard 6-11 Amare Stoudemire


Al Harrington driving to the hoop.



Artistic shot of Amare



Steve Nash and Boris Diaw



Warriors young star in waiting Monta Ellis



Warriors 'Captain' Jack -- Stephen Jackson, driving late.


Suns forward Amare Stoudemire goes up to rock the rim



Ellis driving the lane. He scored 37 points in the win.

Suns Set

Road Oak, Healdsburg, Ca. May 2007
Wow. S.O.L. is not used to being wrong.

But last night’s game between the Spurs and the Suns makes twice this playoffs that I’ve been on the flip side of right. I really thought the Suns would pull out Game 6 tonight, even though it was in San Antonio. But playing short-handed in the previous game seems to have taken the flow out of their free flow offense.

That and a stifling Spurs defense, especially Bruce Bowen on the perimeter and Tim Duncan inside. T.D. had something like 10 blocks in the game, most of them coming from the weak side as a help out defender. When a two-time league MVP and 10-time member of the All-Defensive team, is playing help D, you’re offense is in trouble. Even the high-powered, high-scoring Suns offense.

The Spurs harassed Steve Nash all night and the refs were letting them do it. For the third time this series, Nash and his mates didn’t solve the Spurs’ defense until their backs were against the wall. And except for Game 3 in San Antonio, they ran out of time.

I still think the decision to suspend Diaw and Stoudemire was stupid and could have been handled better. It disemboweled the Suns for Game 5 and now we'll never know what this series could have been had NBA commissioner David Stern kept his whistle in his pocket.

Nash summed it up well in comments quoted at ESPN.com.

"I can sit up here and complain about it after the fact... I guess cry about it after the fact. But it's tough not to just think forever what would have happened if this stupid rule didn't get in the way of this series. There's no guarantees of anything, but to come this far and put this much into a season and for us to be without two key guys for Game 5 for nothing we instigated -- and for not either one of them having a malicious tone in their offense -- will forever haunt us. But I don't want to cry about it after the fact. The Spurs played great."

Allow me to cry then.

This will be a rough summer for Nash and the Suns, a serious bitter pill that was in part self-inflicted. If Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw stay rooted to the bench after Robert Horry hip-checked Nash into the scorer’s table at the end of a stirring come-from-behind win in Game 3, we might be talking about the Suns moving on, instead of the perennial championship-contending Spurs.

The only good thing about the Spurs going on to win another title is Duncan and coach Gregg Popovich surpassing Phil Jackson and the Lakers’ recent run. Three titles don’t seem all that impressive when the other guy is out there winning four. And with Manu Ginobli and Tony Parker still relatively young, there’s no reason to doubt they could win this year -- and next.

The Spurs will face the young, upstart Utah Jazz. On paper it looks like a mismatch. But if anyone can man-up against these Spurs, it's the Jazz. Still, the wound of seeing the Suns bounced out of the playoffs like this is still too fresh to talk about the next round. I'll save that for another day.

There’s a fine line between getting over the hill that stands between pretenders and contenders. The window of opportunity is small and it shuts awfully fast (see: Sacramento, Portland and Indiana for recent examples). The Suns are fortunate to be young but if they can’t figure out how to stand toe-to-toe with physical, grind-’em-out teams like the Spurs at playoff time, this Phoenix team will fade into history title-less, just like all its predecessors.

Game 3 should have been the defining moment for the Suns. But it all changed in a blink when Horry disgraced the NBA and Stoudemire and Diaw left the bench to defend their fallen teammate. A lesson learned of course. A lot of lessons learned. How will the Suns respond? They have all summer to think about it.

For now, NBA fans are poorer for not getting to see more of Steve Nash.

Suns Burned

Somewhere in the middle of the chippy third quarter Wednesday night in Phoenix, it was clear how badly the Suns missed their two best big men. It was visible on the offensive side of the court for the Suns when playmaker extraordinaire Steve Nash would work the pick-and-roll. He'd go around a pick, get into the lane and when the defense closed in, he'd pass it off to .... Kurt Thomas?

Thomas was game but he's no Amare Stoudemire and that reality, more than anything else last night is what burned the Suns, putting them in a 3-2 hole in their best-of-seven playoff series.

You won't likely see as gutty a performance (on both ends of the court) from an aging defensive specialist like Thomas in a bigger game. He gave it all he had. But while Thomas is known for his ability to play tough under the basket, it's in bursts of minutes here and there, a total of 20 or so a game. Last night, he played nearly 40 minutes and by halftime he was sucking wind so bad he could barely answer Craig Sager's halftime interview questions. Or maybe it was Sager's lime green coat.

Considering their handicap, it was amazing to watch the Suns nearly run the Spurs off the court in the first half. They held them to season lows in points for a quarter (13 in the first) and a half (33 at intermission) but they couldn't score at their usual blistering pace and their short rotation all but gave out by the end of the game.

You could blast the league (as S.O.L. did yesterday here) for suspending the Suns best big man Amare Stoudemire and his backup Boris Diaw, and in my oh so humble opinion, you'd be right. But those two knuckleheads knew the rule and left the bench anyway, so some of the blame ought to be on their very broad shoulders.

The dirty, black-hatted Spurs -- a team I liked before this series -- now has the series lead, ahead 3-2. But as tough a loss this must have been for the Suns to handle (they held the lead for all but perhaps five minutes of the game), they have to feel good about the way they played and how easily they could have won this game despite being without two of their most important players (Did I mention that Stoudemire is leading his team this series in scoring and rebounding).

You could even that the Suns are missing another player too, even though he's on the floor for everyone to see. I'm talking about Leandro Barbosa. This is the cat who shredded the Lakers during the first round. There is just no way the Brazilian Blur should not be torching the Spurs up and down the damn court. The Spurs really don't have anyone who can hang with him. The problem is that his success really hinges on his shot and right now that shot is just not falling. Last night he was 3-for-12 for a measly eight points, only two more than the number of fouls he picked up (6).

S.O.L. predicted a Suns win last night and was feeling pretty damn good after the first quarter -- though I admit to being nervous at the relatively close score. A new day dawns for the Suns come Friday night in San Antonio?

Remember the Alamo, indeed.

Suns fans. Keep your tickets for Sunday. Game 7 will happen.