Let's Not Jinx Anything

The Suns of 2006 crawled out of their 1-3 hole because of a special set of circumstances. Last year's Suns had dealt with major adversity all season, thanks to Amare and KT's injuries, and they had developed an intensely tight bond around the common interest to prove everyone wrong. They had also showed regular season dominance over the Lakers (so getting down in the series was kind of a surprise to begin with), and they lost Game 4 in such a painful, inexplicable way that it helped ignite a fire under them that carried them through that series and two other rounds as well. Lastly, the 2006 Suns (like now) were led by a guy whose motto is to always keep a positive attitude and give yourself a chance to win. I'm not sure any of this applies to either the Mavericks or the Lakers. The Mavericks haven't dealt with adversity all year, so now that it's smacked them in the face, they have that deer-in-headlights look about them. The Lakers have dealt with injury-related adversity all season, but unlike last year's Suns, they failed to use it as motivation to rise to the challenge and prove everyone wrong. Neither team seems to be as close-knit as the Suns (this especially applies to the Lakers), so they don't have the same kind of "we don't want the season to end because we like playing together" emotions that last year's Suns used as even more extra fuel.

That said, Dan's right. Neither series is over, and either of these seemingly down-and-out teams could buckle down and focus on winning one game at a time to get themselves back in it. It's happened before, so anything is possible. But at least with what we've seen to date, neither the Mavericks or Lakers seem to have the same kind of "heart" last year's Suns had.

On Sunday Afternoon:
I'm on the left side of the couch, Fiancee is on the right, dog's sitting next to me on the floor, being petted. Suns up, playing great. Fiancee gets up to go get water. Lakers go on a run. Fiancee comes, back, sits down, Nash hits a three.

Later, Suns push it up again. Fiancee gets up to feed the cat. Lakers go on a run again. She comes back, Suns push ahead again.

5 minutes left in the 4th quarter. She starts to get up, to go upstairs. I grab her arm.

"Don't."

"Why not?"

Looks at TV, back at her

"Um... because I love you so much, I want to spend time with you, just for a few more minutes."

"Awww...thanks! That's..."

(pause)

"You're doing this because the Suns start to lose whenever I get up, aren't you?"

"They also start to lose when you talk, but I wasn't going to say anything about that."

Getting back to the question Dan asked, I believe in karma not jinxes. As in, I think bad things happen when people start gloating (see Mark Cuban and his "we're in the finals and Steve Nash isn't" comments from last season just prior to the Mavericks finals choke-job). So I suggest everyone stay off of Lakers and Mavericks message boards. No gloating. No rubbing it in. Let's just enjoy watching our team do great things.

Was watching the game waiting for the Lakers to come back (cuz lets face it....once we get a lead it almost always happens), and I was waiting....waiting....waiting....final buzzer...we never let them back.  I had to look at the score again to make sure it just wasn't the end of the 3rd.  Without jinxing anything....have the Suns finally learned how to finish?  Lord I hope so.

Please mark off game #14. Don't jinx the team by refusing to acknowledge yesterday's win. :)

Dan, I think you need to remove this link from the left sidebar news section if you have access to do it. Shawn Marion accepts what may be the biggest snub of his career more graciously than he ever has before, and then this bozo writes this:

I realize this guy is just a blogger, not a real sportswriter, but come on! How did something like this even make the sidebar in the first place?

From AZCentral.com:

The Suns still have never had a frontcourt player named to the All-Defensive first team. Marion, peeved mightily by previous snubs, took this one well and looked at it as further motivation.

"Of course, it's tough," said Marion, who did receive five first-team votes. "We've got a lot of great forwards in this league. We do a lot of things. I'm still going to go out there and do what I do."

That doesn't sound like grousing to me and it sounds like Marion is used to not getting enough recognition when it comes to awards.  I think he knows that the fans certainly appreciate what he does. I know I do!!!

There is the media thing to think about. When I see Marion around the other players, I don't see him complaining. He just kind of goes in spurts of really great, to making a mistake, which Nash, and everyone else does.

What I mean about the media thing, my guess is if Marion said one or two things about not being appreciated months back, reporters bring it up now even though it was months ago. Look at the book seven seconds or less which the media tried to bring up. My view, Marion is handling the snub very well and the real test of who is a better defender will be against the Spurs (once we get there).

The 82games article posted here recently really shows how much Marion does, and I personally want to hear from coaches why they didn't pick Marion.
I think part of it is just what Bell was saying, it's about the playoffs and recognition, which Bell got nationally going against Kobe last year and this. I think it's also very tough for Marion to get credit for shutting down another player, because we use him on pretty much everyone on the other team. It's amazing actually what he does, and it's a shame he didn't get the recognition again. But, he should take some satisfaction from being number 4 in the fans view. Also, I think the Suns are known for their offense, hence the mvp awards, 6th man awards, etc. But the Spurs are known for their defense, hence Duncan and Bowen being named to the all defense teams. But Duncan and Bowen are slowing down in my opinion and I think this playoff series will show that. Unless Ginobili becomes mr. 50pt offense against us, I think we should do fine against them, my guess 7 game series.