Wow!  It's been awhile since the game has been in question in the last 30 seconds.  It's been several weeks since I've been able to pace, yell at the TV, give my primal grunt when Raja Bell makes a 3-point shot to put the game out of reach.

If you look at the score, you'd think the Suns didn't play very well.  And in watching the game you wouldn't think the Suns played the well.  But look at the stats:

Shawn Marion:  11 points, 23 rebounds
Boris Diaw: 11 points on 4-7 shooting
Steve Nash:  18 points, 16 assists
Raja Bell:  27 points on 10-18 shooting
Amare Stoudemire:  21 points on 8-11 shooting with 9 rebounds

The problem tonight was not the starters (despite Steve Nash having 8 turnovers).  The problem was the bench.  Marcus Banks played for 7 minutes.  He shot 0-4.  James Jones played for 17 minutes and shot 1-10.  Leandro Barbosa got 28 minutes and shot 2-9.  So the bench accounted for 10 points on 3-23 shooting.  That's just plain terrible.  The bench shot 13% for the game.  No wonder Mike D'Antoni doesn't want to play them!

But the one thing I do have to say is that it made the game very exciting.  As long as we can get a W, I guess it's worth the bench screwing up a few times so we can get an exciting game.