The Suns need to stop reading ESPN. Especially when Bill Simmons writes a glowing article about them. All it does is give them big heads and makes them think they can beat a Yao-less and McGrady-less Rockets team without even trying.
The Suns came into Houston with a 10-game winning streak and it seemed like after they read Bill Simmons' article and found out Tracy McGrady wasn't playing they figured the Rockets would just forfeit the game and decide not to play. And that definitely was not the case.
The Rockets came out strong in the first quarter and ended it with a 28-19 lead. Then halfway through the 2nd quarter the Suns were down 25-40. At one point they missed 10 shots in a row and it was only a great 3-point shot by Leandro Barbosa that stopped that terrible streak.
Finally, the Suns decided that the Rockets WERE going to play despite their problems and went on a run. The next think you know, it's 43-43 and they're right back in it. In the third quarter, the Rockets tried pulling away again but when it got to be 65-60, the Suns revved the engine and went on another run to pretty much put the game out of reach.
At that point, the Suns just needed to hang on. The Rockets tried to make it close at the end but Steve Nash figuratively waved his own finger at the Rockets and made 2 shots in a row that sealed the game.
Interesting thing to note: I was waiting for Amare to do his own finger wagging to Dikembe Mutombo but didn't see him ever do it. I'm glad. I think it would have been disrespectful to a guy who has been in the league a lot longer and has a lot more experience than Amare does. At one time, I thought he was going to do it and then decided not to and made another hand gesture indicating the basket went in and he thought he got fouled.
Now if Amare would have had some kind of monster dunk over Mutombo, I wouldn't have minded seeing some trash talk but just for scoring a basket over him? Nah, I'd rather not.
This was a good win for the Suns if only for the fact that they were down by 15 and still had the ability and energy to come back and win. They've now won 11 games in a row are 4.5 games ahead of the Lakers in the Pacific Division and are 1 game back out of first place in both the conference and the league behind the Dallas Mavericks.
The Suns come home to play Portland on Friday night.