Well, actually, for the first 3 quarters, it was the Pacers who set the tempo of the game. At one point, the Suns were down by 18 points. What happened at that point? Hard to say. Is it that the Suns picked up the intensity and played the way they should? Or is it that the Pacers just plain choked? I have a feeling it is a little of both. That and the Suns figured out how to play them. Jermaine O'Neal is a monster when he gets in the paint.
There aren't too many people that can play him one-on-one. Amare couldn't handle him by himself and O'Neal was taking advantage of that. Then in the 3rd quarter the Suns started doubling O'Neal every time he touched the ball. If they passed it into O'Neal, Steve ran at him and made him pass the ball out. Then Steve would have to run back and guard his guy. If it wasn't Steve doing it, it was Leandro. But it worked.
Nash took over the game in the 4th quarter once he came back in. At one point I think he scored 8 straight points to get the Suns the lead back. He was the leading scorer with 25 points. He also had 11 points. But Amare and Shawn were right behind him with 23 and 22 points, respectively. Amare also had 18 points - 11 of them offensive!
Bottom line: The Suns played a good 18 minutes at the end of the game. Other than that, it was not a good game for them. It seemed like they were tired and they wanted to go home. Jermaine O'Neal scored 28 points and had 13 rebounds. Jeff Foster had 14 rebounds.
I don't know what else to say. I guess the bottom line is that they got a win. To check out a recap from the Pacers' point of view, check out Indy Cornrows in a little while.
The Suns head into Philadelphia on Wednesday to finish out the road trip. If they win on Wednesday, they will be the first team in NBA history to win every game on the road against the opposing conference.