Holy cow. What a game! First things first. The Suns are going to be on pins and needles until the league comes down with suspensions. Amare Stoudemire could be considered "off the bench" even though he was running to get back into the game after a stoppage in the action. Boris Diaw, on the other hand, doesn't have that excuse.
The good thing is that neither went onto the court because the action was on the sideline. And just in case you didn't watch the game and don't know what I'm talking about, I'll back up a bit.
The Suns were down 10 for most of the fourth quarter. Then the Spurs decided to take the Suns for granted, the Suns started playing much better defense and the next thing the Spurs knew, the Suns were up by 1. The Spurs came down with about 20 seconds left and no timeouts. They missed the shot, the Suns got the rebound and Steve Nash was taking the ball up the court. At about halfcourt, Robert Horry decided he wanted to play football instead of basketball and blocked Steve right into the scorer's table. Raja Bell immediately went after Horry and got a technical foul. But Horry was ejected with a Flagrant 2, Steve Nash made the free throws he needed to make and the Suns went on to tie the series at 2 games a piece.
I think the Suns finally realized what they needed to do to beat the Spurs. They need intensity. They need good man-to-man defense. They need in-your-face defense. And they need to attack the basket. When they do that, Tim Duncan gets frustrated and gets in foul trouble, the rest of the Spurs start pressing and the Suns actually have a chance.
The Suns played horribly for about 3 quarters. The first 6 minutes of the first quarter and the last 6 minutes of the fourth quarter were played pretty well.
The Suns players played fairly well (except for Leandro Barbosa). They only shot 48% for the game and shot 79% off the free throw line. The Spurs actually had more assists than the Suns.
I really think the Suns stole this game from the Spurs tonight. With the way they played for 36 of the 48 minutes tonight, they had no right to win the game. HOWEVER, this shows us how much better of a team the Suns are when they play their game.
As I said, the worry I will have now until they announce anything is that Amare and Boris will be suspended for the next game. The Spurs can do without Robert Horry. The Suns cannot do without Amare Stoudemire. My hope is that the NBA will be more lenient with this because they didn't really go on the court and everyone was already standing up. Amare had an excuse to be going towards the action because he wanted to get into the game.
What are your thoughts on the game? What did the Suns do well that caused them to win this game? Was it a matter of the Suns stealing the game? Did the Spurs just choke? Will this be a harbinger of things to come in the next game? Do you think Amare and Boris will be suspended? Do you think Horry will be suspended? Should any of them be?
I think this could be the turning point of the series if Amare doesn't get suspended. It will be very interesting to see what happens over the next few games. But, if anything, the Suns have tied the series and are now in a good position to win 2 of the next three games. GO SUNS!!!