It's game 2 of the series. This is a do-or-die game for the Suns. If they don't win this, they will essentially have to win 4 of the next 5 games against the Spurs with 3 of the games being on the Spurs home court. The Suns know this. The Spurs know this. So it's going to be quite a battle tonight. The (hopefully) good thing? The Suns usually seem to have at least one blowout ready for a team in each series. Hopefully, tonight will be that game. The Spurs may become a bit complacent knowing they have homecourt advantage now and the Suns may be able to win easily. But then again, these are the Spurs so you never know.
Kurt Thomas should be starting tonight and that should help with my first key to the game. Amare Should be fired up and that should also help. I think the key tonight is getting Shawn Marion to play a complete game and hopefully getting Boris Diaw to play well.
Keys to the game:
- Rebounds - The Suns need to stay close on rebounding, if not just win that "game within a game" outright. If they win the rebounding category, they should win the game handily.
- Let only one of the Spurs players have a big game - I just don't think you can stop all the Spurs players in the same game. So because of that, only let one of the players have a 30 point night. Letting 2 get over 3 points is just as bad as letting one player score over 50.
- Intensity - You're basically playing for your playoff lives here. Let's see some intensity. I want to see some fight and some drive. That means taking it into the lane, getting the Spurs to foul, not settling for jump shots. But if the Spurs are clogging the lane, look at key #4.
- Look for the open man - It seems the Spurs like to clog the lane. That means that there is usually someone open for a clear shot. Find that guy if you're getting bogged down! It's imperative that the ball gets passed around to the open man. Do this and you should be able to crush the Spurs. Well, you should at least be able to beat them.