The Suns finish their road trip with a loss to the San Antonio Spurs. They finish this tough stretch 0-4 in what Shaq called the "I hate Shaq" road trip, playing against his former teams: Lakers, Miami and Orlando. It ended up looking like "I want to miss the playoffs and be a lottery team" road trip for the Suns.
This was a good opportunity (again) for them to beat a good team and feel good about themselves. Instead the only feelings remaining after this game are: disappointment, frustration and anger. Once again the Suns fail to close out a game. They fought back form a 13 point deficit only to let the game slip away in the 4th quarter with their stellar defense. It seems like these games are scripted. Parker scores a bunch of points in the 4th quarter, Duncan has his away against Shaq, Nash with the late turnovers, circus three point shots just to get our hopes up, more turnovers, Spurs getting the critical offensive rebounds to get second chance points, game over and the Suns lose.
Heck, I should have started to write the recap right after the preview. At least I would have saved time. But no, I wanted to believe that our players were going to snap out of it and play hard. I guess I was wrong.
More after the jump.
What's the difference between a good defensive team and a good offensive team?
The defensive team can afford having a bad shooting night because they will get stops. While the offensive team doesn't have that luxury. The Suns can't afford missing open shots and going 3-4 minutes scoreless, 99% of the times they will lose.
The Suns' defense can't get any worse than this. The opposing teams feel so comfortable shooting from anywhere on the field. They don't rotate properly, they are lazy contesting shots. The defense did get better during the second half but once again they let up when it most mattered.
Point Guard Matchups: It's no secret that Parker loves playing against us. He loves to play at a fast pace. He scored 12 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter and blew by anyone who was guarding him. Nash only covered Parker on a few plays and mostly Grant Hill was the one who got torched by the quick PG. Speaking of Nash, he led the team with 23 points and 11 assists but I think he tried to do too much during the second quarter where he shot around 5 consecutive times and was successful in only two. It's no secret that Nash wants to win, that's why he is trying to take over the game but that's not always going to work.
Interesting fact:
- SA went to the line 27 times while Phx only went 13. That's a huge differential right there. I'm just sayin'.
Time is running out. They've got 1 month to prove they deserve to go to the playoffs. They've got 1 month to turn it around. Do you still believe?