Everyone played hard tonight, but they just didn't have "it". Every time the Suns got close, they self-destructed and allowed the Spurs to get the lead back to 13-14 points.
But I'll tell you something right now: that magic is still there. You could fell it. This Suns team has heart and will figure out how to win this season. There's just too many fighters and winners on this team to struggle for the whole season.
10th man Josh Childress has some very scrappy skills - imagine what might happen if he really had 2 hands. He's kinda like a Marion without quite the size or natural talent level, but it's sure nice to see scrappy at the basket again.
And for the first time this season, it looks like Robin Lopez has two hands. With fingers to grip the ball with. I'm still waiting for a putback dunk on a missed shot - that will tell me he's back for sure. Till then, I'll take the high-percentage shooting and rebounding. And I'm really excited that he will have some big time competition in practice from now on for minutes.
The Spurs are riding high at this time. Everyone is hitting on all cylinders, and they are the only team to field the same starting lineup in every game this season. Well done on their part.
But the Suns kept it tight, didn't they? Even after getting down 19, they just kept fighting and fighting and made it a closer game than it might have been. Even Hakim Warrick was battling out there.
The only guy beating himself up was Channing Frye. He let his poor offensive game affect his defense. His name was littered all over the play-by-play in the third quarter. Missed 26-foot shot, shooting foul, missed 26-foot shot, shooting foul, turnover, etc...
Would have been nice to have some reinforcements out there when the guys were running on fumes. Maybe by the next game the Suns will have someone(s) to throw in there for big-man defense, or perimeter defense, or scoring...
Oh yeah, and Grant Hill is still THE MAN. 19 pts, 4 rebs, 2 assists, 2 steals... and the only + guy for the game (+4).
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