Phoenix Forgets Winning Formula

Schedule-makers 1, Suns 0.If you’re scoring at home, chalk up yesterday’s 121-114 Game 1 Spurs victory to a schedule that was horribly unfair to the Suns. Phoenix had played a grueling overtime game in Dallas on Friday night, yet had to be back in the desert by yesterday afternoon to play Game 1 of the Western Conference finals.That would have been appropriate had San Antonio also played Thursday night, but the Spurs were well-rested after closing out Seattle on Thursday (also in a Game 6). It seems especially unjust because Phoenix was the top seed in the West. Shouldn’t the league be trying to protect these teams and give the lower-seeded Spurs the tougher slate?In any case, the Suns showed up flat as a pancake, falling behind by double figures in the first quarter and only briefly taking the lead in the second half. That’s when they hit the wall, surrendering 43 points in the fourth quarter as fatigue set in. The Suns’ defense was awful most of the game, allowing 51.7% shooting while seeming to forget that Brent Barry could shoot.That’s not to take anything away from San Antonio. Barry had his best game of the playoffs, while Tim Duncan gamely battled his way to 28 points and 15 rebounds despite being limited by an ankle sprain he suffered Thursday in Seattle. Gregg Popovich also pulled off a brilliant stunt in the fourth quarter, catching the Suns by surprise by trapping the pick-and-roll in the fourth after slacking off against Nash for three quarters. In a nine-minute stretch of the final frame, the vaunted Suns offense scored only 12 points while the Spurs took over the game.Considering how worn-out the Suns looked, it’s hard to draw any conclusions from this game that will be important for the rest of this series. There is, however, one key exception: For the first time in memory, the Suns backed down in a match-up battle.Throughout the season, Phoenix has persisted in playing one of basketball’s smallest lineups, and they rode that odd alignment all the way to the league’s best record. If an opponent wanted to play a big lineup and try to outmuscle the Suns, they were more than welcome to try. Phoenix coach Mike D’Antoni gambled that his team would do more damage with its speed than the opponents could with their size, and he was right almost every night.Regardless of how Phoenix fared on the court, D’Antoni maintained supreme confidence in the small-ball lineup. If opponents scored a few inside baskets against 6-foot-7 string bean “power” forward Shawn Marion or made some shots over 6-foot-5 small forward Quentin Richardson, D’Antoni wasn’t going to worry about it. Over the course of 48 minutes, he figured the Suns’ advantages would nearly always prevail.That’s why I found Phoenix’s lineup so strange yesterday. They started the game with Marion guarding Tim Duncan, virtually daring the Spurs to give Duncan the ball. Partly as a result, Amare Stoudemire ended up on the bench with two quick fouls, picking up his second when he came over to help against Duncan.At that point, the Suns put backup center Steven Hunter in the game for Stoudemire, a predictable response. What wasn’t predictable, however, was how long Hunter stayed on the court. D’Antoni was so terrified of Stoudemire and Marion picking up fouls guarding Duncan that he left Hunter to guard the Spurs’ superstar for much of the game. Hunter hadn’t played more than 20 minutes in a game since April 3, but saw 30 yesterday thanks to his being assigned to guard Duncan.As a result, the Suns didn’t quite have their usual run-and-gun flair. For large chunks of the game, they played a bigger lineup than San Antonio, with Hunter at center, Stoudemire at power forward, and Marion at small forward. That included a key stretch in the final minutes. With the Suns trailing 106-100 with 3:49 left, Hunter came in for Richardson to form the Suns’ “big” frontcourt, and he didn’t come out until 1:41 remained and the Suns trailed 112-104.The impact of the big lineup can best be seen in the Suns’ startling lack of fast-break points. Phoenix averaged 16 a game in the regular season but registered only six on Sunday. While the Spurs are famous for cutting off the break (ask a Nets fan about the 2003 Finals), Phoenix played right into their hands by not sticking with what worked in the regular season.Even more upsetting for Suns fans is that Hunter didn’t even do a good job against Duncan. He repeatedly sent the Spurs forward to the free-throw line by biting on head fakes, forcing the Suns to send immediate double-teams in the second half any time Duncan caught the ball. Those double teams opened more holes than a gopher, as the Spurs swung the ball around to an open Barry or Robert Horry for a trifecta. San Antonio shot 10-for-23 on 3-pointers, and the double-teams on Duncan were a huge reason.In Game 2, the Suns have to realize that playing big isn’t their game. If they need to double-team Duncan anyway, they can’t afford to have Hunter wasting minutes that could be going to one of the Suns’ potent starting five. They’ll also need to find a way to get more shots for Marion. Without the easy fast-break points, he looked lost on Sunday, finishing with just three points in 39 minutes. Heavy legs may have been a factor – Stoudemire was the only Sun who came up big, and it’s no coincidence that he was the only one who didn’t play in the overtime against Dallas on Friday.Thus, while the Suns’ loss in Game 1 certainly qualifies as news, a bigger development may be their unwillingness to guard Duncan with a member of the starting five. That could lead to the Spurs making this series much shorter than we expected, regardless of who the schedule favors.

Phoenix Forgets Winning Formula

Phoenix Forgets Winning Formula

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