The Seven Stages of Grief

Stage One: Shock
It still is hard to believe that the NBA would bend the Suns over and fuck the franchise up the ass like they did. How can a dirty team like the Spurs get away with the shit that happened in this series? How can Robert Horry be rewarded with another ring for trying to take out Steve Nash?
Stage Two: Denial
Really, it couldn't have happened like that, could it have? This was our year. We were supposed to be having a parade in downtown Phoenix. We were supposed to win. David Stern CAN'T be that big of a jackass, can he?
Stage Three: Anger
Fucking piece of shit David Stern and his fucking piece of shit league. Damn dirty Spurs team. I hope Duncan breaks his leg, Ginobili flops off the top of the AT&T Center, and Tony Parker gets deported.
Stage Four: Barganing
OK, maybe if we win a championship next year this all would have been worth it. Maybe nobody would care anymore if we win the whole thing next year. Yeah. Next year.
Stage Five: Guilt
I should have done my part as a fan. I should have cheered louder. I should have screamed more at game 5. I should have gone to San Antonio for game 6 to support my team. I shouldn't have worn an Amare jersey to game 5 because I had worn a Marion jersey during game 4 and we won. I should have found Ginobili at the Ritz Carlton in Phoenix and kicked his ass.
Stage Six: Depression
I can't take it. Another season of dissapointment. I can't watch the NBA anymore. This is garbage. My summer has been ruined.
Stage Seven: Acceptance and Hope
Well, I guess that's it. I guess our season is over. Maybe next year we can win it. Maybe something stupid like an injury or a dumb suspension won't happen.

Is This the End?

I was waiting to post my postgame comments on game five until my anger and frustration had subsided so I could make an objective analysis of this game...but I'm even more angry after a full day.

What David Stern and Stu Jackson did to the Suns was obviously sickening - but the game was in reach for the Suns.

Phoenix had a lead for the entire game until the final three minutes. Shawn Marion was doing everything in the first half...he had 20 points and 11 rebounds at halftime and was playing excellent defense. Marion, however, was guarding the talentless Oberto and didn't have to use much energy on defense...so his offense was able to excel in the first half.

Unfortunately, in the second half I feel that Mike D'Antoni made a terrible decision by switching Marion to guard Tony Parker. Marion is a good, no, great defender. He is able to guard anyone from power forwards to point guards. Sometimes his versatility is a detriment to him however, as it was the case in game five. When D'Antoni switched The Matrix onto Parker he effectively took away the offensive game of Shawn Marion. By guarding Parker and following around a quicker smaller guard, Matrix had little energy left for the offensive end of the court - he scored only four points in the second half. Also, by sticking on Parker, Marion is away from the basket on defense. If anyone watches the Suns on a regular basis you'd know that The Matrix is best around the basket where he can rebound and block shots.

In my opinion, however, this was not the biggest blunder of the night by Mike D'Antoni. Taking Kurt Thomas out of the game for offensive purposes in the last two minutes of the game absolutely KILLED the Suns. Thomas had 14 points and 12 rebounds and did an excellent job of guarding the dangerous whiner Tim Duncan. KT is the only Sun capable of guarding Duncan one on one over the course of an entire game. Duncan will get his points regardless of who guards him...he's that good...however, with Kurt Thomas on him Duncan's points didn't come so easily. So what happened late in the fourth quarter? Thomas was on the bench.

Marion was stuck with the defensive assignment on Duncan, and other Suns like Nash and Bell had to help and double - leaving their men alone for wide open threes.

When you don't guard guys like Bruce Bowen, Rat Ginobili, and Mike Finley they will knock down their jumpers. Why D'Antoni decided on this strategy is beyond me - but it didn't work. Even without Amare and Diaw the Suns had a chance for this win.

Could the Suns season come to an end tomorrow night? What happens next? We go back to San Antonio down 3-2 and the Spurs have a chance to close us out in their own building. We need to come out with the same passion and fire that we had in game four. I have cautious optimism that the Suns will win...however, I wouldn't be surprised if we don't. We shall see on Friday night.

The NBA - It's SHAM-tastic

OK, I am convinced that the NBA is a fucking sham. It's as scripted as the WWE.
The unoffical (at this point) report is that Robert Horry was suspended for two games while the Suns Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw are out for one game each.
If I'm a Spurs fan, I'm dancing in the streets. The NBA just handed my team a championship on a fucking silver platter.
My solution: Put Pat Burke in the starting lineup for game 5 and have him take out Tim Duncan's knees. Sounds drastic? Well that's what the league has decided is the right thing to do. If you are a dirty team and your players cheap shot people you get the advantage in the NBA playoffs. So what if we lose Pat Burke for a game or two? If he injures Duncan it would be worth the loss, right? After all...that's basically what the Spurs did by trying to take out Steve Nash.
Amare and Boris stepped onto the court to check out what was happening to their teammate who had just been laid out by a classless thug. For this they get suspended? Where's the justice? Where's the fairness?
And what happens to Duncan and Bowen who did the EXACT same thing earlier in the game when Francisco Elson went down due to some incidental contact by James Jones? Oh yeah, that's right...nothing happes to them...they play for the fucking Spurs.

I really thought this was it...I really thought that winning game 4 put the Suns over the hump...but I guess the ol' fix is in.
Good job Spurs. Good job NBA. Good job David Stern. Fuck all of you.

I encourage ALL Suns fans to call the NBA office and voice your concerns: 212-407-8000. I called and spoke with Stu Jackson's secretary. I'm sure she didn't care but I felt better.

SUNS Fight Back!

The Suns took every shot the Dirty Spurs had to offer in game four and were able to even the series with a 104-98 victory.

Despite outrebounding the Spurs 39-32 and getting to the free throw line ten more times, the Suns trailed by 8 going into the third...that's when the Suns took over.

The Suns were able to draw a fifth foul on Tim Duncan, and Steve Nash went to work. Nash finished with 24 points and 15 assists. Shawn Marion also played a huge role in the fourth quarter with 12 of his 9 points coming in the final period.

The game was marred by an ugly incident. The Spurs proved their critics right by showing what a dirty, classless bunch of thugs their team is. With the Suns up three with 32 seconds left, Robert Horry body checked Steve Nash into the scorer's table. Horry was ejected and will most likely be suspended for game 5, however the most important thing that happened in the altercation was the fact that Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw may have left the bench in the chaos.

Nash jumped up and Raja Bell got into Horry's face, but Stoudemire and Diaw were not in the game at the time. NBA rules dictate that a player leaving the bench during a fight is suspended for the next game. If the NBA sticks to the letter of the law, we won't see Amare or Boris in game 5 back at the US Airways Center on Wednesday night. As Charles Barkley said, that would be quite unfair for the Suns to let a dirty play by a Spurs player dictate the outcome of this series. The Spurs have already won one game in Phoenix, and if the Suns don't have Amare or Boris, chances are that the Suns won't win. The Spurs must be ecstatic at the prospect of trading a talentless bum like Horry for and all NBA First Teamer like Amare Stoudemire plus Boris Diaw. We'll see what the league hands down on Tuesday. All of Phoenix is hoping for the best.

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Duncan Domination

Two words sum up game three of the Suns-Spurs series: Tim Duncan. The Spurs big man proved to be too much for the Suns to handle, scoring 33 points on 9-14 shooting and grabbing 19 boards.
The Suns couldn't stop Duncan from hitting his patented turn around jumper off the glass. Kurt Thomas wasn't as effective as he was in game two, and Amare Stoudemire was saddled with foul trouble for the entire game. Amare scored 21 points on 7-11 shooting, but was only to play 20 minutes after picking up four fouls early in the third quarter. He played just 19 seconds in the fourth before picking up his fifth foul, and didn't return to the game until very late in the contest.
The Suns were able to get out to an early lead - they ended the first quarter up 30-25, despite a poor half from Steve Nash. Nash was scoreless in the first half.
With Nash not shooting the ball, and Amare in foul trouble the Suns looked to the trio of Shawn Marion, Raja Bell, and Boris Diaw to keep them in the game. Bell had 12 first half points and was a perfect 4-4 from three point range. Diaw looked like the Diaw of last year with aggressive moves to the basket. Marion was back to his normal self - scoring on a variety of jumpers and dunks.
In the second half, the Suns defense failed them as did their offense. Diaw and Bell were nowhere to be found. Nash's shooting woes continued. He ended 6-17 from the field.
The Spurs were able to do anything they wanted on offense. Weather it was Duncan scoring in close, or Bruce Bowen - the NBA's dirtiest player - hitting threes in the corner.
The Rat Bastard Ginobili also got into the act. The Suns left him relatively unguarded and he scored 24 points on 8-19 shooting including a number of his patented out of control drives through the lane.
Overall, the Suns shouldn't be too dissapointed. Their two first team All-NBA players - Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire were relatively taken out of the game and they only fell by 7 points. I can't imagine Nash will hae such a bad game - and Amare can't commit stupid fouls like he did tonight.

Game four on Monday is a must win for the Suns - I'm confident that they'll come out with the same fire they did in game two. After all - we just need one win in San Antonio.

PHX Storms Back!

The Suns tied their Western Conference Semifinal series at 1-1 last night with a 101-81 drubbing of the San Antonio Spurs at US Airways Center.

PHX was led by a strong defensive performance by Kurt Thomas, who was inserted in the starting lineup by Mike D'Antoni. Thomas did an excellent job guarding Tim Duncan. Duncan did score 29 points in the Spurs loss, however Thomas was able to guard the Spurs All-Star one on one, and allow the other Suns to stick with their assignments. Kurt's presence in the paint also allowed Amare Stoudemire to stay out of the foul trouble that saddled him in game one. Amare responded big, with 27 points, including a 15 point third quarter. Shawn Marion also had a big defensive game. After giving up over 30 points to Tony Parker in game one, The Matrix bounced back - holding the French point guard to just 13 points on 5-14 shooting while only notching three assists. Marion also forced Parker into four turnovers and blocked three shots.

The Suns tried to establish the tempo early, jumping out to a 7-1 lead in the opening minutes of the game. After a Spurs timeout, the men in black bounced back and took a 25-19 lead going into the second quarter.

The Suns took control in the second, outscoring the Spurs 30-17 while getting the fast breaks that the Suns are used to.

The third quarter was a draw, but the Suns really put their foot down in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Spurs 30-17 over the final 12 minutes. The Suns were able to establish their tempo by forcing the Spurs into bad shots (other than Duncan) - The Spurs shot just 42% on the night. Free throw shooting also hurt the Spurs. They shot just 9-16 from the stripe.

The real story though was the Suns defense. After getting outrebounded by a large margin in game one, the Suns cut the bigger Spurs advantage on the boards to just one. The Suns also forced San Antonio into 18 turnovers and were able to take advantage with the fast breaks that weren't available in game one.

After the game, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said "I thought we were supposed to be the defensive team"

The series heads to San Antonio and resumes on Saturday. The Suns need to keep the defensive intensity that they displayed last night and hopefully get at least one win in San Antonio. It's a tough place to win (especially for the Suns) but a 20 point victory will do wonders for their confidence.

This series is shaping up to be as good as advertised.

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A Bloody Mess

Game One of the Western Conference Semifinals goes to the San Antonio Spurs by the final score of 111-106. The story of this game wasn't something that happened on the court, but what went on around the bench area in the fourth quarter. Steve Nash, the Suns' two time defending MVP, had a gash on his nose opened up that required six stitches to close. The suns training staff tried everything they could to get the bleeding to stop but were not successful. Nash missed the last five minutes of the game, costing the Suns an opening game victory in this best of seven series. Now the Spurs have stolen the home court advantage and gained valuable momentum.

As usual when the Suns play the whiny bitches from San Antonio, the officials played a major role in the game. The Suns had a number of horrible calls against them. On one play in particular, Amare Stoudemire was called for his third foul late in the second quarter when Tim Duncan fell and pulled him down. The Suns were at the other end of the court on a fast break, and then the three blind mice decided to call the foul on Stoudemire. The Suns bench was so outraged by this call that assistant coach Mark Ivaroni was called for a techincal foul. During halftime! The Suns ended the first half up by two.

The Spurs opened up the third quarter with a free throw as a result of the technical foul, and then whined and complained their way to a four point lead after the third.

The fourth quarter was a hard fought and exciting. The Suns tied the game a couple of times and

did their best to take the lead, but the loss of Nash, the Suns leading scorer for the game, was too much.

With the Suns down by three with 27 seconds left, Amare Stoudemire attempted to drive the land instead of kick the ball out to an open teammate for a game tying three pointer. Amare was fouled, made both free throws, and cut the lead to one.

Next, there was another questionable call - Leandro Barbosa was called for a foul before the ball was inbounded as Mike Finley decided to fall on his own. As a result of the foul before the play, Finley went to the line for a free throw and the Spurs regained possession. After the ball was inbounded, Rat Bastard Ginobili made one of two free throws after being fouled by Raja Bell.

Again, the Suns found themselves down by three with a chance to tie the game with 20 seconds left. Without their floor leader it was every man for himself. Amare Stoudemire decided it was best to drive the lane for a two instead of kicking out to a wide open Raja Bell for three and the tie. Amare missed the layup attempt and that was all she wrote.

Boris Diaw was his usual non factor self. He had seven points and just two rebounds and two assists. He also had two turnovers. I fully believe that Steve Nash was referring to Diaw when he said that some of the Suns didn't play their hardest.

Game two is Tuesday night. Look for the Suns to come out of the gate and try to establish the tempo and run the Spurs out of the building.

I hope that Mike D'Antoni makes an adjustment and puts Raja Bell defending Tony Longoria. If not, it is important to not let Longoria kill the Suns with penetrating drives. He kills the Suns every time they play the whiny bitches.

Round Two: The Spurs

Last night's game was monumental for a number of reasons. First of all, I took my two month old son to his first basketball game. He got to see a great game played by the Suns and also got to see the Fakers getting knocked out of the playoffs with a 119-110 Suns win in game five. The Suns are now undefeated when he is in the building, so I may need to bring him to all remaining playoff games.
It was great to see the Suns take care of business last night. They were able to keep their composure and show that killer instinct that championship teams are made of.
Just a few hours after his first son was born, Raja Bell came out of the gate and set the tone early - scoring eight points in the opening minutes of the game. Those were all the points he would get but his defense on the Grim Raper proved to be the deciding factor in the game. All night long, Raja harrassed the Grim Raper into taking bad shot after bad shot. The Grim Raper shot 13 for 33 from the field (That's 39.4% for you ASU grads out there) and had six turnovers and just one assist - and a technical foul for crying more than my infant son. Sure he scored 34 points, as most clueless Faker fans will point out, but anyone can score if they don't pass the damn ball.
The only Faker that had a decent game was Lamar Odom - 33 points on 13-21 shooting and 10 rebounds. Luckily for the Suns he was in foul trouble most of the night. Who knows what he could have done if the game was called by actual officials that had a clue.
The officiating was awful for both teams . The Fakers had two players foul out and two more with four fouls - and the Suns had two players with five fouls. It seems that in the NBA the officials want to be as much a part of the game as the players. Either that or they are just so old and slow that they can't keep up and guess on most of the calls.

Anyway, back to the game...
The Suns held off a late Fakers run to pull away at the end. The Fakers got within 3 points when the Grim Raper went on a late run hitting a couple of the bad shots he kept jacking up...but then he kept shooting...and missing...and the Suns pulled away. Amare Stoudemire was a beast - 27 points and 16 rebounds. Matrix was his normal effective self - 26 pts 10 rebounds. Nash didn't have his best game...but the Suns got good performances all around to offset his 7 turnovers.

The next round will be the toughest for the Suns. The Spurs are a team that gives the Suns more trouble than any other team in the NBA. I feel that whoever wins this series will win the NBA title. With Dallas playing like a WNBA team agains the Warriors, they don't have the look of a champion. The Spurs lost their opener but then dominated a hot Denver team.
The two clubs met three times this season...with the Spurs winning the two games at San Antonio by close margins and the Suns dominating in Phoenix.
The Spurs first win came during the Suns awful 1-5 start. Raja Bell missed a free throw that would have won the game for the Suns, and the Spurs took the game in OT.
The next meeting was a typical Suns win at the US Airways Center. The Suns dictated the tempo and ran all over the Spurs.
The final game came in San Antonio. The Suns lost the game due to one bad quarter...it was a slow, close game, and the Suns were down by just four with two minutes to go...but made a couple of bad plays and ended up losing by eight. That game, in my mind, proved that if the Suns execute, they can beat the Spurs in a slower tempo game.

This will be a great series...the Spurs have a couple of guys that are almost as hated by Suns fans as The Grim Raper - Robert Horry and Rat Bastard Ginobili.
I can't wait until Sunday!

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