Marion’s floater (with 1.1 seconds left) gives Suns 110-108 win in Cleveland
(AP Photo/Mark Duncan) Shawn Marion made his first goal of the night on a running floater with 1.1 seconds left in the game to give the Suns a 110-108 victory over the Cavs in Cleveland.
It was a very good, hard fought game that resembled a playoffs affair.
Marion’s layup was the difference in a very close contest as the teams were tied at 101, 104, 106 and 108 in the last five minutes.
The game was largely dominated by the Cavs, especially in the first half, who are one of the hottest team in the NBA right now (9-1 on their last 10 entering last night’s game) led by the best player in the League, Lebron James (36 points, 14-for-30 shooting).
The Suns tried to stop James early on with Hill then with Marion, Diaw, Bell and Strawberry but Lebron was really amazing in the first quarter. He can take over a game both physically and technically, Lebron is that good. Should he one day become a consistent outisde shooter he would officially take over this League.
Cleveland outmuscled Phoenix all night long and controlled the painted areas. The Cavs grabbed 17 offensive rebounds (to the Suns’ 3).
The Suns actually played some good defense, at least worked hard on their end of the court, and held the Cavs to only 39 points (15-of-42 shooting) in the second half after a disastrous - at times a bit irritating to tell the truth - first half. Cleveland scored a first half season-high 69 points in the first 24 minutes of the game.
“I just thought we were grittier” Nash said to ESPN.com “When you start fighting defensively, good things will happen offensively.”
Nash was the one who tried to lead the team in the second half. Steve is not a good defender (we know that) but he simply put his heart in the game, especially on defense, last night and in the end it proved to be the difference.
The Suns were down by 13 points at the half (69-57) and trailed until 6 minutes into the third quarter when they took the lead 77-76.
The Cavs tried successfully all night to deny the inside to STAT and Marion and limit the Suns’ ability to drive to the basket; but since the Suns are so good at spacing and using the entire court, they were able to find open outside shots (26 assists, including 9 each from Nash and Diaw).
In this game, despite a good effort in the second half, the Suns went as far as their shooting percentage took them. Phoenix shot 17-of-33 (51.5%) from 3-point. The Suns shot 33 times from 3-point range and 34 from 2-point. The 17 triples are, at least according to Fox Sports Ohio, and Arena record.
In the game of basketball, in the end, what matters is making field goals and the Suns did just that while the Cavs did not.
Bell led the Suns with 27 points (7-of-10 from 3-pts) while Nash added 26 (7-of-9 from 3-pts) and Stoudemire had 22 on a poor overall performance. Amaré was outworked and outplayed on both ends by the hard workind duo of Ilgauskas (21 points, 10 rebounds) and Varejao (6 and 6 and the usual ton of energy).
To be fair, I think the Suns got a bit lucky tonight, but did a great job of making plays when it mattered and turned it up their effort and energy (on defense) in the second half.
On the road against a very good Cavs team, the Eastern version fo the Spurs, it’s quite an important result.
One final note on Grant Hill, who had to leave the game after 3 minutes due to back pain. He’ll be evaluated today, let’s just hope it’s not the annual Hill injury.
The Suns (31-13) will now play Chicago at the “House that Jordan built” on Sunday morning (11 AM). Enjoy your breakfast with the Bulls!
Yours truly, Steve Fan
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Posted by Steve Fan
Blogger and Steve Nash enthusiast. Don't get in his way, he'll MVP your ass.
http://sonsofstevenash.blogspot.com
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