Suns Lose Game 2 and Possibly Series
Once again, the Suns game into San Antonio firing at all cylinders. They looked good. They looked poised. They looked like a bunch of ticked off, slighted, emotionally-driven avengers who had nothing but victory on their agenda. And then the first half ended.
Going into half time leading the Spurs 61-54, the Suns carried the lead and momentum. They were positioning themselves for a solid victory and a series all knotted up going back to Phoenix. Until they went stone cold in the third quarter.
After shooting 65% in the first half, the Suns were limited to only 11 points and outscored by 16 in the third quarter. Amare was off, Diaw was off, Shaq was ineffective, and Nash was flustered. Leandro Barbosa was 0-7 for the night and didn’t contribute a single point to the scoreboard for the Suns.
As the third quarter ended, the Suns found themselves trailing by nine points in foreign territory. The crowd was annoying, the Spurs looked like they didn’t know what was going on, and the Suns acted like they had a spell cast on them.
The momentum carried into the fourth and the Spurs built a 15-point lead. The Suns mounted a little comeback with a 14-2 run to get within five points, but the third quarter skid proved to be too much.
Now, heading back to Phoenix, the Suns are facing a must-win game on Friday night. Trailing 2-0 in the series, they cannot afford to be staring at a 3-0 deficit.
In fact, the Suns are facing a must-win home stand if they want to have a fighting chance, because going back to San Antonio trailing 3-1 and setting up the Spurs to close it out on their home court is a recipe for disaster as well.
The bottom line is that the Spurs are too good for the Suns. It could be mental, it could be physical, it could be luck. (Duncan ultimately won Game 1 by making his only three attempted all year) Whatever it is, the Suns have not found the remedy in Shaq or Hill or Giricek, and this year is shaping up to end just like those in the past.
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Posted by Troy Mihalek
Troy appears on the widely unsyndicated In The Zona, Arizona's Premier Sports Podcast, as well as 1060AM the fan on Saturday mornings. He is the voice behind the mic in more ways than one. Besides writing for the site and co-hosting the radio show, his passion lies in the art of voiceovers.
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