(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) Raja Bell scored 27 points on 8-of-11 shooting and Boris Diaw, starting in place of Grant Hill, added 20 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists to lead the Suns past the Spurs 105-86 in game 4 of the first round playoffs series. San Antonio now leads the series 3-1 but the Suns are still alive !

Bell and Diaw made the difference on both sides of the ball. "Boris was amazing today, I think he was great at both ends" confirmed Nash after the game. Same for Bell in the words of Coach D'Antoni "I thought Raja, his aggressiveness coming out shooting, playing, I thought Raja did an unbelievable job"

Bell woke up Phoenix early on scoring the first 7 points of the game (21 in the first half) and the Suns took a 20-5 lead after seven minutes of the first quarter. Suns led 34-13 after one holding the Spurs to 4 field goals on 19 attempts (21 percent).

The Suns set the tone of the game defensively early on as San Antonio had 6 turnovers in the first 12 minutes of the game. But Phoenix played a great first half of play on both sides scoring over 60 points giving up only 2 turnovers and leading 65-43 after the first two periods.

The Spurs were held to under 40 percent shooting in the game and attempted only 2 three-point shots in the first half, both by Horry.

The big first half lead was extended to thirty points on a couple of occasions in the third quarter including a comfortable 93-65 Suns lead entering the final period.

The Suns also had big leads in the first two games of the series, only this time they didn't blew it. Quite a difference one might add.

Steve Nash had 15 points and only 4 assists while Shaq added 14 points and 12 rebounds. Stoudemire shot only 3-for-11 while scoring 7 points and getting 9 rebounds.

The Spurs had 18 points from Tony Parker while Duncan added 14 and Ginobili only 10.

San Antonio, as classy as usual, tried on a few occasions to turn things ugly, hoping to change the course of the game, but the Suns were able to keep things calm and remain in control.

So far, simply not being swept by the Spurs is good news as the Suns will try to get back into the series. After all, there's still life on Planet Orange.

Game 5 is set for Tuesday night (6:30 PM) in San Antonio.

Let's see if the Suns can take the series back to the Valley for game 6.

Yours truly, Steve Fan

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