Found May 13, 2007 on 20 Second Timeout:
The story of the San Antonio-Phoenix series will ultimately boil down to two things: (1) the Spurs have the best player on either team, Tim Duncan; (2) the Spurs can win at the Suns' preferred uptempo pace but the Suns cannot win at a slowdown game. Duncan had 33 points, 19 rebounds and three blocked shots as the Spurs defeated the Suns, 108-101, to take a 2-1 lead. Those kind of numbers are nothing new for Duncan in the playoffs; in fact, Duncan moved into fifth place on the career postseason list for 30 point, 15 rebound games: this was his 15th, one more than Hakeem Olajuwon had; the only players who had more such games are Wilt Chamberlain (39), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (33), Elgin Baylor (31), Bob Pettit (24) and Shaquille O'Neal (22).
2 Comments:
  • I agree that Duncan shined in the 4th, but let's not forget the efforts of Ginobili in the third. I dont think Duncan could have closed out the game without Ginobili's efforts to rally his team in the third with Duncan resting up. Another thing was that Nash was scoreless until 5 minutes left in the third which is not how the suns are going to win this series. I will admit to one thing, with the recent light of omari stoudamire on Bruce Bowen's dirty play, this game highlighted Bowen's dirty tactics. Bruce drove a knee into Nash's groin when he didn't need to, Nash wasn't aggressive on D, and Bowen threw a blatant knee right into him. What was more astonishing was the officiating in this game, I counted several fouls which weren't called, and without a doubt Bowen should have been punished for that knee. I'm neither a Suns or Spurs fan but the officiating seemed pro-San Antonio last night.
  • I mentioned Ginobili quite prominently in this post and said that in this game he gave Duncan what Pippen used to give MJ and what Kobe needs so desperately now: someone who can carry the load while the superstar rests for a few minutes so that he will be fresh in the fourth quarter. Nash was right on top of Bowen before he caught the flying knee. Using your leg to back up a defender and clear space is a normal move, although the placement of the knee was most unfortunate for Nash.
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