The Suns shake off disappointing playoff history

Chris Covatta/NBAE/Getty Images The Spurs congratulate the Suns on beating them in the playoffs, which is a new thing. In Sunday's Game 4, Tim Duncan's elbow opened up Steve Nash's eye. Nash's Suns, meanwhile, opened up a new chapter in their playoff history. In no small part because of their inability to get past the Spurs, the Suns have changed coaches, general managers and players since Nash arrived in 2004. And the losses have been brutal -- the Suns' many huge playoff wins have been compromised by a string of bizarre circumstances and agonizing defeats, mostly against the Spurs. A review: 2007 playoff fracas The series started bloody, and got more controversial from there. In the opening game, Nash was whistled for a foul when he tried to poke the ball away from Spurs guard Tony Parker in crunch time of a close game. The two banged heads. Parker crumbled to the court -- there were concussion worries. Nash appeared fine initially, but soon began bleeding unc...