Spurs Win Again, Against Suns Print E-mail
User Rating: / 1
PoorBest 
Written by Ryan.W   
Wednesday, 30 April 2008
Spurs Win Again, Against Suns


Coming into this year’s playoff there were a few series match ups that looked like they could be potential NBA playoff classics, but there was one in particular that was destined to be in the history books, the Phoenix Suns taking on the San Antonio Spurs, but after the very entertaining game 1 which went into double overtime and which will probably go down as a classic, that wasn’t how this usually competitive series panned out as the San Antonio Spurs completed dominated the revamped Suns to win the series 4-1.

This match up had all the making of an awesome playoff series with Phoenix’s newest Sun Shaquille O’Neal taking on the Spurs go to guy Tim Duncan, 2-time MVP Steve Nash going head to head against the Spurs lightening quick Tony Parker. This series should be a guaranteed thriller from game 1 to game 7, but in the end it became the perfect example of the fact that you can beat experience and team basketball. Even though ever since Steve Nash put the Suns back on the map they have been known to play superb team basketball they have never had a big man like Tim Duncan who is as versatile as they come and the Suns playoff kryptonite.

Without Tim Duncan, the Spurs do not win this series, but unfortunately for the Suns, Duncan is better than ever (especially after he dropped 40 on them) and Shaq just can’t hang anymore. When I heard that the Suns were going after Shaq I thought they were heading in the right direction (even though everyone else didn’t) because if the past has proven anything, you can’t win championships without a good big man (unless you have Michael Jordan).

Getting Shaq gives them playoff experience, a proven winner, someone who has had success against Duncan in the past and quite possibly the most dominate big man in this era of NBA basketball. The only problem is that Shaq isn’t what he used to be and Tim Duncan, although aging, is still playing at the top of his game.

Another problem for the Suns in this series and a problem for any team in the NBA for that matter against the Spurs is guarding their point guard Tony Parker. This kid is probably one of the most underrated point guards of all time. Gifted with some phenomenal basketball skills, he can score at will with either his patent tear drop in the lane or his unique slashing ability and now with his perfected jump shot; Parker is the total package and an opposing team’s nightmare. Not saying that Steve Nash is a push over by any means, but I definitely think he is on the downside of his career of being the NBA’s best point guard, especially with the emergence of some of the young point guards like Utah’s Deron Williams, New Orleans Hornets superstar Chris Paul and of course Tony Parker. Much like Shaq, I don’t think Nash will be able to hang in the coming years and it was pretty obvious as Parker just dominated this series and pretty much made Nash an after thought.

Although I don’t think the Spurs get past the Lakers in the West, they are definitely bound for the Western Conference finals unless the New Orleans Hornets throws something different at the defending champs and Chris Paul is able to shut down Tony Parker next round.

I was pretty sure that the Hornets inexperience would be their undoing in the last series with the Dallas Mavericks, but Paul stepped up and has been playing like a veteran. If the Spurs stop Paul, they stop the Hornets, but same goes for the Hornets, if they stop Parker or Duncan New Orleans will take the series.



Reddit!Del.icio.us!Google!Live!Facebook!StumbleUpon!Yahoo!Free social bookmarking plugins and extensions for Joomla! websites!
Comments (0)add
Write comment
smaller | bigger

busy
 
< Prev   Next >
[ Back ]