San Antonio Spurs 113, 
Phoenix Suns 110
Jason Richardson gets a wide-open dunk, 99 out of 100 times it goes in and he gets on the ESPN highlight reel. When the Suns needed it most, it clanged out of the basket.
With 41.8 seconds left in the game and the Suns down by two, they got a steal on the Spurs and Jason Richardson sprinted ahead of the pack. He took a quick glance behind him to see how close the closest Spur was behind him. That little glance probably threw him off a bit. Just a nudge. As he rose up to throw down the ball, the Suns bench was cheering him on, the Spurs crowd just holding their breath knowing the game would be tied. And then the improbable. The impossible. Something you rarely ever see. If it was Jared Dudley, Steve Nash, or any other Suns player besides Stoudemire you might wave your head in disappointment, wondering, just wondering, why couldn’t Steve just lay it in instead of try to do the power-throwdown dunk. But it was J-Rich. Two time NBA Slam Dunk winner, a guy with more hops than a beer factory. He was pretty high in the air. He had the ball firmly in one hand. And when he brought it down, it clanged off the inside of the basket and popped out. Unfortunately, there was no other Suns player within reach of the ball.
By all other accounts, it was a pretty good game by the Suns. Stoudemire went off for 41 points and 12 rebounds – the most points he has scored this season. Jason Richardson had 20 points, although I’m sure he wished he had 22. Nash was himself, 18 points and 11 assists, and Channing Frye came off the bench and hit three three-pointers. Lopez confounded the Spurs in the paint during the first half, going for five blocked shots on the game.
The game started early, 11am Phoenix time. The Suns always seem to have problems with morning games. I’m not sure if it’s because they usually sleep until after noon, they don’t get their afternoon nap, whatever it is. The game started slow for the Suns, not looking like they knew for sure what they wanted to run. But as the game wore on, the Suns warmed up, and with a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Stoudemire, the Suns went into the half up by three. Quipped Steve Nash at halftime, “That’s what you get when you play the Suns: lots of defense” when asked about the defense of the Suns.
In particular, the defense of Robin Lopez on Tim Duncan. Duncan has not really played against Lopez, so the first half was a warm-up. I’m sure he went into the locker room at halftime and said “Pops, tell what I need to do to get around Lopez.” He must have said something, because in the third quarter Duncan came out and had his way with Lopez. Oh, none of the moves were particularly easy, but he mixed up a variety of post-up moves, fadeaway hooks and angle-jumpers to keep Lopez busy. Meanwhile, rookie DeJuan Blair was having a pretty good game, ending up with 14 points.
The game was pretty much back and forth from there, with the Spurs leading by no more than eight, which lasted all of 12 seconds. And then the dunk that wasn’t. The most important dunk of the game. Although it appeared to have taken some wind out of the Suns sails, they fought on. Amare Stoudemire had an easy inside-score. Nash hit a long (loooong) three-pointer. But the Spurs were tough, hitting all their free-throws. Even so, the Suns had the final possession of the game with 3 seconds left. Nash dribbled up-court and passed off to Frye, who was inexplicably inside the three-point line, but his shot was too late, not that it would have mattered, as it was only a two-pointer.
It was a tough loss. I don’t think it was as tough as the Hawks loss that sent the Suns into a downward spiral, but emotionally it took alot out of the players. They have a big game against Denver tomorrow night, and let’s hope they come out and try to wipe the memory of the Spurs loss away. The standings are pretty tight, and there’s only a four-loss difference between second place and seventh place. A mini-losing streak by any of the teams could send them packing early for the summer. The Suns know every remaining game is important. Let’s hope that the missed dunk doesn’t cause Jason Richardson’s game to go into an extended funk, or make Stoudemire look ahead to free-agency.
