Nashty; Suns Unravel Nets Thread by Tedious Thread

Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns delivered a message to the Association last night and that message should reverberate loudly to the the East Coast megalopolis' media: do not f*** with us. Methodical and clutch, the Suns toyed with the Nets sanity throughout the evening, matching them possessions of surging offense to the bitter end when they won 161-157. Both teams executed offensively to perfection and got superstar performances from each teams poing guard. Jason Kidd was not going to let this one go, but either was Nash. It was a classic battle of hall of fame point guards. Steve abused New Jersey's cardboard-cutout semblance of a defense. Likewise Kidd was killing us in a multitude of facets. Both teams were unstoppable.



The Suns shot 52% from the field and 55% from three, yet they were still down by three points with four seconds left in the game. Nash broke free, received the final inbounds pass, saw daylight, rose up and jammed a dagger into the heart of the Meadowlands. Everybody in Phoenix simultaneously lost it. I was manically jumping around the house. Later, I went to the gas station and I learned that Sanjog had been watching on the tiny 14 inch tv at the station, he says he went off after Nashty's shot. Nashty was just unbelievable. This was a three-time MVP statement. At one point he was trying to drive the lane, two Nets sealed off his path so he threw the ball through them and forcefully jumped through the little bit of air they left between them and received his own pass. Of course they called a foul on the Nets but that was crazy.




This game had it all. It had ups, downs, I got frustrated, and I was in awe. The Suns showed me the amount of heart and determination they have in the tank last night and that well is bottomless. I was getting pissed that the Suns weren't dumping the ball into Amare during crunch time in the fourth, and then he fouls out. I cringed everytime the Matrix jacked up a three, but he was hitting them and went 3 of 6. I was screaming at Boris for not scoring, and then in crunch time he posted up the smaller Kidd numerous times and hit the easy hook shot.



Boris abused Kidd on these post ups. He gave Kidd some spin moves, he was giving him hard bumps, he made him move halfway across the court and then he put up a soft hook that went down with ease, just when we needed points. Boris was a big factor in destroying the Nets' defense and keeping us in the game late in the fourth and into overtime. 3-D came away with a sick double double of 16pts and 14 assists.

For Miss Suns Gossip

The Suns gave it their all and barely made it out of regulation alive. Once they forced OT I knew the game was now in our favor. We're used to a sprinting through games, Kidd and the Nets are definitely not. It was only a matter of time before the Nets got too tired to continue. Not to mention Vince Carter fouled out in regulation, so that made things easier except Amare and Raja were also out. Kidd just kept on pushing though and we were not getting stops. Steve, Boris and Shawn held it down until the Nets finally ran out of steam. Late in the second OT Kidd had the ball on their final possession, he tried to drive right but fatigue caused him to dribble off his own foot and into the hands of Leandro. The game was ours from that point on.



UPDATE: I almost forgot, Nashty getting up in Mikki Moore's grill like he was about to throw down was easily one of the more badass things I've ever seen from Steve. Mikki was afraid.

UPDATE 2: Lang Whitaker of Slam was at the game and has a great recap posted. One of the best things to come from this an observation of the Suns bench after Nashty hit the big three to send it to overtime:

the Suns called their last timeout with 4.1 left. They came back to halfcourt, and after what seemed like 4.99999 seconds, Diaw threw it in to Nash, who came off a Kurt Thomas pick and drained a clutch three from the top of the key. Suns assistant Alvin Gentry hopped off the bench and screamed, “Yes sir motherf*ckers!”