Game 2 Phoenix Suns-San Antonio Spurs: Back To The Drawing Board

With so much at stake for Phoenix, credit Mike D’Antoni and his Suns for coming up with the right gameplan to attack the Spurs.

Indeed, D’Antoni’s ability to get his big men rolling early put serious pressure on the Spurs.

Amare Stoudemire was flat-out unguardable. Whether it be Tim Duncan, Fabricio Oberto, or Kurt Thomas assigned to stop him, Amare was able to clear out at the wing or baseline and use his phenomenal athletic gifts to drive right around the Spurs for multiple in-your-face throw downs. Stoudemire was also able to take his time and nail four of his five jumpers. For the first half, Amare finished with 25 points on 10-13 shooting.

Shaq was able to run his way in early offense into premium post position. For the half he added 5-9 shooting for 11 points.

Defended by Tony Parker, Nash was able to go wherever he wanted to. He often drove all the way to the baseline and drew a chain of defenders before pulling the ball back out and leaving the Spurs defense compromised so Stoudemire would have open angles to the basket.

The Spurs halfcourt offense was adequate but most of San Antonio’s scoring resulted in open court layups by Tony Parker. In fact San Antonio outscored the running-gunning Suns 18-2 on the break in the first half.

Boris Diaw bested Fabricio Oberto on not one, not two, not three, but four post ups and isolation.

Except for two open screen/roll jumpers for Kurt Thomas (which were missed), San Antonio’s offense was completely Duncan/Parker/Ginobli oriented. In fact, a Brent Barry trifecta registered the only non-Duncan, Parker, Ginobli points of the first half.

The Spurs weren’t quick enough to recover on Stoudemire’s drives and gave up too many free angles to which he could drive with little defensive help.

But during the intermission, Popovich went to the drawing board, took out his wrench, tweaked some things here and there, and voila! A 2-0 series lead!

To stop Amare Stoudemire, the Spurs sagged the middle and cut off Amare’s driving angles while still keeping a body on him to contest his jumpers. Stoudemire never got comfortable in the second half and never found the range on his jumpers—3-12 FG, 8 PTS.

Popovich switched Bruce Bowen onto Nash and trapped every screen/roll he ran—1 AST, three TO. Aside from a brace of clutch jumpers late in the fourth, Nash was rendered a non-factor in the second half.

Popovich called Michael Finley’s name four times to start the second half and each time Finley answered the bell with three of his trademark catch-and-shoot jumpers going left plus a baseline jumper off a Duncan dish.

Four times in the second half, D’Antoni put Diaw in the left box against Parker and Ginobli but Diaw failed to capitalize and didn’t score a single point. Instead of going up strong, Diaw would always attempt a needlessly complicated spin back to the baseline. If Diaw isn’t tough enough to realize he can just turn into Parker or Ginobli and hit a right hook, then he certainly isn’t tough enough to push the Suns past the Spurs.

The Spurs ran innumerable high screen/rolls with Parker and Ginobli attacking Shaq and Stoudemire knowing that the two behemoths weren’t going to step out and challenge along the perimeter. Parker and Ginobli were able to score at will in the second half.

While San Antonio’s defense was somewhat sluggish in the opening half, they played with an intensity in the second half not seen since last season’s playoff run, taking away everything D’Antoni wanted to do and bottling up each of the Suns stars.

And that was the ballgame.