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(3) San Antonio Spurs vs. (6) Phoenix Suns 2008 NBA Playoffs recap
April 19 Game 1 Phoenix Suns 115, San Antonio Spurs 117 (2OT) AT&T Center, San Antonio ABC: SAN ANTONIO, April 19 (AP) -- Midway through the first quarter after missing two jumpers, Tim Duncan threw the ball up yet again, then held his arms wide.
This time, would the shot fall?
It did. And much later the Spurs' big man hit an even bigger one. Duncan's first 3 of the season with just ticks left sent his team into double overtime against the revenge-minded Phoenix Suns.
Then it was Manu Ginobili's turn, and his layup with 1.8 seconds left pushed the defending champions past the Suns 117-115 Saturday in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.
Now the teams have two days to rest from their marathon best-of-seven Western Conference opener before meeting for Game 2 on Tuesday night.
"I got a wide-open shot. Wound it up. Threw it up there and hoped for the best, said a clearly tired Duncan, who had 40 points and 15 rebounds.
This year's rematch of what many dubbed last year's real finals - a tense and testy second-round series between the teams that the Spurs won in six games on their way to the title - got off to a wild start and more than met expectations.
"It feels like a finals game, Duncan said. "It's the first game of the first series, and we're going to have to muster energy back up.
Early on, Game 1 did not look like it would turn into a thriller. The Suns controlled play for the first three quarters, leading by as many as 16 points despite early foul trouble for Shaquille O'Neal. The Suns held a six-point lead with a quarter left in regulation.
The Spurs took their first lead of the game late in the fourth quarter, but were down 93-90 with 1:10 to go after Leandro Barbosa's fast-break layup.
With 15 seconds on the clock, Michael Finley tied it at 93 for the Spurs to send it to overtime.
"We had the game won a few times and just weren't tough enough or disciplined enough to make every single play when it counted, said Steve Nash, who had 25 points and 13 assists.
Duncan made the big shot in the first overtime. With his team down 104-101, Duncan found himself all alone at the 3-point line.
After only a slight hesitation, he fired the ball and made it with 3 seconds to play. It was Duncan's first 3 of the season. He was 0-for-4 previously.
"I didn't know what was going to happen, honestly, Duncan said. "Manu turned the corner, Shaq just totally leaves me and stayed with Manu.
In the second overtime, O'Neal's dunk tied it at 112 with 1:33 to play. Ginobili's layup put the Spurs ahead.
Nash missed a key 3 with less than a minute to play. After risky, cross-court inbounds pass to the Spurs' Brent Barry, he was fouled. Barry made one of two free throws.
With 15 seconds left, the Suns went to sharp shooter Nash. Nearly falling out of bounds in the corner, he hit a 3 that made it 115-all.
Then Ginobili drove the lane against Raja Bell and got to the hoop, as he often does, almost at will, and his layup fell.
"What I knew, before taking it to the rim, is that Shaq and Amare (Stoudemire) were not there, Ginobili said. "So, I knew if I had the opportunity to go get in there, get some legs into the shot, I had an opportunity to finish.
Tony Parker added 26 points for the Spurs and Ginobili had 24.
"We had a lot of opportunities to win, O'Neal said. "You can't make mistakes against a team like that especially here in this building.
But O'Neal wasn't completely contrite.
"I just wanted to play aggressive, but the floppers prevailed today. Amare and myself are going to continue to play aggressive, O'Neal said of his foul trouble. "Hopefully those guys will compete rather than just fall down.
Stoudemire, who fouled out with 12 seconds left in the first overtime, led the Suns with 33 points. O'Neal scored 11 points.
"They know we let them have one, O'Neal said. "All we need is one in this building.
Phoenix acquired O'Neal in a blockbuster midseason trade for a series such as this one to give the run-and-gun Suns a defensive boost.
O'Neal played just under four minutes in the first quarter after picking up two quick fouls. He was on the court for just 24 seconds in the second quarter before picking up his third foul and sitting out the rest of the half.
O'Neal missed two shots right off, the first when his dunk off an alley-oop pass missed. He didn't score in the first half.
Even though Phoenix got O'Neal to help their half-court game, the Suns, who still like to play quick, had only nine fast-break points in the game.
The Spurs, on the other hand, were able to punish the Suns with their strong suit. They had a 72-46 advantage in the paint.
"They're just not going to fold up their tent and go home, Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said. "They're going to make runs. This is their homecourt. You're going to have to beat them.
Notes: There were quite a few Suns orange T-shirts dotting the crowd. ... The Spurs have eliminated the Suns in three of their last four postseason appearances. ... Finley had 13 points for San Antonio, and Kurt Thomas, who played for the Suns last season, grabbed 10 rebounds. ... Barry was playing just his third game for the Spurs since re-signing with them in March after a February trade sent him from San Antonio to Seattle. He's been sidelined this season with injuries to his calf. ... Spurs coach Gregg Popovich got a technical foul with 11:48 left in the second quarter. ... Parker and Thomas fouled out in the second overtime.
April 22 Game 2 Phoenix Suns 96, San Antonio Spurs 102 AT&T Center, San Antonio TNT:
SAN ANTONIO, April 22 (AP) -- Another big comeback by the San Antonio Spurs. Now the Phoenix Suns will need one.
Tony Parker scored 32 points to lead the Spurs to a 102-96 victory in Game 2 on Tuesday night after the Suns gave away another double-digit, first-half lead.
The Spurs needed a few amazing shots and the benefit of foul trouble for Phoenix in Game 1 to win that one in two overtimes. On Tuesday, the Spurs were down by as many as 14 in the first half before outscoring Phoenix 27-11 in a breakout third quarter.
The Spurs still had to withstand a fourth-quarter surge that got the Suns within five points with 14 seconds to play, but the defending champions now head to Arizona for Friday's Game 3 with a 2-0 lead and home-court advantage in tact.
Amare Stoudemire led the Suns with 33 points but struggled after halftime, when he shot 2-of-11 from the field.
The Spurs went up by as many as 17 points in the fourth quarter after taking control in the third. But Steve Nash led a 10-0 run to bring Phoenix within 96-91 with 2:44 left on the clock.
Tim Duncan, who finished with 18 points and 17 rebounds, had a monster dunk with 1:47 to play and Parker followed with a bucket to put San Antonio back up 101-93.
Then Stoudemire hit just his sixth 3-pointer of the season with 14 seconds left - a la Duncan's game-saving 3 in Game 1 - to make it 101-96. After that the Suns resorted to fouling and it was too late.
Nash had 23 points and 10 assists for the Suns. Shaquille O'Neal had 19 points and 14 rebounds.
Manu Ginobili, who won the NBA's sixth man award on Monday, scored 29 points for San Antonio.
The Suns had five turnovers in the third quarter and went just 3-of-18 in the period, leaving them with an 81-72 deficit with a quarter to play.
Ginobili hit his third 3 of the game early in the fourth and Parker followed, weaving his way through orange-shirted defenders and to the basket for a layup that put San Antonio up 86-73 with 10:40 to play.
Another score by Parker put the Spurs up 94-77 before the Suns started chipping away. O'Neal hit one of two from the line and Nash's dead-on 3 brought Phoenix within 94-81.
Parker pushed the Spurs back up by 15 before Nash led the run that threatened the Spurs' victory.
Grant Hill, who has been bothered by a groin injury and wasn't 100 percent for Game 1, played less than 20 minutes in Game 2 and didn't score.
The Suns shot 61 percent in the first half but couldn't sustain it. The Spurs cut the lead each time before Phoenix could build it back up.
O'Neal didn't get into foul trouble on Tuesday the way he did in Game 1, and it showed. He played more than 18 minutes in the first half and had four blocks and 11 points.
And Stoudemire could neither miss nor be stopped. He was 11-of-14 from the field, penetrating the paint and hitting jumpers for 25 first-half points.
But the Spurs came within striking distance by adopting the Suns' quick game. San Antonio had 18 fast-break points, led by Parker and Ginobili, in the half to the Suns' two.
The Suns led 61-54 at the break.
Michael Finley started the third quarter with eight points of an 11-0 Spurs run and tied the score at 61 with a mid-range jumper.
The Suns came out looking disorganized and missed eight consecutive shots. They didn't score until 5:35 was left in the third quarter off Nash's fade-away jumper.
The Spurs went up by 71-63 when Duncan, posted under the basket, passed to an open Ime Udoka for an easy layup.
Notes: Ginobili was presented the sixth man award before tipoff. Suns G Leandro Barbosa, who won the award last year, came in second. "I think he (Ginobili) should start so that way LB (Barbosa) could get it, joked Suns coach Mike D'Antoni. "I think he's one of the best players in the league. Sixth man, first man, third man, he should be on the All-Star team. ... Barbosa was 0-of-7 from the field and didn't score Tuesday. ... Spurs F Robert Horry played for the first time since March 21, when he went out with a left knee contusion. He had a big block on O'Neal with about 3 1/2 minutes left in the first half. ... Late in the third Spurs coach Gregg Popovich started the so-called "Hack-a-Shaq - having his players intentionally foul O'Neal, a 52 percent career free-throw shooter. It backfired, though, and O'Neal went 5-of-6 from the foul line.
April 25 Game 3 San Antonio Spurs 115, Phoenix Suns 99 US Airways Center, Phoenix ESPN:
PHOENIX, April 25 (AP) -- Phoenix took away Tony Parker's easy layups just like it wanted to. So he just made jump shot after jump shot after jump shot.
The smooth San Antonio point guard burned the Suns for a career-high 41 points along with 12 assists and the Spurs rolled to a 115-99 victory Friday night to take a 3-0 series lead.
This was supposed to be a spectacular first-round matchup of potential NBA champions. Instead, it's been a Spurs smackdown, with Parker leading the way.
"They were backing off on the pick-and-rolls," he said, "so I just took the shot, and it felt good tonight."
Everything felt good for the defending NBA champions, who never trailed in winning their ninth consecutive playoff game and 13th of 14, dating to last season.
"We possibly played our best game of the year," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.
San Antonio can complete the sweep on Sunday in Phoenix. No NBA team has come back from 0-3 to win a series.
It's the first three-game losing streak for the Suns this season.
"They were almost perfect," Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni said. "We didn't play well, and I'll take the blame for that, but you've got to give them a lot of credit. They played great."
Phoenix acquired Shaquille O'Neal to better match up with the Spurs, but the Suns are one loss away from being swept in a seven-game series for the first time since the Los Angeles Lakers did it in the 1988-89 Western Conference finals.
Tim Duncan added 23 points and 10 rebounds and Manu Ginobili scored 20 points in the Spurs' fourth consecutive playoff road victory and ninth in their last 11.
But Parker did the most damage, often on the pick-and-roll that has flustered Phoenix all series. With three different defenders trying to stop him, he finished 17-of-26 from the field.
The ultra-quick Frenchman scored 26 points in Game 1 and 32 in Game 2.
"Tony has been very aggressive and just done a great job at both ends of the floor," Popovich said. "He's just been phenomenal. I don't know what else to say about him."
The Suns cut the lead to 13 points twice in the fourth quarter, the last on Raja Bell's 3-pointer with 7:35 to play, but Parker countered with his first 3 of the game and the Suns were finished.
"We just played great. Sometimes that happens," Parker said. "It just clicked tonight. We played great on defense and everybody made shots."
The packed house in the Suns' first home game of the playoffs booed Popovich's "Hack-a-Shaq" tactics in the first half, but they turned on the home team when the Spurs took a 23-point lead on Ginobili's 3-pointer with 5 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter.
Amare Stoudemire had 28 points and 11 rebounds to lead Phoenix, which was last swept in a series when Portland did it in a best-of-five matchup in 1998-99. Leandro Barbosa scored 20 points and O'Neal, who finished 9-for-17 from the free throw line, had 19. Steve Nash, defended ferociously by Bruce Bowen, had seven points on 3-of-8 shooting with nine assists.
Phoenix took big early leads in the first two games in San Antonio. The Spurs were in control of this one from the start.
San Antonio made 10 of its first 13 shots, including five of six jumpers by Parker. A 17-4 outburst capped by Parker's 22-footer put the Spurs up 27-12.
Popovich went to the fouling ploy, having Jacque Vaughn go after the big guy three straight times late in the first. O'Neal was called for crossing the free throw line on his first two tries, missed his next two, then made one of two.
Kurt Thomas, a surprise starter, converted a three-point play with .3 seconds left in the first quarter to put San Antonio up 33-19.
Barbosa scored 10 quick points as Phoenix cut the lead to 37-31 with 8:05 left in the half, but the Spurs scored the next seven points.
Popovich returned to purposely fouling O'Neal late in the second quarter after Brent Barry's 3-pointer put San Antonio ahead 57-43 with 58 seconds left in the half.
O'Neal made three of four free throws, but Parker's driving layup at the buzzer put the Spurs up 61-47.
Parker scored the first five points of the second half, including a three-point play that made it 66-47. Consecutive outside jumpers by Duncan put the Spurs up 70-50, and the boos began.
Notes: Columnists at both local newspapers said in Friday's editions that coach Mike D'Antoni's job could be in jeopardy if the team flops in the first round. ... The Suns' Grant Hill, nursing a sore groin, didn't start but played 20 minutes. ... Thomas, in his third start of the season and second for San Antonio, scored nine points.
April 27 Game 4 San Antonio Spurs 86, Phoenix Suns 105 US Airways Center, Phoenix ABC:
PHOENIX, April 27 (AP) -- A Frenchman put Phoenix on the brink of elimination, another brought the Suns back to life.
Boris Diaw fell two assists shy of a triple-double Sunday and the Suns avoided a first-round sweep at the hands of San Antonio with a 105-86 rout of the Spurs.
Diaw, starting in place of injured Grant Hill, had 20 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in one of the best playoff performances of his career.
"I trust him. I always have," Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said. "I think he's a heck of a basketball player. He's been maligned here a little bit, but he can play. He stepped up big."
Diaw also played tough defense on his good friend and fellow Frenchman Tony Parker, who scored 18 points after a career-high 41 in San Antonio's 115-99 victory Friday night in Game 3.
"I think they kind of relaxed being up 3-0," Diaw said, "but we came out and played, too. We didn't come out like the series was over. We came out fired up."
No one was more aggressive than Raja Bell, who scored 21 of his 27 points in a dominant first half to help Phoenix bring a one-sided end to the defending NBA champions' nine-game playoff winning streak. The Suns were 11-0 in the regular season when Bell scored at least 20.
"I was really embarrassed by my play and the team's play after the last game," Bell said. "It was hard to sleep. I was restless. I couldn't put it to bed."
Phoenix still trails the first-round series 3-1, with Game 5 on Tuesday night in San Antonio. No NBA team has come back from 0-3 to win a series, a fact that wasn't lost on the Spurs' Tim Duncan.
"We didn't expect to sweep these guys," Duncan said. "We're excited in the situation we're in, up 3-1. We've got to win one more game, and we get to go home and try to win it there. Those are a lot of things that are in our favor."
The Suns won in a blowout even though Amare Stoudemire scored just seven points and Steve Nash had four assists.
Nash and Leandro Barbosa scored 15 apiece for the Suns. Shaquille O'Neal had 14 points and 12 rebounds.
D'Antoni drew two technicals and was ejected with 3:38 to play and his team up 104-80.
"I don't know where the sense of humor has gone," D'Antoni said. "There's no use commenting on it. It was kind of silly."
Bell figured it was a good sign that everybody was emotionally into it for Phoenix.
"We were fired up from the beginning. We were fired up yesterday," he said. "It was good to see Mike get fired up, too."
Duncan scored 14 and Manu Ginobili 10 for the Spurs. Parker shot 7-of-17 and committed five turnovers, then said Diaw's defense was nothing special.
"They always think that's going to bother me but I had my shots," he said. "It didn't bother me at all, I just missed my shots."
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich threw in the towel by benching his three stars late in the third quarter.
"You lose by two and you play all those minutes, or you lose by 20 and you get some time to rest," Duncan said. "I guess you can find a positive there. You don't want to lose any games like this, but it happens and we'll be ready to go the next one."
Popovich had little to say afterward.
"Both teams want to play hard, both teams want to win just as badly as the other," he said. "They played better than we did, and they were more aggressive right out of the gate."
After watching the Spurs play to near-perfection Friday, the Suns were the aggressors from the start on Sunday. Phoenix led by 21 after one quarter, by as many as 24 in the second and by 30 in the third.
Nash's 15-footer gave the Suns a 79-49 lead with 5:50 left in the third quarter. With Parker and Duncan on the bench, San Antonio cut it to 22 late in the quarter, but it was 93-65 entering the fourth.
Bell shot 6-of-7, 3-for-4 on 3-pointers to lead Phoenix to a 65-43 halftime lead. Diaw scored 10 points in the half.
The Suns never led in Game 3, but built big advantages early in the first two games, only to lose at the end. Their first-quarter start Sunday was their best yet.
Diaw's shot over Ginobili inside made it 11-1, and it was 20-9 after Barbosa's driving layup with 5:41 left in the first. It was 34-13 after one.
San Antonio was 4-for-19 shooting with six turnovers in the first two quarters.
The Spurs cut it to 12 three times in the second quarter, the last at 49-37 on Ginobili's 15-foot bank shot with 4:55 to go. Phoenix, though, scored the next 12 -- six on free throws by Bell -- to go up 61-37 on Diaw's layup with 1:33 left in the half.
Notes: Hill sat after being slowed by a sore right groin in the first three games. ... The 22-point lead was the largest in any playoff game this year. ... San Antonio shot 38 percent in the first half (16-of-42). ... Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim were in the crowd. Krzyzewski is head coach of the U.S. Olympic basketball team. Boeheim and D'Antoni are assistants. ... Phoenix had two turnovers in the first half, while San Antonio had nine.
April 29 Game 5 Phoenix Suns 87, San Antonio Spurs 92 AT&T Center, San Antonio TNT:
SAN ANTONIO, April 29 (AP) -- Tim Duncan was not all smiles after the San Antonio Spurs eliminated the Phoenix Suns yet again from the playoffs. Written on the big man's face was only one thing: relief.
"Just happy we're done with them," he said.
Really, was there ever any doubt?
The Spurs dispatched the Suns with a 92-87 Game 5 victory Tuesday in what has become almost a postseason ritual for the defending champions.
The veteran team moves on to the Western Conference semifinals against the No. 2 seed Hornets, led by playoff rookie Chris Paul, in a series that begins Saturday in New Orleans.
The Suns go home again, falling to their postseason nemesis for the second straight year and the fourth time in five playoff appearances. The Hornets finished off their series with the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday, also in five games.
"We went up against a team that knows how to win," Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said. "Every time we needed to close something out -- a half or a game -- they got the best of us. That's why they're the champions."
Duncan had 29 points and 17 rebounds and Tony Parker scored 31 points for San Antonio. They were the only Spurs to score in the double digits.
Boris Diaw, who had a near triple-double in the Suns' rout of the Spurs in Game 4, led the Suns with 22 points. Amare Stoudemire had 15 points and 11 rebounds and Shaquille O'Neal added 13 points.
"Every year it seems like we always play the Spurs, and they beat us every single time," Stoudemire said. "As long as I'm here we're going to break it sooner or later, because I'm tired of losing to these guys. I'm sick and fed up."
Five Suns players scored in double figures and they outshot the Spurs from the field, but they had a number of costly turnovers down the stretch.
With the Spurs up 88-87 after battling back and forth with the Suns throughout the fourth quarter, Manu Ginobili, who had been cold all night, hit one of two from the line with 25 seconds on the clock.
Steve Nash turned the ball over on an inbounds pass, and Phoenix sent Ginobili to the line again with 23 seconds left. Ginobili hit both this time to make it 91-87.
Nash's 3-point attempt missed and Duncan hit another free throw. Diaw's last-second 3 missed, but it wouldn't have made a difference.
Nash had three of the Suns' seven fourth-quarter turnovers and finished with only three assists.
"We should have probably just calmed down a little bit. I'll take the responsibility for that. I know I made a couple of key turnovers that cost us, and we didn't deserve to win," Nash said.
"I think on paper we have more talent than they do. But I think their experience, their commitment and understanding of what they're trying to do is greater than ours. Their ability to play together and make small plays on both ends of the floor is unsurpassed."
The Spurs outscored the Suns 23-15 in the fourth quarter, led by nine points apiece from Duncan and Parker.
"We treated it like a Game 7 in the fourth quarter," Parker said. "We just stayed in the game and kept fighting."
It was widely predicted that this might finally be the Suns' year -- that they were hungrier that the aging Spurs. A seven-game series wouldn't have been a surprise and plenty expected this to be the best of all the first-round series.
Early on, it delivered with a Game 1 double-overtime thriller that the Spurs won after a couple of clutch 3-pointers.
San Antonio won its second game at home, then really took control of the series by rolling over the Suns in Phoenix in Game 3.
Phoenix tried to become the first NBA team to come back from an 0-3 deficit, and they won Game 4 in Phoenix with gusto. They stayed in Game 5 until the end, trying to force a Game 6 back in Phoenix.
Instead, the Suns go home, falling short despite the midseason blockbuster trade for O'Neal -- who was brought in specifically to match up better with teams like San Antonio.
"They beat us with the intangibles," said Raja Bell, who had 14 points. "They beat us with the little things. They beat us with the gamesmanship. They beat us with the attention to detail. The game plan. The commitment to doing all the little things to win games.
"That's why they're the champs. That's why year-in and year-out no matter what people say about them they find a way to be right there in the mix and vie for a championship."
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had his players intentionally foul O'Neal, a 52 percent career free-throw shooter, throughout the game. He finished 9-of-20 from the line, dropping the Suns to 20-of-37 total on free throws.
The Spurs hit 24 of 30 free throws, led by 13-of-16 shooting by Parker.
Down three points to start the fourth, the Spurs battled back and Parker's under-the-basket feed to Duncan gave the Spurs a 77-76 lead with 6:43 to play.
Nash's first basket of the quarter, a mid-range jumper, put the Suns back up by one, 82-81, with 3:10 on the clock. After Parker's jumper put the Spurs up 85-82, Nash answered with his first 3 of the night to tie it.
Nash fouled Parker, who hit one of two from the line to give the Spurs a one-point cushion. His free throw was the go-ahead basket for the Spurs.
With just under 40 seconds to play, Diaw threw the ball out of bounds and Parker's jumper fell with 29 on the clock for an 88-85 Spurs lead. Diaw's quick layup brought Phoenix within 88-87.
The Spurs jumped out to as much as an eight-point lead in the first quarter before the Suns evened things in the second.But the Spurs closed the half with an 11-2 run led by Parker, who had 20 points in the half, to go up 54-45.
In the third the Suns went on a 15-2 run, with O'Neal on the bench for most of it with four fouls, to take the lead. Bell's jumper as he fell to the floor put the Suns up 62-60 and his 3 after the Suns grabbed an offensive board and passed the ball all over the floor to finally find him open put them up 65-62.
Notes: Popovich also tried the so-called "Hack-a-Skinner on Suns F-C Brian Skinner toward the end of the first quarter. Skinner, a 56 percent career free-throw shooter, hit three of four. ... Ginobili was just 2-of-11 from the field and scored eight points. All of his points in the fourth quarter were on free throws. ... Nash finished 4-of-16 from the field for 11 points. ... Kurt Thomas had 12 rebounds for San Antonio. ... Suns starting F-G Grant Hill was inactive, missing his second straight game with a groin injury.
San Antonio wins series, 4–1