Last week I wrote that I didn't think Steve Nash was the MVP of the NBA. I was proven wrong at Madison Square Garden last night. The Suns didn't annhilate the Knicks as I expected, in fact the Knicks led by 10 in the second quarter and the 112-107 final was reasonably close. If not for Nash they may actually have won the game. The Knicks built their lead in the first half while Nash took a breather. The Suns didn't move the ball with the same crispness and the Knicks worked the game at their pace, slamming the ball inside to Eddy Curry who responded with a dominant 21 points in the first 24. They were up 36-26 at the end of a 9-0 run and the Suns called a timeout.
Nash returned and the Suns turned that 10-point hole into a 49-46 halftime lead. They extended that lead in the third quarter by moving to a zone defense that limited Curry's effectieness. Quentin Richardson had a poor shooting game and the other Knick guards, Jamal Crawford and Nate Robinson, were also misfiring from the outside. Meanwhile Amare Stoudemire was running the floor free and easy, dunking and laying the ball in so often that I thought "Amare Stoudemire from Steve Nash" was the newest sponsor of the Knick PA announcements. Nash, Leandro Barbosa and James Jones each nailed a three and the lead had bulged to 13 at the quarter's close.
The Knicks, to their credit, didn't fold up. Not even when Curry limped to the bench with a calf injury did they dial back their game. With a strange lineup of Crawford, Robinson, David Lee, Malik Rose and Mardy Collins on the court they chipped away at the Phoenix lead, thanks to 23 fourth quarter points by Crawford, and with Nash on the bench cut the lead back down to a manageable amount. They closed to within six and just when the big board at the Garden flashed that they were on a 13-2 run, Nash nailed a three that took the wind out of their sails. He did that all night, a zippy pass for a dunk here or a three-pointer there, and the Knicks had no answer for his brillant play.
There are no moral victories in professional sports but games like this are as close as they get. A much better team had to fight tooth and nail to hold you off down the stretch with your two best players hurting. It would help if either of your starting forwards contributed anything other than reasons for the crowd to boo but only Thomas can explain why Channing Frye and Jared Jeffries still get minutes and only Crawford can explain why he plays his best when things look bleakest.
(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
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