If you're a fan of the irony then you would have loved the way the Spurs closed out the Suns last night. Exhausted from playing with six men all night, Phoenix couldn't get a body on Bruce Bowen with 36 seconds left and he nailed a three to put the Spurs ahead 84-81. It was their first lead since early in the first quarter and they'd go on to win the game 88-85.
The Suns were exhausted because they were playing without two of their top six players and the fact that Bowen stuck the dagger in their hearts must have been especially hard to swallow. Bowen's play has been much closer to the unacceptable line than anything Amare Stoudemire or Boris Diaw did when they wandered away from the bench but Bowen's escaped punishment and was around to make Phoenix's life much more difficult. They'll have to win in San Antonio Friday to get back home for another game but this kind of grueling effort will hang on players like Steve Nash, Shawn Marion and Raja Bell in the next game.
The Suns led by 16 in the first half and eight with five minutes to play by using a style they were totally unaccustomed to playing. They were deliberate, they were methodical and, if they hadn't been playing just six guys, they would have pulled off a pretty shocking win. But both Marion and Leandro Barbosa disappeared in the second half and Nash just couldn't get it done all by himself. Eventually that led to Bowen getting the ball in the corner. That's the only spot he's dangerous, on offense anyway, and he killed the Suns. In a game that many people were calling a sham before it even started, it ended as a bigger one than you could imagine when the guy most deserving of a suspension beat a team that played its heart out in intractable circumstances.
(Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)
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