Tony Padegimas's Blog

Posted by Tony Padegimas

So, I took a month (or two) off of basketball, because I did. They do not exactly back trucks full of money up into my yard to write these things, and I am somewhat confident that the fourteen or so people who regularly read this page have found some way to stagger forward into their world.

I notice with some sadness that no one has joined my crusade to demand some way to post four column tables on this web site. I shall have to carry on The Struggle alone.

I tried to follow the WNBA. I really did. For about a week. Then my real job flared up. Then I went camping Then... you get the idea. They're in playoffs now, and I couldn't tell you much about it except that Diana Taurassi couldn't drag my hometown Mercury into the post-season. Some other team will win. And someone will cheer about it. Good for them.

I had decided months ago that should I run out of real basketball issues to write about, I'd do some reviews. I'd review websites in this blog, and books in the regular articles. There is a theory, shared by Suite 101 management, that one should not link to other websites when you're getting paid by the pageview. This is hooey, and I can prove it.

When you're surfing around the search engine looking for an answer to a topic, do you stop at the first relevant website and shout "Mission accomplished!"? Well, I don't. And I'm certain that the folks who have any interest in how many rebounds George Mikan might have pulled down in 1951 (my blessed if microscopic target audience) don't either. They'll hit several sites, because they have long ago learned not to take wiki-whatzit's word for anything.

If you want to know (as I admittedly do - now) which WNBA teams made the playoffs, your first stop is going to be the WNBA homepage. Like it's NBA counterpart, it consists of many frames, each a bright variant of red, white or blue, and takes forever to load - even on my cable modem.

It does, however, have the brackets and the current standings right on the front page. You'll also find some needless animation, and some brazen marketing tie-ins, but these are typical of pro-sports web sites.

Let's suppose I care about the Sparks/Storm series. It takes only two clicks to get to a page with a narrative summary of their regular season clashes, and then links to recaps and box scores from each of their regular season games. From this, I could begin to form some opinions on teams I haven't actually seen play.

We note here, with some dismay, that the highlight box claims the Sparks won two out of the three regular season meetings, when, in fact, it was the other way around. The Sparks eeked out their only victory over the Storm by one point, due to last minute heroics by Lisa Leslie. The Storm won the other two games handily.

I could, then predict that the Storm will win the series (and indeed they won the first game of their best-of-three), but we know better. A three game series is one step removed from a coin toss. More on that some other day.

The site has some hyperbolic and strategically incomplete history articles, a section where you can e-mail players, and blogs from writers who actually follow the games.

The WNBA cares about you and your feelings, and they'll go out of their way to mention this about every fives sentences or so. But none of that goop kept me from finding my numbers, so good for them.

I'd call for a group hug, but we're already way over word count.

Posted by Tony Padegimas

For the record, I think either player the Suns selected would have been fine additions to their team, and I'm certain they'll help the teams they ended up on. But the Suns were simply not much in the market for new meat.

"It's pretty simple. There were four or five guys we were interested in, but they were off the board," Suns Head Coach and Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations and General Manager Mike D'Antoni explained tom local media . "We love the group of players we have and want to keep them together. ... We think we are real close to playing for an NBA championship with the team we have."

So they took Kentucky point guard Rajon Rondo (is that a great NBA name or what?), widely considered to be the best college point guard available in this year's draft. They promptly traded Rondo to the Boston Celtics (who reportedly had coveted him from the beginning), along with veteran F/C Brian Grant, whose salary requirements far exceed the soundness of his knees. Boston, on the other hand, has plenty of cap space, and needs all the help they can get. In return, the Suns get the first round pick Boston acquired from Cleveland, provided it's not in the top ten. Got that?

With their 27th pick, they took Spanish point guard Sergio Rodriguez, who they promptly shipped to the Portland Trailblazers in return for $3 million. Rodriguez could expect about $800K/year on his first NBA contract. The three million, though, would buy some cap space for a veteran free agent point guard, which is what the Suns feel they need to take some of the load off of Steve Nash.

The Suns figure signing an established free agent veteran such as Bobby Jackson or Lindsey Hunter is a surer approach than gambling on a rookie maturing is less than one season. And who can blame them. The Suns have done well recently signing the castaways from other clubs; the classic example being Tim Thomas.

Thomas, of course, was a reliable but under-rated veteran at his position who was waived by the Bulls mid-season, even though they signed him for big money. The Suns picked him up for veteran minimum, and he was an essential part of their playoff run. So the Suns have boundless confidence here, and happily let go of the birds in their hand.

Of course, Tim Thomas is apparently about to sign with the Clippers as a veteran free agent. So we can only hope there's more magic where that came from.

Posted by Tony Padegimas

In 1976, when Phoenix shut down for the Finals between the Boston Celtics and My Beloved Suns, the fans in Veteran's Memorial Coliseum (Suns' home court at the time) would play a game with the CBS broadcast team who covered games three and four on the clear assumption that this was only delaying the summary execution of the Cinderella Suns by the (then) 12 time NBA champions. The game was to see if they (the fans) could get the CBS commentator they hung in effigy (complete with the tan suit-coat with the CBS eye on the lapel) in the camera shot somehow.

The camera crew, however, was veteran and talented, and you had to be really observant to catch the giant sock-doll in the noose.

That part - good camera work - is the part that remains constant about Big Network coverage of the NBA. Better angles, steadier movement, crisper editing, all done so well you won't even notice unless you force yourself to watch for it. Heck, I wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't been switching from ABC to TNT games during the regular season.

Even those cable camera pans that I complained about earlier are watchable with ABC, because they pan at a reasonable speed, and stay centered on the action. The shot is otherwise like trying to watch the game from a moving vehicle.

The opening ceremony was way over the top, and that's the Disney magic. (Disney owns ABC). The starting line-up intros are still the time when you round up the refreshments and chase the kids into the other room, because you know you still have several beer/truck/drug commercials to go before anything important. No amount of production value is going to alter that. We've been watching NBA basketball for nine months now. We know who the players are.

The commentators are certainly less arrogant (though that may be my perspective because I have no real partisan interest in this contest). In fact, they are restrained and professional to a fault, as if ABC, when in emptied the ESPN bullpen to staff this game (ABC owns ESPN) imposed a stern No Smirking rule upon the ESPN crew known for smirking. Stuart Scott having to do all his segments with a straight face? What's the point?

I have no quarrels with their collective analysis. Hubie Brown was dead on most of the night, and that's hard to do. But I miss the bedlam of the TNT mutants. Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith and their cohorts understand that its' just as important to be interesting as it is to be right. That's my motto too (for all the good that does me).

As for the game, Dwane Wade, save for the two clutch free throws that Shaq made, saved the game, the Heat's season, and these Finals, single-handedly. No one could have Imagineered a better, more dramatic ending to that game, and all Disney/ABC/ESPN had to do was point the camera and pay attention.

He can't do that every game (can he?). Even though I'm a (reluctant) Mavs fan, and I think Dallas will win this series, I'm glad the heat won this one. I need to get at least two more articles out of these Finals before I have to cover the WNBA. Wade has at least one more of these in him. We should make it to the weekend at least.

That's all a fan can ask for.

Posted by Tony Padegimas

Sunday afternoon, and there is no NBA basketball. We haven't had this sorry state of affairs since the end of football season. For My beloved Suns, it is, at last, not a fluke of the scheduling fairies. Their season is over, and the final act of the 2005-2006 NBA season is about to take place.

The Suns just ran out of gas. There's no other suitable explanation for it. Let me be clear: the Dallas mavericks could have beaten even a fresh Phoenix Suns in game seven in Dallas. But their victory in Game 6 in Phoenix had as much to do with the Suns depleted ranks as any other factor. The Suns had an 18 point lead, and ended up losing by nine. That's a sign that there isn't enough hydrogen to fuse into helium.

The Pistons didn't have enough fuel either. The Miami Heat came together and played a couple of superb games, but they weren't playing them against that same Detroit team that terrorized the eastern conference throughout the regular season.

Both the Pistons and the Suns were victimized by short rotations, caused by a thin or inappropriate bench. Depth matters as much as size or speed or shooting percentage. NBA athletes are among the most well conditioned in all of pro sports, and most of them could play tip-off to buzzer without collapsing in a heap. In the playoffs, though, there are few easy games, short rest (compared to the regular season), and just a bit of added pressure that takes its' toll both physically and mentally.

Its' not just fresh legs coming off the bench, but a fresh brain as well.

Now, before you cry for them, barnstorming teams used to play 120 games every season. Counting exhibition, the Suns had played 112 games before they were finally eliminated. That's the season record (the Heat might top it if the Finals go seven games). And they're clearly cooked at this point. Witness Steve Nash losing his dribble in back to back possessions in the fourth quarter.

The players of the twenties and thirties, however, were also made of harder stuff than today's athletes. Dutch Deinhart, the center of the "Original" (meaning New York) Celtics, who essentially invented the pivot play, got into basketball because his alternative was coal mining. That's a whole different set of perspectives and motivations.

The Suns had a better season than anyone gave them a right to have. With Tim Thomas being the only unrestricted free agent, they have the means to keep this squad mostly intact, along with a presumably healthy Amare Stoudamire. That will be a whole different set of expectations. This time, when the Phoenicians mutter "Wait `til next year..." that's not just a soothing chant.

Meanwhile, I'm a Mavericks Fan, true to my tradition of rooting for whoever eliminates the Suns. And even without my newfound partisanship, I think they could beat the Heat. After watching what passed for jump-shooting in game six of the eastern conference finals, I believe the Suns could've blazed through them as well. But Pat Riley is the Darth Vader of NBA coaches: it is understandable to despise him, but folly to underestimate him.

Meanwhile, Avery Johnson is spared the anneurism I have long rpedicted that the Mavericks defense would give him. He might be starting to believe now.

I certainly do.

Posted by Tony Padegimas

Pregame: My Beloved Suns had one of their worst performances of these playoffs in game three in Phoenix two nights ago. Some of this certainly goes to the credit of Dallas D, which held the sharp-shooting Suns to... My daughter's calling me. .. OH! The game starts at 6pm local time for some reason, and that's ... now!

First time-out - following a 12-4 start for Phoenix. Raja Bell is back! Not even Bell was talking like that would happen before game five. He simply strolls out and grabs two rebounds, a steal, draws two fouls and makes his first two field goals. If Nash is the heart (and the brains) and Marion is the soul, Raja Bell is the spine!

2nd time out - Would somebody please get a hold of TNT ad tell them that these long, panning camera angles may have impressed the guys at film school, but the guys who watch athletic contests do not crave art or variety. We want to see if the ball went in the !@#$! Basket. This is particularly problematic when covering the Suns, who outrun camera angles even in normal, rational coverage.

Dallas, meanwhile, has climbed back into the game.

End of first quarter. Good news for Dallas - tied at the end of the first. Bad news: tied at 28 - Suns pace. Can't find my Suns mug - starting to panic.

The Suns had no fun in game three - that was the problem. They let themselves get sucked into Avery Johnson's world view about how the worth of a person is defined by his shooting percentage and defensive intensity and blah-blah-blah. For all that, they played decent defense, and could have been within a possession with less than a minute if the 24 second call had been made. That's not why they lost; it's just noteworthy that they played that poorly and were still that close to being able to win anyway.

Where other coaches might have gone over X's and O's and defensive adjustments, D'Antoni spent most of his time exhorting his Suns to just lighten up. Tight teams play half court. Loose teams run the floor.

1st TO - 2nd Q - The mug is less and less relevant. My kids wiped me out of orange juice. Karma-wise, the Suns are on their own now; all I can do is watch...

2nd TO - 2nd Q - The Pace is starting to get to the Mavs. Down by nine, Avery already has a technical, Suns walk off to a standing ovation. Did I call Bell the spine of the Suns - maybe he's more of their elbow.

3rd TO 2nd Q Commentators, during an annoying long-angle camera pan that simulates watching the game from the catwalks, were comparing Nash favorably to Bob Cousy, noting that they are one of the few players under 6'4' to win an MVP. If you read my MVP index, you'd know who the third is - hint: he's even shorter than the 6'1" Cousy.

Halftime

Towards the end of the second quarter, Dallas manages to slow the game down a bit, and gets back in within six points. So now they're making their adjustments. This is how I imagine it:

AVERY JOHNSON: "We must do a better job in transition. Look here. When the guard releases from the time stripe , the man assigned to pick him up must blah with aht blah blah allowing the blah blah to to rotate to the blah..."

MIKE D'ANTONI: "Now, who can tell me the difference between ... Awright. I won't tell that one again. Seriously, we need to pick up the pace a little bit. So, a priest and a lawyer and a penguin walk into a bar..."

Posted by Tony Padegimas

They tell me that when I refer to my hometown team as My Beloved Suns in the intro blurb, this confuses search engines, upon which we rely to refer much of our traffic. Search engines, you see, are really simple-minded things which go by common phrases and automatic assumptions without examination of the data to any useful depth or allowing for any shift in context beyond the most base and sophomoric of assumptions.

Which brings us to Greg Anthony. I have told the story story] of Greg Anthony's on court failures elsewhere. Now he's a basketball analyst for ESPN, where he predictably predicts against the Suns. He is alone in this; the other five analysts have picked the Suns to win both series. Mr. Anthony's been middle of the road regarding other teams.

(Of course, I can't examine his reasoning, since his columns are secluded in the sanctum of ESPN insider. I'm not going to pay good money just to make fun of him.)

Now, I'm more than a little partisan myself, but I don't make Greg Anthony's money.

And I've been right so far. Nyeh!

And while we're on childish taunting, at least we don't have to hear Clipper fans try to console themselves with how many championships they've won like all the Kobe worshippers were doing a few weeks ago. "How many championships has Phoenix won?" They'd snivel, as if this was supposed to make us feel bad about beating them.

Boston (which still hoists more banners than the Lakers) hasn't won a championship in 20 years. The Lakers may well be on that same path... The curse of the Shaq.

All of the drama came from the other bracket where the Dallas Mavericks beat the defending champion San Antonio Spurs in overtime, in San Antonio. That's just one of those sentences that feels weird to say like "The Vice President shot an 80 year old man in the face...". It just further emboldens my theory about the changeover of the universe.

In any universe, the Mavericks are going to be much more formidable than either of the LA franchises. They have a better record, they are the only team in these playoffs to sweep an opponent (they swept the Grizzlies in round one) and they just beat the defending champs on the road in a game seven, where the Spurs have been otherwise invincible.

The Suns, in contrast, took all seven games to beat opponents who they won or split their regular season series with. Coming back from a 1-3 deficit is impressive and all, but that was against an eighth seed that they were supposed to beat in five games - max!

Now, I'd rather see them face the Mavericks than the Spurs, if for no other reason than the Mavs love to run, and there's no running game that Phoenix can't win. To eliminate the Suns, you must walk the ball up court and methodically work it into the paint, every possession. The Spurs, being old and slow, actually prefer this, and they excel at it. The Mavs, while certainly possessing the necessary talent, would prefer to run and shoot. Regular season box scores show they cannot beat the Suns this way. The Mav's two victories came in the first game of the season, in OT, and in November, with Barbosa and Jones injured. The last two meetings of the season were convincing win for Phoenix.

Even so, I can tell without looking that Greg Anthony predicts the Mavericks to win. And this time I can't fault his logic. Game seven would be in Dallas, which is what they fought all year to make certain of.

I must be more humble with my rhetoric now. I have that much respect for the Dallas Mavericks. That said, it is still a new universe. Anything can happen.

Posted by Tony Padegimas

My mother has been a Suns fan since the seventies. I think it started with the realization that athletic men were jumping about in short pants (and in the seventies, they were quite short indeed) and then developed into a sincere appreciation of the sport itself. Any doubts about her devotion to our Beloved Suns were wiped away when the 75-76 team, which finished the regular season 41-41, went all the way to the finals.

I remember distinctly pulling over the brown Nova one night to dash into a department store to see the end of Game Five. It took a while. There have been two triple overtime games in the NBA finals. The Suns were in both of them. They lost the one in 1976, and the series the next game. Well, what more can you ask from a .500 team?

We expected a little better against the Clippers this past Sunday. We didn't get it.

So my Mom, my sister, my wife and all of our young children, crowded into my Mom's townhouse to watch the thing go down. My brother in law fetched the pizza - he is not a televised sports fan - and then corralled the kids. Thanks, Mike!

So with pizza and iced tea (there's no booze in my mother's house), we watched the brick-laden debacle that was game four.

You learn things watching basketball with women. For example, Kris Kattan's hair is even worse than Steve Nash's - and that takes some doing. While that's pretty obvious when its' pointed out to you, its' not something I would have charted mentally on my own. And Steve Nash is very cute - except for when he brushes his hair back and then licks his hands right before a free throw. That, I have learned, is not attractive.

Another thing I should have known: partisanship scores you more points than accuracy. Even though I predicted earlier in the day that the Suns would lose, being right about that got me no love. It looked as if Steve Nash and the boys might prove me wrong there, for a few minutes late in the fourth, but, alas, I was right.

This was a virtual elimination game for the Clippers, and they will not be eliminated in LA. The Clippers are just that good. Phoenix will have to win another game seven. Which they will, the Clippers aren't that good.

Tomorrow night, I'll have The Shirt back on, I'll have my whisky and OJ in one hand, the remote in the other, and the Suns ought to win handily (they almost beat the Clippers in LA after shooting .278 from 3-point land - where they usually shoot above .400). But it won't be the same. In our grown up lives, we can't watch games as a family very often anymore. Whenever we can manage it - that's a good game - regardless of who wins.

Posted by Tony Padegimas

I have never cared for Sam Cassell. Now, I have great respect for his game, and while I am amused by the lop-sided gourd shape of his head, I do not hold that against him. But he's a punk, and we have a history.

Our history began with the Suns-Rockets semi-finals in 1994, when the rookie Cassell matched Kevin Johnson play for play through the fourth quarter of game seven. That didn't win the game for the Rockets, but it blew any hope Franchise Jr. (as we called KJ in those days) had of overcoming the mounting deficit caused by Barkley's groin injury. It was the only game seven the Rockets would have to play until the Finals, when Cassell similarly ran Greg Anthony into the pine.

At that point, however, my hatred of Mr. Cassell was purely partisan. And because every Suns fan despises Greg Anthony (who came off the bench, in street clothes, to try to jump into a Knicks-Suns brawl developing on court. He tried to cold-cock Kevin Johnson, missed, and then Pat Riley tackled him. Now he writes for ESPN, where he picked the Lakers to win in five.) I actually rooted for Cassell's Rockets in the 1994 Finals. (Typically, I root for whichever team eliminated the Suns anyway.)

When he was traded to the Suns in 1996, I was naturally a fan of his. But then It Happened.

My day job at the time was a s a stagehand. We were loading in some big rock show into America West Arena (now USAirways center, but still the Suns' home court) as the Suns were about to take off on a road trip. There were doughnuts on a table laid out for the hands when they took their break in a few minutes. Sam Cassell and Michael Finley, both Suns, both millionaires, came through and swiped the doughnuts from guys who make at most $12/hour on their way to the team bus.

The very next week they were both traded to Dallas as part of the Jason Kidd deal. Dallas, if you will recall, was worse than the Clippers in the late nineties. Finley would be part of that turn-around (along with Suns draft pick Steve Nash, who came over (and back) as a free agent). Cassell was shipped to New Jersey before the end of the season.

Anyway, that's my Sam Cassell story. And despite his pastry-thieving ways, I'd take him over Smush Parker any day, because he's going to give the Suns a lot more trouble.

The Clippers are clearly the better of the two LA franchises this year, and Sam Cassell is a big part of that. And I have, over time, learned to forgive him for the theft of the doughnuts that were rightfully mine. But I still think he's a punk.

Maybe that's just a partisan thing now.

Posted by Tony Padegimas

Last Thursday, I performed all the good luck rituals. I did my shoot-around in my backyard. I had The Shirt on. I had my glass Suns mug full of orange juice, into which I dumped some whiskey from my Suns shot glass. (OK - I have relatives who know very little about me except that I am a Suns fan, and I am on their gift list at Christmas.)

So I'd like to say that, in some small but coincidental way, I contributed to the OT "upset" in game six. Except, that if you look at the numbers, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion, as least as far as foregone conclusions can go in the new universe playoffs.

The Laker's shiny, new team-sport approach to basketball had won them three out of four from the otherwise heavily favored Suns, who had beaten their old "triangle offense" (which means Give-the-ball-to-Michael-er-Kobe) three out of four times during he regular season. Good for them. They stuck with that system in game five as well, and got blown out in Phoenix. Don't let the box score fool you; the last two minutes were absolute garbage time - it was a blow out.

They were in danger of losing badly in game six when Kobe abandoned script and started heaving up Circus shots. He made most of them, which ut the Lakers briefly ahead I the fourth, but Tim Thomas calmly tied the game with seconds left, forcing overtime.

Kobe Bryant was blown out in overtime. He took all but one of the Laker's shot attempts, and every time he looked up the lead had grown. In fact, Lamar Odom was the only other Laker to make a field goal past the start of the fourth quarter.

No one is surprised by this. It's already established that Kome can't beat the Suns by himself. The question is: can the team approach, if they hold to it, beat the Suns on their homecourt? You have to remember that neither Nash or Marion had a good game in Game 2, and the Lakers needed OT and some "fortunate" officiating to beat the Suns in game 4.

I'm still going to go through all my rituals. I like taking jumpshots in my yard and drinking whisky and OJ on their own merits. I'm wearing The Shirt as I write this. But I know it doesn't matter.

The better team is gong to win this game. That's what I'm counting on.

Posted by Tony Padegimas

Physicists have a theory that if someone were to actually figure out how the universe actually worked, a Unified Theory of Everything for example, then that universe would immediately disappear and be replaced with a universe far more strange and baffling. One group of these physicists seriously insist this has already happened more than once.

I, for one, believe it happened two weeks ago. My evidence: the NBA playoffs. The Dallas Mavericks sweep the Memphis Grizzlies without scoring more than 103 in any game? The Chicago Bulls, who two months ago were focusing on who their lottery pick might be are on the verge of eliminating the mighty Heat? San Antonio is in a tied series with the Sacramento Kings?

And the Lakers are playing team basketball?

It's a new universe so baffling that it makes Greg Anthony seem insightful - and that just cannot be right. Something is fundamentally different on the quantum level, and maybe it's time for us to all take a moment and re-evaluate any assumptions our lives might be based on.

For example: the Suns are destined to make the conference finals this year. Clearly a questionable assumption.

Now, by regular season, or old universe logic, it seemed pretty clear. The Suns' only loss against the Lakers came with Nash on the bench. Similarly, they had won their season series with both the Clippers and the Nuggets, who they would have played second round. That left either the Mavs or the Spurs in the conference finals,. Maybe that team (presumptively the Spurs) would be beat up after an almost certain seven game round II dogfight. And maybe Kurt Thomas would be back in the paint to at least make a series out of it. But really, while making the conference finals seemed predestined, winning it seemed overly optimistic.

OK. Throw all that logic out. New universe. One game at a time.

Obviously Phil Jackson got to Kobe Bryant about teamwork and playing in the system and so forth. Perhaps the Zen Master did it by sitting on his all-star's chest with a revolver in the all-star's nose. "Listen, punk! I've never lost a first round series, and I'll go to the slammer before I let that happen..."

Or maybe they just went over the tape - a lot.

Whatever. Not only is Kobe sharing the ball with the rest of the children, Lamar Odom has realized he's an all-star. Further, he's had the zen-epiphany that he's taller than Boris Diaw.

If they'd played like this in the regular season, they could have won the division.

Conversely, if the Suns had played the way they have this series during the regular season, they would have struggled to make the playoffs. They've had a few good quarters, but they've yet to put together a good game. Plus, these Suns are cursed in OT and winless in games decided by less than one possession.

My Beloved Suns are down 3-1, facing elimination.

Few teams have come back from such a defecit. One of them, however, was the 69-70 Los Angeles Lakers, the second seed in the west, who flattened their 4th seed opponent in the first game at the Forum, and then lost the next three straight to face to return to LA, facing elimination at the hands of an expansion team that an LA sports writer derided as "Connie Hawkins and the 10 rejects".

That team, of course, was the Phoenix Suns.

After Elgin Baylor went off for 32 points in game one, a young Paul Silas jumped on him defensively, while Connie Hawkins swooped over and around a hobbling Wilt Chamberlain. But the more Wilt played, the better his knees felt, while Phoenix's center, Jim Fox, found his ankle injury to be getting worse.

Oh, and Jerry West woke up and remembered who he was,the end.

It's a brand new universe. The future is wide open.

Run like hell, boys, or tomorrow you golf!

Posted by Tony Padegimas

BEFORE THE GAME:

The Suns' "defense" is a con game. It looks soft, like they contest very little and prevent even less, and you can find stats that bear that out. But the Suns really only care about stopping two things: dribble penetration and assists. That's why they play two steps back instead of climbing into your shorts. They'd rather obstruct your passing lane and/or leave themselves room to stop your drive than contest a mid-range jump shot.

One-on-one jumpshots are relatively low percentage, and relatively few guys can create their own shots. That means bad shots and fewer of them.

Kobe Bryant, who is the best in the league at creating and making his own jumpshots, is going to clean up against this team, and that is what Phil Jackson is worried about. No matter how much tape they show him of how this trap works, Kobe is not going to pass out of a jumpshot he thinks he can make (and that's most of them). The offense will stagnate, and the Suns will run away with the game.

The Lakers transition D is not consistent enough to survive a jumpshooting contest with the Suns; particularly not if Mr. Bryant carries almost half the scoring load - which he has in all three of their losses.

DURING THE GAME:

Half-time at Lakers v Suns, game 1. Finally, NBA play-offs and life has true meaning again! I'm wearing one of the lucky shirts, I have my traditional drink of orange juice with just a dash of whisky (it's still early afternoon) in my Suns' mug, and the millionaires are playing together on national television.

Three out of four times that the Lakers have played the Suns this season, Kobe Bryant had monster games, and the Lakers lost. Somebody in Laker Land has been paying attention to that. At the half, Kobe only has 7 points, having made a clearly deliberate effort to get his teammates involved. Smush Parker leads all scorers as a result, and the Lakers have put together a balanced effort. They have particularly worked hard to get the ball to Lamar Odom and Kwame Brown in the paint, where conventional wisdom holds the Suns are vulnerable. They dropped some passes and missed some lay-ups, but the ABC commentators are convinced they will start making those shots any time now.

The trouble is on the other end. Kwame Brown has been standing in the lane watching Tim Thomas plunk wide open threes, and Odom sometimes forgets that Shawn Marion must be guarded as much without the ball as with it, particularly if Nash gets into the paint. And, despite Smush Parker's best efforts, Nash is getting into the paint whenever he faces single coverage.

Suns are up by eight. Gotta take out the garbage before the car commercials stop.

AFTER THE GAME:

The encouraging news is that even though the Suns won, they didn't think they played all that well. The disturbing news is that the win was much closer than it needed to be. This whole balanced-attack-maybe-it's-a-team-sport-after-all approach the Lakers tried almost produced an upset victory for them.

The Suns were saved by free throws. Yes, the team with the fewest free throw attempts in the league went to the line 35 times. And since they, perversely, have the highest free throw percentage in the league, they made 32 of them, which was crucial to winning a game where they were otherwise out-shot and out-rebounded on their home court.

The Lakers real trouble, though, is this new dance partner is not the one that brought them to the party. They made it to the play-offs on Kobe Bryant's back. With fewer shot attempts, Bryant never really found his rhythm, particularly in the fourth quarter. If they had played like this all year, they almost certainly would have seeded higher.

Playoffs, though, are a poor venue for innovation. A sudden shift in tactics can get you a game or two, but it almost never wins a series. When things get desperate, you go back to what got you here. Mr. Bryant could set a new play-off record right before his team is eliminated.

Posted by Tony Padegimas

I'm flipping back and forth between local coverage and ESPN coverage. I sometimes forget how much Bill Walton annoys me. Every once in a while he'll have a worthwhile insight, but he states the clearly obvious with equal fervor. "Tim Thomas has got to catch that pass!" referring to a wide open dish he dropped while standing under the basket. A veteran forward ought to catch a gimme pass? You think?

Kobe Bryant has 18 points after the first quarter. The Suns are leading. How's that for foreshadowing?

One channel up, Fox Sports AZ is also broadcasting the game. Long-time Sun Dan Marjle is doing the color commentary. "Don't bring Kool-Aid to a beer party!" he exclaims as Suns forward Boris Diaw blocks a shot. That's funny, but don't hold your breath waiting for the national networks to call.

Bryant has 30 points at the half-time buzzer. Suns are up by thirteen.

I've got the ESPN half-time show on. I already know the local one will be insufferable.

I've been worried about my Beloved Suns. The recent slump has brought me from thinking they had an outside chance of winning it all to thinking that they may be a first or second round upset casualty. It's not so much the Amare Stoudemire disaster, though that has to have taken an emotional toll on the team. It is the near absence of defensive concentration later in the game, that has been allowing opponents to overcome double digit defecits to dowse the Suns in the fourth quarter.

The Suns look good in the first half. But they usually have, even during this slump.

The Lakers look terrible. Kobe Bryant is sinking circus shots, or they wouldn't be in the game at all. Suns guards, particularly Nash, are getting to the basket at will, and the Lakers are making mental mistakes: missing point-blank lay-ups and committing silly, technical fouls. Phil Jackson coached teams do not normally behave like this.

Of course, they're playing the Suns, so there's always time to get back into the game...

Must use the rest of half-time to put my kids to bed.

While I am selflessly putting our children to bed, my wife sneaks onto the computer, and stays there, so the rest of these notes are all post-game.

Third quarter, Lakers forward Lamar Odom remembers that he's an all-star. Lakers pick up the defense a little, holding the Suns to 16 points in the third, while Odom and Bryant shoot them back to within one point. But then, with Steve Nash on the bench, Boris Diaw directs an early fourth quarter run that puts them up by a dozen with eight minutes left to go. Diaw might average a triple double some day. Nash came off the bench, Shawn Marion started scoring a bit (he had ten rebounds going into the fourth, but only four points), including a couple of his famously demoralizing alley-oops from Diaw, and the Suns never looked back.

Steve Nash has not lost to the Lakers as a Sun. Aside from spotty defense, mental lapses and an offense that relies on a single player for 50% of its' production, the Lakers love to run. Really, Kobe loves to run, and the rest of the team tends to jog around a bit while watching him.

If you get into a running game with the Suns, you are asking to get blown out. Kobe Bryant finishes with 51 points. Good for him! Suns win, 96-107. Come back in a couple of weeks, and we'll do it all again.

Posted by Tony Padegimas

There will be a solar eclipse in Africa this week, and one going on already on the Sun's five-stop tour of the Eastern United States. And Amare Stoudemire, for all his glory, is powerless to stop it.

I fell in love with Amare Stoudemire (quit snickering! You know what I mean...) towards the end of his rookie year. The Suns were in a must-win situation to make the playoffs, and Stoudemire told a reporter:

"We're going to win this game. I don't care if I have to block a hundred shots. We're going to win this game."

Not score a hundred points. Not even grab a hundred rebounds. He said block a hundred shots. He blocked, like, four, and the Suns won (I think on a last-second shot from Marbury, of all things). Anyway, that's when I knew he'd be a star for years to come.

Anytime a player can make up his own nickname, like S.T.A.T. or the Big Aristotle and make it stick, that, my faithful, is star power. Cedric Ceballos (remember him?) tried for years to get people to call him "Ice" to no avail.

STAT's return to the Sun's lineup has received no shortage of coverage, so I will try not to repeat what's been said a thousand times elsewhere. It is optional, from the Sun's point of view, whether he regains his explosiveness this season. What he needs desperately is his wind back. If the Suns are serious about winning a championship, Stoudemire may have to carry through his promise to block a hundred shots.

Throw away the blow out loss to New Jersey. The loss to Milwaukee is more illustrative. The Suns couldn't generate any consistent defense late in the game. No defense = no fast breaks. No fast breaks = half-court offense, which leaves them clearly mortal.

The good news: they'll get better. Their two best interior defenders, Stoudemire and Kurt Thomas (out with a foot injury through at least the end of regular season) will be back by the second round. The bad news: that may not be enough against the Spurs or the Pistons, who have owned the Suns in the paint, with or without the mighty STAT.

This Phoenix Suns team, as many incarnations before them, must still run to win, because their defense will be the weakest of any team left by the Conference Finals.

If you've ever seen a total eclipse, you know in your head that the blockage of sunlight is only temporary, but your gut can't help but wonder if it might be permanent. The Suns end their road trip in Detroit. We will know by then.

Posted by Tony Padegimas

Players love playing for D'Antoni. There are few rules, and a system designed to maximize shot attempts, and exhaust defenses is also seriously fun to play (providing you're in shape).

Jerry Sloan will fine a player for arriving at practice with his drawstrings on the outside of his sweats. This is pro basketball - a business - and in a system designed around percentages and productivity, every possession is a sacred trust.

In the first half, the Suns forced the tempo they wanted. The Suns are known to try and run throwing inbounds on a shot clock violation. The Jazz made a few bad passes, and they were off. When halftime sent everyone back panting, the Suns were up by twelve points.

Charles Barkley wondered aloud during TNT's half-time show if the Jazz players were even listening to Jerry Sloan anymore. After all, he hasn't done well since Dream-teamers John Stockton and Karl Malone retired. Maybe he was too old school to reach this new batch of kids, especially without any veteran leaders.

Once upon a time, "Spider" Sloan was the star, captain, heart, backbone, defensive stopper and starting shooting guard for the Chicago Bulls. He could will his team to win games they had no business winning and orchestrated a string of 50-win seasons. And during that run, only two guys went to the all star break in a Bull's uniform (though they each went more than once). Sloan had his only appearance in his second year, when the Bull's were still an expansion franchise.

Tonight, at least, the Utah Jazz were still an instrument of Spider Sloan's will, and the second half was played more to his rhythm. The Jazz came out with a purpose: stifling the Suns in the paint, crashing the boards, seizing loose balls, and running to perfection all those staggered-pick, back-door plays that lead to lay-ups. By the fourth quarter, a flustered Sun's squad was not having any fun at all.

Jerry Sloan allowed himself to smirk - just for an instant. The Jazz might make the play-offs after all.

Posted by Tony Padegimas

We learned the Spurs can turn it on any time they want to. They stiff-armed the Mavericks in San Antonio, and then trampled the Suns in Phoenix. All Star Tim Duncan is still relatively lame, meaning he struggles with his foot problems. All Duncan has to do, however, is keep them close. Manu Ginobli, and reserve Robert Horry have both made careers out of making big plays at the end of close games, as the Mavericks painfully re-discovered.

We learned that Dallas is still Dallas. A better defense than last year is still not enough to win a half-court grind-out with San Antonio. A more balanced offense is still not enough to survive a full-court, full speed shoot-out with Phoenix.

We learned that Steve Nash IS the Phoenix Suns. With five minutes left, the Mavs up 97-100, and the ABC announcers were droning on about how the Suns couldn't win close games, Nash set up Boris Diaw for back-to-back layups, assisted guard Leandro Barbosa for a lay-up and then drilled a three point shot himself to put the Suns suddenly and permanently up by seven.

Nash had rolled his ankle before San Antonio arrived in Phoenix, and sat that game out. The Spurs trampled the Suns by twenty points. So that's something we can still wonder about - all the way into the Western Conference Finals.

Posted by Tony Padegimas

In 2002, we would joke bitterly that then Phoenix Sun's General manager Bryan Colangelo should be awarded NBA Executive of the Year, for getting three different teams into the playoffs. Not the Suns, who missed the playoffs that season for the first time in eight years, but his trades elevated three other franchises to the post season after being out for a few years. The Detroit Pistons benefited from the interior defense of Cliff Robinson. The Boston Celtics benefited from the offense of Tony Delk and Rodney Rogers. And the New Jersey Nets suddenly became Eastern Conference contenders by acquiring Jason Kidd. The Suns, meanwhile, went through 20 different players and a coaching change, and finished with a losing record.

Four years later, no one is sneering now. If his success took you by surprise, you were probably blinded by the glare from his legendary father and boss, Jerry Colangelo, who effectively founded the franchise and has been elected to the Hall of Fame.

If you were squinting enough through the glare, though, you might have noticed that the younger Colangelo has two Arena Football Championships and an AFL Executive of the year from his stewardship of the Arizona Rattlers. Though his father was a guard with Illinois, Bryan earned a business degree from Cornell, which is not a basketball powerhouse, but respected in some circles nonetheless.

Last week, Bryan Colangelo gathered up his trophies and bolted to the Toronto Raptors, for a GM job at triple the salary.

There's a whispered joke among the Suns organization that the difference between Jerry Colangelo and God is that Colangelo has a nicer office. Soon they'll be telling a version of that joke in Toronto.