| Game 7 Not Even Close, Suns Advance Authored by J.T. Magee - May 7, 2006 - 1:42 pm
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In a game that wasn’t even close from the get-go, Phoenix ran and shot their way past the L.A. Lakers and onward to the L.A. Clippers, crushing every Laker fan’s dreams 121-90. Seven of the ten Suns that saw the court scored in double figures. For the Lakers? Only Kobe Bryant shot 50%.
Leandro Barbosa, a.k.a. S.T.U.D. (Sailing Through Ur Defense), scored a playoff career-high for the second straight game, ending up with 26 points, fifteen of which came in the second half. He missed one shot in the entire game. Boris Diaw had yet another routine game, scoring 21 points, grabbing six rebounds and dishing out nine assists. Shawn Marion scored 14 points to go along with ten rebounds and two steals.
Raja Bell and Steve Nash scored 13 apiece and Nash added six boards and nine assists. He also committed six of the Suns’ ten turnovers. Tim Thomas came off the bench to score 12 points and James Jones scored ten.
Bryant led the Lakers with 24 points, including 4-8 from the 3-point line. Luke Walton scored 16 points, Lamar Odom had 12 points and Sash Vujacic came off the bench to score 11, most of which came in garbage time.
This was the Suns’ game. They got Bell back and made their shots, shooting an unprecedented 61% from the field, setting an NBA record for FG% in a Game 7. They took it to the rack (have they been reading my articles?). They shot with confidence. They played with fire and passion and that same confidence that produced the #2 seed in the first place. They did what they needed to do: shut everyone up.
The story of this game was Barbosa. He could not be stopped. There was a hole bigger than Paris Hilton’s (credit card limit) in the middle of the Laker’s defense, and he attacked it with ease and speed. Each drive was perfection, usually resulting in a lay-up. He would use hesitation moves on whoever was guarding him and took advantage of the space L.A. gave him. He shot the ball like he wanted this game more than the diehard fan, hitting everything from a j over the 6’10” Kwame Brown (worst performance of the year) to a lay-up over the arms of Odom. If Barbosa keeps this up, he will be a sought-after player in the off-season... until the Suns lock him up.
Now that everyone has been silenced by the collapse of the Lakers (remember the Finals against Detroit?), Phoenix now has to look forward to L.A.’s best team, the Clippers. They present an even tougher match-up with Elton Brand and Chris Kaman. They will most likely go small by playing just Brand or Kaman at the 5. With the late-addition of Vladimir Radmanovic, the Suns will have to make sure he doesn’t shoot and pump-fake his way to 15 each game. If he does, it will create quite the breathing room for Brand to do his thing on either Tim Thomas, possibly Kurt Thomas or
Boris Diaw. While Sam Cassell will be coaching this team on the floor, it will be Shawn Livingston who will have the daunting task of slowing down Nash.
If Nash is healthy enough to get past Cassell on each possession of the first five minutes, this could get ugly real quick. If the Matrix can finally run in the first four games of the series, this could get ugly real quick. If Tim Thomas has the touch on his 3 like he did against the Lakers, this could get ugly real quick. But if Barbosa plays like he did in Games 6 & 7, this will get ugly real quick. If the Suns allow the Clippers to rebound like the Lakers were this entire series, this could get ugly real quick. And the Suns will be sent home packing in the six games it should’ve taken the Lakers to do it in. Either way, it will be another exciting series no one should miss. |
