| Suns Lose Offense, Game 3 Authored by J.T. Magee - May 29, 2006 - 2:39 am
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Dallas outworked them on defense, offense, transition buckets and the glass, winning the game 95-88. They had three offensive rebounds in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, ensuring their win and taking back home court advantage.
Steve Nash led the Suns in the scoring column tonight. He had 21 points to go along with seven assists, four turnovers and a block. He made three 3-pointers, but committed two turnovers in the beginning of the third quarter, which was when the Mavericks went on a 10-2 run and led for good from there on out. Boris Diaw scored 20 points to go along with six rebounds, four assists and a playoff-career-high 3 blocks. He committed a game-high 5 turnovers.
Leandro Barbosa finally broke out on offense by scoring 17 points. Tim Thomas scored 14 points and grabbed ten rebounds. He also blocked three shots and made three 3-pointers. Shawn Marion scored just ten points on 4-12 shooting. He did grab a game-high 18 rebounds, six of which were offensive. James Jones and Eddie House combined for six points and seven rebounds as the only two players to come off the bench for the Suns.
Dirk Nowitzki led the mavericks’ charge on both ends of the floor. He scored a game-high 28 points and grabbed a team-high 17 rebounds. He added five assists, two blocks and two made 3-pointers, the first two for him in the entire series. His frontcourt mate, Josh Howard, was a terror yet again for the Mavs. He scored 22 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and collected three steals. They combined to shoot 4-9 from the 3-point line and 8-8 from the free throw line. Jason Terry was the only other Maverick to score in double figures, helping out with 19 points and two steals.
This game was dictated by the Suns in the first half and in the second half by the Mavericks. The rebounding margin was slim, but three of the Dallas’ 19 offensive rebounds were in the last couple of minutes. They were up by seven and Phoenix could not grab a long rebound for the life of them. At one point, there were three Suns who could’ve grabbed a rebound in the third quarter.
Diaw, House and Marion were all within reach of the ball, but all three ran away from it, anticipating the other to grab the ball. Dallas wound up with the ball and ran some more clock out. That play alone speaks about how the Suns played tonight. Each were trying to make plays, but as a team, everything just wasn’t there for them. They used too much time on the clock. Nash usually gets the ball down the clock with around 21-22 seconds to spare on the shot clock. In Game 3, the mavericks did a good job in making sure he couldn’t initiate the offense until there was around
19 seconds on the shot.
In this game, the Suns had each of their starters in double figures, but barely. Phoenix needed Marion to have a good game in the box score. He usually attempts more than 12 shots, but he won’t take them when he gets off to a cold start. It hurt his confidence as well as the Suns’. Diaw was great in the first half, including eight in the first quarter. But the Suns need more of Marion than they do Diaw, although it helped that Diaw scored 20. If the Suns want to come back in Game 4 and tie the series up, they need a shot in the arm of offense from Marion, otherwise, it won’t look too good for them heading into Game 5 at Dallas.
Heading into Game 4, the Suns need to show some urgency. On both ends of the floor, they looked like the losing team. They have to initiate their game plan and not let the mavericks dictate the pace. Bell won’t play again in the series because he could risk a completely torn calf muscle and they wouldn’t want to risk him missing any games heading into next season.
Their lack of depth has been hurting them and they must find a way to rest the starters for just a minute or two of game time. Even if they play Pat Burke and Nikoloz Tskitishvili for one minute, that’s one minute the depleted frontcourt can rest.
All I know is this: if the Suns come out and start to fire blanks, it won’t look too good for them in Game 4. They need marion just as much as they need Barbosa to figure out when to and not to attack. Once they figure that out, they will have a chance to stretch out the series a little more. Otherwise, the will be watching the Heat play the Mavs from their couches. |
