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Originally Posted by krastian
It looks like it's over for my Suns.....they were way better with Marion and not fat boy Shaq. Marion gave Nash an extra option on the fastbreak.....Marion rules.
At the beginning of the playoffs I took Celtics over the Jazz in 7, but now I think it might be Celtics over the Lakers in 7.....still stickin' with Boston though.
Of course, the Spurs are the Spurs.
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I'm really not convinced that matrix is better for the suns. they were losing with him, they lost in the playoffs to the spurs with him, and they lost without him.
one thing i did notice was that shaq, as old and slow as he is, dictated the game at times that marion would never have. also, marion never played very consistent vs the spurs. was his p&r defense better? absolutely. was his perimeter & on the ball defense better? absolutely. he also could guard 1-3 (he always had trouble guarding F/Cs).
it came down to errors down the stretch.
in my opinion, nash is the biggest reason why they lost. he turned the ball over twice in the last 2 minutes. you cannot turn the ball over twice late in the game vs the spurs. also, nash has never been able to guard parker. parker has always and will always own nash. he owned nash when he was in dallas…he owns nash since he came to phoenix.
problem was D'Antoni. he did not stress defense, did not utilize his bench, thus tiring out his starters, and really had a big mouth. i don't know what he was thinking when he kept saying, "yeah, the suns are the better team…we just lost." you don't think that was in the back of the spurs minds? think again.
also d'antoni just got outcoached badly by pop. playoffs is about adjustments. and listening to all the players comments gives me the impression that his own players also felt d'antoni's lack of coaching and adjustments was the reason why they lost the series.
if you think about it, the spurs were 0.4 seconds away from a championship when fisher hit that shot and a ginobili foul on dirk at the end of the game for another championship. it is very possible the spurs could've had 6 championships in 9 years. that would be crazy!
spurs over celtics in 6.