one man show

series tied 2-2, game 5 at home, leading through three quarters... and the suns lose it to bruce bowen. the suns had their chances to take the upper hand in the series despite the suspension to amare stoudemire, but they let bowen take his corner 3. game 6 featured an incredible third quarter meltdown. in game 6, amare was the only sun to generate his own offense through three quarters. he had 38 points including a 3 in the final quarter. shawn marion continuing his trend of ineffectiveness in the playoffs. steve nash was too busy dribbling around in the paint and not attempting to create shots for himself for three quarters. perhaps the most disappointing of all was leandro barbosa. a monster in the series with los angeles, barbosa was reduced to flashes of brilliance eclipsed by long droughts of poor shooting. 43% from 3 during the regular season translated to 11 straight misses in the conference semis. stoudemire did all he could to take the series back to phoenix, but the rest of the squad let him down. it could be argued that he let the team down by taking a few too many steps from the bench and picking up a suspension, but he more than made up for his mistake with his play tonight. the suns controlled game 5, but fell apart in the last few minutes. they were tired? fatigued? that is not an excuse. don't put that on amare.

the match up despised by many fans has come to fruition: jazz vs. spurs. i'm a fan, but i can't imagine this series being of much interest. the spurs are a lot more enjoyable than we give them credit for, but the jazz are absolutely horrid to watch. jerry sloan will want to slow down the game and the spurs will be happy to oblige. in addition, the eastern conference finals aren't much better. nobody finds detroit fun to watch. i was born in detroit. i resent that sentiment, but i have to admit that they aren't going to win any fans with their style of play. in all honesty, i think the cleveland cavs are the least interesting of the four teams. definition: a team of underachievers and nonentities led by lebron james. with that said, spurs title lock.