Game Thread #60: San Antonio Spurs vs Phoenix Suns

Breakdown

• Point Guard - I love Tony, honestly. But regardless of what people say, Nash is not done. Anyone who saw him play against the Rockets last night will agree - there was a moment in the fourth where he simply took over the game, and I was actually surprised when his high-arching three over Yao didn't go in.
• Off Guard - Jason Richardson's DUI aside, I'm going to give this one to the Suns. He's been playing well, Mason can be inconsistent, and Jason can do stuff like this. That's only worth two points, you say? Should be more.
  
• Center - Is Hack-a-Shaq viable considering he's shooting 62,6%? That's his career high, by the way. Duncan will have his work cut out for him if he wants to stop Shaqzilla, despite the fact that last night Yao made him look pedestrian at times. (I wish I could share with you Yao's great block on Shaq. Couldn't find it in YouTube. Anyone?)
• Power Forward - Give Matt some luv. I'm giving him the edge over Hill's corpse, even though he didn't shoot well against the Wizards.
  
• Small Forward - Matt Barnes is a douche. There's hustle, and then there's being a dirty player. He's not even subtle about it like Bruce, too. As much as I dislike him, though, I think he will help his team more then Finley will.
• Bench - By "Suns' Bench" you basically mean "Barbosa" these days. So it's the Argentine roadrunner versus Hill, Malik, Kurt, Fab-O... Never mind.
• Coach - If Pop gives Malik more minutes, I'll be happy. If he doesn't let Udoka's one good game give him more minutes, I'll be ecstatic. If he dropkicks JV, I'll be in rapture. And if he makes it to this site, I might die from sheer joy.
  
• Intangibles - I like to believe that Pop wants the team to start getting into their playoff shape, and I expect Tim to come back strong after two bad performances in three games. The Suns have lost three in a row and are probably getting desperate. If we get an early lead, that could be their undoing.
• Mojo - Shaq's flopping and his subsequent comments are the equivalent of a karma black hole. I expect him to leave a barren wasteland in Phoenix when he finally gets traded to the Kings.
• Winners - Probably us. (Whoa.)

Keys To The Game

• Optimism - I like to think it works.
• Defense - Basically we can defend the bad teams, but the good teams are scoring at will on us. That's great news for the playoffs. Let's see if we can stop the back-to-running-for-the-moment-but-we-might-change-again-if-Shaq-gets-tired Suns.
• Hill - He made a 3. It can happen.

Some other reading

I couldn't find many Suns fansites. Gee, I wonder why...

Bright Side of the Sun (The SB Nation blog. It's where PTRers go and then do their best not to troll. Sometimes we fail.)
PhxSuns.net (A forum. Seems pretty active, but I didn't dare step in.)

Other things of possible interest

• Worst contracts - I wonder why there are no Spurs on this list.
  
• Twitter - Where pwning Shaq happens.
  
• Flash games - Are addictive. This game is the best one I've played in a long time... Go, download, play, love.
  
• Milk - Gets mixed reviews.
  
• Twister - Damn good popcorn flick. "There was another Bill. An evil Bill. And I killed him." Anyway, check these photos.
• New York - Is full of creepy places. Thank Hipuks for the nightmares.
• World War II - The Internet version. Don't really agree with the H-bomb bit, or Spain being neutral, but it's 100% accurate otherwise.
  
• Cats - Don't care.
• Watchmen - Can the movie possibly top this? I say no. Still going to see it tomorrow.

Game feeds

Check this game thead at gametime for specific links to good quality feeds. If you arrive late in the game, there game feed links are usually among the first 50 posts of the thread.

ATDHE.net
PPNBA
MyP2P
OneNation (This is an archive of NBA games, but it hasn't been updated lately.)
BitTorrent Davka (A torrent site where you will find most of the latest games in the league. Bookmark.)

Recap: Look at it this way, Stampler: At least now you have lots of time to write recaps... Yay?