I got an odd vibe from this game. It felt like a matchup of two coaches who had mailed it in for the year (of course, Kurt Rambis mailed it in long before this one...) coaching two teams who thought this was game seven of the championship series.
At least the Wolves looked like they cared, right? At least they played with some fire. At least they were picking each other up off the ground. At least they were involved enough to cheer for the good things and get in each others' faces over mistakes.
But still, this is Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns.
Scoreless Channing Frye lasted all of 2 1/2 minutes tonight. At 9:36 in the first quarter, he hit the first of his 9 threes of the night. 33 points without a single free throw attempt, thanks to 9-14 from deep. Which was thanks to another dose of inexplicable non-coaching from Rambis. It's mid-pick and roll. It's the same thing the Suns have been running for four years now. Why are you trapping the guy who wants to get rid of the ball anyway and leaving the guy who's killing you wide open?
I was, once again, in awe of Steve Nash. He gets basketball. And mathematical patterns, it seems. 4 shot attempts. 8 points. 16 assists. Crazy. The guy dished out 4x as many assists as he took shots. And only turned it over twice, so that's an 8-1 asst/TO ratio to ice it all.
And the Wolves did have their moments, to be fair, albeit out-of-the-box ones. Anthony Tolliver notched a double-double, scoring 22 points without attempting a single three. Anthony Randolph also notched a double-double since Rambis put him on the court and actually left him there for once. Beasley had what I felt was one of his best games of the year, taking smart shots, attacking the paint, and showing more intensity than I've seen from him since November. He crossed the hell out of Jared Dudley to send the game to OT....just too bad he missed the and-1, which could have won it all right there.And the point guard minutes distribution? Ridnour: 48 - Flynn: 3
I don't feel like dissecting this team tonight. That'll happen plenty on its own. Tonight the Pups held up their end of the bargain and played a genuinely entertaining game, even one that had no meaning, and I think I'll just leave it at that.