In the end, they lost the same way they won...quietly. Even though the Suns closed the coffin on the Tim Duncan era Saturday night behind a fourth quarter performance for the ages by Goran Dragic (who??), it was another short white man, Steve Nash, that put the final nail in, with one eye no less.
But even though the Spurs were dead in the water already, damn near nobody thought they were gonna get closed out in a sweep Sunday night. Champions don’t just roll over. And to their credit, the Spurs didn’t. They played tough all four games. Actually, that might have been the highest quality series to ever end in a sweep. Just quality basketball from both teams. The crazy thing is that the team that could never close games...never... found a way to close out four straight against the team that always found a way to beat them.... always.
I’m talking about the Spurs that knocked the Suns out of the playoffs in ’06 after Joe Johnson broke his friggin face, even though Stoudemire averaged like a 100 points per game; the same Spurs that only beat the Suns in ’07 because Robert Horry tackled Steve Nash and Nash’s teammates got their boy’s back, earning automatic suspensions that cost them another shot at the championship; the same goddam Spurs that needed Duncan (who can’t even make his free throws after all these years) to hit a game tying 3-pointer in overtime to beat the Suns in ’08.
But sometimes that’s the only way that a team’s karma really changes... in a fluke ass way that nobody coulda predicted. Nobody woulda guessed the Suns would outplay the Spurs in crunchtime 4 straight games. Nobody woulda thought the Suns could win ugly games where they didn’t shoot the ball well (like they did in Game 1 and 2). And nobody would have expected that in the 4th quarter of game 3, Dragic would turn into Isaiah Thomas from the ’88 Finals. With the Spurs facing the end of their dynasty (since this was their last realistic chance to win a ring with a Duncan-led team), Dragic scored 23 points in the fourth quarter as some of the most accomplished players in playoff history stood helpless. And Dragic’s performance was a microcosm for the game.
With the Spurs legacy hanging in the balance, they expectedly had their big guns on the court in the fourth quarter (Duncan, Ginobili, Parker, etc.). The Suns? They had Grant Hill and a bunch of bench players on the court to try to put the dagger in one of the greatest dynasties in the NBA history. And while the Suns best players cheered from the bench, their back-ups were unstoppable, scoring 39 points in the fourth period to seal the deal.
So, obviously, the surprises were done for this series, right? The Spurs would come out like a wounded animal in Game 4, and win easily, especially since the Suns were now playing with house money.
But nothing about this series was predictable. The Suns came out in Game 4 with a purpose to kill the beast while it was wounded. And even though Nash got his eye busted by Duncan’s elbow, the kid went to the locker room to get stitches, and played the whole fourth quarter with one eye swollen shut.
I didn’t think anything could be more memorable from this series that Dragic’s Game 3 performance. But after Game 4, the lasting image of this battle will be Nash executing the Spurs -- busting 25-footers, and-one’s, and running floaters -- all with his eye busted like Rocky Balboa. Finally slaying his demon.
Even though no one coulda seen this coming, deep down we all knew this is the only way the Suns could overcome their tormentors... in a way that defied all logic and history. And just like that.. the witch is dead.
