The Western Conference finals matches the NBA's stingiest defense against its most explosive offense. Although the San Antonio Spurs have not completely shut down the Phoenix Suns, they have done it when it matters the most -- in the fourth quarter.
The Suns have averaged 111 points, but they have lost the first two games at home. The series shifts to San Antonio for Game 3 on Saturday night.
"Defensively, in the last eight minutes of both games, we did very well," the Spurs' Manu Ginobili said after San Antonio's 111-108 victory Tuesday night. "So that's always the big difference here."
The Spurs, who have advanced to four conference finals and won two championships since 1999, have a decisive advantage in experience over the Suns. Phoenix is making its first appearance in the conference finals since 1993.
In Game 1, the Spurs outscored the Suns in the fourth quarter, 43-32. In Game 2, the Spurs outscored the Suns, 31-23. San Antonio shot better than 70 percent from the field in the fourth quarter in both games.
With Phoenix leading by 97-94 with 5 minutes 43 seconds remaining in Game 2, the Spurs -- who received 14 of Tim Duncan's team-high 30 points in the fourth quarter -- rattled off a 13-5 run to take a 107-102 lead with 1:19 left.
"The difference, obviously, is that they scored 43 two nights ago in the first game, and then they scored 31 tonight," Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni said Tuesday night. "We did not make a stop when we had to."
The Suns, who figure they will outscore their opponents, do not play good defense.
Or, as Ginobili said, "They don't like playing defense so much."
But the Spurs, who allowed a league-low 88.4 points a game during the regular season, do. As a result, the Suns, who averaged a league-high 111 points, find themselves in an almost insurmountable hole.
Only nine teams in NBA history have rallied from a 2-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven series. Only three teams have done so after losing the first two games at home. No team in a conference final series has come back to advance to the championship round after losing the first two games at home.
To compound matters, San Antonio had a league-best 39-3 record at home during the regular season. About the only thing in the Suns' favor is that they had the best road record in the league this season at 31-10.
It is doubtful that the Suns can shoot much better on the road than they did in Game 2 at home. Every Suns player shot at least 50 percent from the field, except Shawn Marion, who was 5 for 11 (45.5 percent). As a team, the Suns made 55.7 percent of their shots.
"We stunk on D," San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said Tuesday night, only half-seriously. "Is that fair? We didn't do very well on defense. Part of the reason is because Steve Nash is the MVP of the league. And Amare Stoudemire is unstoppable."
Nash scored 29 points and handed out 15 assists to become the first player in NBA history to score 25 or more points with at least 10 assists in four consecutive playoff games. Oscar Robertson (1963) and Michael Jordan (1989) are the only other players to do it in three consecutive playoff games.
Stoudemire, who averaged 38.7 points against the Spurs during the regular season, scored 41 in Game 1, his career high in the playoffs. In Game 2, Stoudemire had 37 points.
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