Suns fans will love Steve Nash’s new Nike commercial touting his  “Trash Talk” shoe. The shoe is made from waste materials of other Nike products at the factory, and the spot is the perfect companion piece.

Nash’s own production company, Meathawk, put together the futuristic spoof of the old TV series “The Six Million Dollar Man,” with Nash being built “better, stronger and faster” after his body is disintegrated in several on-court collisions. Amare Stoudemire and Raja Bell both make appearances in the commercial, which is funny, creative and fast-aced all at once.

 Check it out:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWa44yWS0qE.

It was as close to a unanimous choice as you can get.

 Manu Ginobili, arguably the Spurs best player this season, was snubbed for the West all-Star team but was the easy winner of the  NBA Sixth Man Award as the league’s best player in a reserve role for the 2007-08 season.
 Ginobili received 123 of a possible 124 first-place votes from NBA sportswriters and broadcasters around the country. (615 out of a possible 620 points) to easily outdistance last year’s winner, Leandro Barbosa of the Suns (one first-place vote, 283 points) while Jason Terry of Dallas was third with 44 points.

 Barbosa is still an effective player off the bench for Phoenix. And while he has not been as explosive this season, he might prove to be the swing player against the Spurs. He had a productive Game 1 with 12 points and eight rebounds and was asked to play big minutes (41) with Grant Hill hurting. But the Spurs took advantage of his defense at several points and he missed all three of his 3-pointers — two of them wide-open, which is a rarity against San Antonio.

 Ginobili needed 24 shots to get his 24 points, but had 19 in the second half and overtime while Barbosa had two points after intermission. And when Barbosa had a chance to win the game in regulation, he missed. Ginobili didn’t.

 A 3-point bomb by Tim Duncan will be the enduring memory of Game 1,  but Manu Ginobili’s game-winning layup in the second overtime really told the story.

 They were the 71st and 72nd points in the paint for San Antonio, the most the Suns have allowed all season and the lion’s share of the Spurs’ production in the 117-115 win. Many of them came after Suns big men Shaquille O’Neal, Amare Stoudemire and even Boris Diaw were saddled with fouls (eight between them in the first half), but the pick and roll was also a major culprit as the Suns were too slow on both ends to corral the speedy duo of Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, who had too many uncontested layups to count.

 ”Our rim was pretty soft because we couldn’t afford to have those guys foul out,” guard Raja Bell said. “They’re a good team and they recongnized that. They put their head down an went to the bucket and they shot a higher percentage.”

 And when San Antonio’s shooting percentage went up, Phoenix’s chances to rebound and scoring in transition went down. Phoenix had to rely more on their halfcourt offense down the stretch and only a late Hurculean effort by Steve Nash (20 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter and the overtimes) kept the baskets coming.

 At times, Diaw’s quickness and anticipation made him the most effective Sun inside defensively. But he’s not the answer over the long haul.

“You can’t have a 6-foot-8 center in the NBA playoffs and expect to be a successful team,” Nash said. “When Boris is our only big out there, you can’t expect him to dominate the basket like a Tim Duncan or Ben Wallace. When we had our bigs out there, their guards went six minutes without a basket, so foul trouble was a big part of it.’

 But it isn’t the only thing that needs to improve. Having Grant Hill to defend Parker down the stretch would help — he had no success at all in a brief stint Saturday after aggravating his groin injury — would be a plus. But as Phoenix coach Mike D’Antoni pointed out, the Spurs are going to get to the paint — because they always do.

 ”Tony Parker has made a living at the rim,” D’Antoni said. “No one’s figured it out yet. And there are going to be times that Ginobili gets to the rim. That’s life. But we can do a better job on them.”

 If you think Shaquille O’Neal is frustrated after playing only five minutes in the first half ($4 million a minute), what about Tim Duncan? 
Duncan makes 7-of-9 shots from the field, gets about four Suns in foul trouble and his teammates shoot 7-for-28 and fall behind 16 points at one point. As they did here on Apr. 9,
Phoenix’s small lineup has been very effective. Diaw and Leandro Barbosa combined for 18 points and seven rebounds on 7-for-11 shooting. But both Diaw and Barbosa both picked up their third fouls late in the first half – Barbosa’s was an especially silly loose-ball foul in which he had no chance at a rebound – and they will have to be smarter in the second half. But in a first half where O’Neal barely played, Steve Nash had little impact (five points, five assists) and Amare Stoudemire’s shot was erratic (5-for-14) the Suns put up 48 points, never trailed and lead by eight. Not bad. The Spurs are a big early third quarter team, so
Phoenix will have to be focused right away. And O’Neal needs to at least break a sweat before the fourth quarter. He said he wanted to have “all his bullets” down the stretch, but at best he’s only going to have half his fouls.

*Guess who’s back on the bench for the Spurs today? Didn’t need two guesses, huh? Robert Horry, who hasn’t played since Mar. 21 and missed the last 13 games with a left knee contusion that has been very slow to heal, took part in his first full practice in almost a month on Friday and is dressed for the game.

 He was still moving pretty gingerly in the pregame warm-ups and pretty much stuck to the 3-point line. He’s not expected to play, nor is Brent Barry — who has played just twice since January with another slow-to-heal injury. But if the 38-year-old gets off the bench, don’t expect the Suns to sweat it. 

“I hope he plays,” one Phoenix staffer said. “It would be an advantage for us.” 

 *When Phoenix coach Mike D’Antoni heard about the first-quarter scuffle in Cleveland that led to three technical fouls and some tense moments, he didn’t skip a beat.

 “Did anyone come off the bench?” he asked with a smile. *Among today’s referees: Bennett Salvatore (remember him? Game 4 of the Lakers series in 2006-07?) and Mike Callahan.

 Brian Skinner can think of a lot better ways to spend $3,000 than hand it over to the NBA. And thanks to a review by the league, he can keep his cash after the ejections of both Skinner and
Portland’s Jarrett Jack were rescinded by the league on Friday. ”He gets the $3,000 back, but he lost probably 30 minutes of playing time in that game,” said Phoenix general manager Steve Kerr, who lobbied for Skinner while he was in New York for the NBA general manager’s meetings. “Brian won’t let me forget that.” No offense to Skinner, but if he doesn’t play today it’s probably good news for
Phoenix. That means Shaquille O’Neal and Amare Stoudemire are both playing optimum minutes and have stayed out of foul trouble. Skinner will be the go-to guy in the first half it either guy had to sit, otherwise Boris Diaw will be the third big man in the rotation. For Skinner, who signed with the Suns as a free agent for the chance to be part of a team with championship possibilities, the real season begins today.  “This is it, this is what you play for,” he said. “All the practices, cardio, planes, buses … this is what determines whether all that work was worth it. If you don’t play for this day, you shouldn’t be playing. We’re not overconfident, but we are optimistic. And we’re ready.”

The Spurs have a reputation for playing a plain, base defense against top teams during the regular season and saving their major wrinkles and adjustments for the playoffs. The Suns, meanwhile, played one of their cards during the regular season — after the Shawn Marion deal — when Hill guarded Tony Parker down the stretch with Steve Nash switching to Bruce Bowen.

The move paid dividends in two Suns wins.

“They knew that was coming,” D’Antoni said. “We’ve seen each other so many times over the last two years, four times in the season and the playoffs, there isn’t much you’re going to stun people with. They have Bowen guarding Steve, and that won’t change. They’re small lineup is the same, the people they play late is the same. There isn’t much to hold back.”

 They have become fast friends in the Suns locker room – the 7-foot-1, 325-pound veteran center and the 25-year-old, Brazilian Blur.

 But then again, not even Grant Hill has known Shaquille O’Neal as long as Leandro Barbosa – though O’Neal admits he doesn’t remember the first meeting.

 Back in 1990, seven-year-old Leandrihno Barbosa was playing for a youth team in San Paulo when the 19-year-old O’Neal, having just completed his freshman year at LSU, visited
Brazil and his gym to speak, shake hands and rattle the rims with some dunks.

 “It was a crazy day, everyone was excited that he was coming and there were a lot of people in the gym,” Barbosa remembered. “I shook his hand. He didn’t remember, but it was a big day for me.”
 O’Neal has drawn a quick affection for Barbosa, and is trying to learn as many phrases in Portuguese with his Latin accent as possible .

 “The Brazilian culture likes a fight and never quits,” O’Neal said. “Leandro is a tough, hard-nosed kid and he’s going to be a vital part of our success. He ignites a lot of our guys.”

 Barbosa even forgives O’Neal for what he did on that long-ago trip to San Paulo.

 “He was dunking and he broke the backboard,” Barbosa said. “It stayed like that for about a week and a half before someone could get it fixed. No one could practice or play, so that was sad. But it was still fun to see him dunk like that.”

 When the trade to bring O’Neal to
Phoenix was made,  Barbosa’s phone rang off the hook.

 “All my friends from home called to say ‘How does it feel? You were shaking his hand a few years ago and now you are playing together?’ And at the beginning, it was a little strange. But we joked around and got to be friends fast, so the feeling went away.

 Grant Hill is done for the night after aggravating the groin injury that cost him two games earlier this month.

 Hill seemed to overextend himself on a fastbreak break with less than nine minutes left in the second quarter. He had a pained face when he landed and limped back up the floor before the Suns called a timeout.

 The initial report on Hill was that the injury wasn’t serious, although more will be known tomorrow. Hill was playing very well, he had 12 points in 13 minutes on 5-for-8 shooting before suffering the injury.

 The Suns led Golden State 71-57 at the half.

After another interesting night of basketball in the West, the Suns still have plenty of scenarios when it comes to a first-round playoff opponent this weekend.

The Suns can finish no lower than sixth, so they know they won’t play the Lakers or the Hornets, who will finish 1-2 in the West. And all of the remaining scenarios involve
Phoenix trying to win as many games as possible after both the Spurs and Rockets lost on the road:

*The Suns could open up on the road against the Spurs, if they lose a game or if  San Antonio wins the final two games tonight in Sacramento and Wednesday at home against the Jazz. But Manu Ginobili may not play, the Kings have been playing very well down the stretch and the Jazz could need that game also.

*The Suns could also meet the Spurs in a 3 vs.6 matchup where Phoenix has home-court advantage if the Suns win out and finish in a three-way tie with the Spurs and Rockets – and if the one game San Antonio loses is against the Jazz. That way, the Suns would finish ahead of
Utah, who would get the No. 4 seed. Got all that?

*Like to see the Suns play the Rockets? That could still happen, and the Suns could have home court if the Suns and Jazz win out and finish in a four-way tie with Houston and San Antonio, who would have to lose once (for the Spurs, that has to be Utah). Utah would wind up third and face San Antonio, while the Suns would get the Rockets and open in Phoenix.

*How about a Suns-Jazz series? If the Suns and the Rockets win out and the Spurs win in Sacramento and beat Utah – who hardly ever wins in San Antonio, the Suns would play the Jazz as the No. 5 seed, but would have home-court because of a better record.

 Of course, all this remains in play for only a few hours since all five teams play tonight. Enjoy.