Halftime thoughts…
April 19th, 2008, 1:32 pm · Post a Comment · posted by jerrybrown
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.
