Stick A Fork In The Suns

Well, so much for what was supposed to be the best first round playoff series ever. The Suns never led tonight in a must-win Game 3 at home, and are now dead and buried at 0-3. No NBA team has ever come back from 0-3.

In watching the Spurs utterly dismantle the Suns, the temptation is to think that the Spurs really are this good. After all, they are the defending champions, and just a handful of plays away from having even more than their four rings.

But it's more than the brilliance of the Spurs. This is also the end of the line for the Suns.

If you watched the first quarter of this game, you watched the whole game. The Spurs scored easily off pick and roll. The Suns didn't. When the Suns started to get any hint of rhythm, the Spurs fouled Shaq. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The two most important positions in basketball are point guard and center. In both of these positions, the Suns start a superstar and ex-MVP -- Steve Nash and Shaquille O'Neal. And both of these guys are on the wrong side of 30 (in Shaq's case, 35), and almost completely incapable of stopping their opposite number on the Spurs. If it hadn't been San Antonio, it would have been the Jazz with Williams and Boozer, or the Hornets with Paul and West, or the Celtics with Pierce and Garnett.

This isn't to excuse Amare Stoudemire, who might be the worst defensive power forward in the Association that isn't named Zach Randolph. It's also not to excuse the rest of the Suns players and general manager; only the Suns would consider Grant Hill a defensive player who can somehow stay in front of Tony Parker. But if you want to have any chance of beating the Spurs, you have to take away 2 of their 3 big guns. And with Nash and O'Neal, that's just never going to happen.

It's been a fun run, and I'm still of the mind that if Horrygate didn't happen, the Suns would have gotten a ring last year. But like the Webber/Bibby Kings, the Dirk/Howard Mavs, the Kemp/Payton Sonics, or the KJ/Barkley Suns, they'll end their run of prominence without a championship. They are just one more pleasant team that was fun to watch, but just not good enough.

Oh, and one other thing: when Shaq's teams lose in the playoffs, they lose badly. Expect the Spurs to seal the deal with a sweep. It happens a lot to Shaq's teams. This one ends on Sunday.