fifty-three and eighteen

The Suns (53 - 18) score an impressive 119 points last night in Golden State. They should 51.7% for their field goals, went 9 - 22 for threes, 20 - 29 from the stripe, and they still lost. The Warriors (34 - 39) are barely hanging on to a shred of hope to make the playoffs for the first time since 1994, but their hopes stayed alive last night as they beat the Suns, 124 - 119. The Suns played a good Suns-styled game, but they came up short after the Warriors scored 45 points in the first quarter alone. They had 77 points at the half, to the Suns' 63. The Warriors were up by 23 points at the end of the third, but then the Suns put out Kurt Thomas, Leandro Barbosa, James Jones, Marcus Banks, and Boris Diaw. This squad, much slower overall than our starters, made the stops that the rest of the team had failed to make. This squad made the 23 point lead evaporate almost entirely with a couple minutes to play. This squad got the game back to only a 5 point lead for the Warriors, but they still fell to Golden State. Banks came up big with his defensive effort last night. I was impressed what he did in the place of Nash that Nash had not been able to do the entire night: make points, passes, AND play defense. There were some bad calls and bad "no-calls" last night, but the Warriors shot lights out over an incredibly gifted Suns' team who normally does that to their opponents. If I hadn't been biased toward the Suns, it would have been one of those games to remember with friends the next day. Maybe I still will. The next game is tonight in Phoenix against the Nuggets (35 - 35) who beat the Suns handily last time in Denver. It's payback time. Only 11 games until playoffs. GO SUNS!