suns 1 - spurs 2

This game's officiating crew was absolutely pathetic. I could not believe the bad calls and the bad no calls that these refs made, or didn't make, as the case may be. The Suns came out with something to prove on the Spurs home floor, but the officials killed that momentum really quickly. As the picture shows above, D'Antoni was very upset with the officiating, he even received a technical as he yelled at the refs for not calling fouls on Bowen each time that he hit Nash at the top of the arch as he was setting up each play for about 10 trips down the floor. I personally was extremely upset with the calls. The Suns had a good size lead in the first and second quarters, but the officials quickly took that away. One play, specifically, that I remember that was called poorly, was when Tim Duncan lowered his head and his shoulder, powered his way in to the basket and got the defensive foul called on Marion. That would have been an offensive foul for anyone on the Suns, and it definitely was an offensive foul, but it was called not against Duncan but against the Suns. Marion got 26 points, Stat got 21, and Nash got 16 with 12 assists, as well. Nash was kneed by Bowen in the crotch, there was a foul called on him, but it should have been a flagrant foul, and the ESPN commentators agree with me. Stat got his 21 even though he had 2 quick early fouls and sat a lot in the first half, 2 quick 3rd quarter fouls, one quick 4th quarter foul, and Stat had 5 fouls, didn't play but 21 minutes, but he still got the 21 points. If he can stay out of foul trouble (meaning the refs have to call a beter game) then Stat will be a huge factor in this series. Even with all of the bad officiating, the Suns only lost 108 - 101. The Suns will try to even things up on San Antonio's floor on Monday night. Game 5 is back here on Wednesday night. GO SUNS!