So, I posted this originally as a response in the comments to Erin from Blue Thoughts insightful questions about Amare's comments about Bruce Bowen and the Spurs. Anyway, it got long winded, so I am going to use it as a separate post:
Well, on Bruce Bowen himself: You are correct about my feelings - I do think he is dirty. I don't mind good defense - I grew up on those 90's Knicks teams that were all about defense. But I think you have to play within the rules; Derek Harper's hand checks were legal at the time. Bowen's tactics are not legal, but they won't get called because he does it when no one pays attention. For example, he'll stick his foot in under another player's foot, while they are shooting a jumper. This is what caused Steve Francis' ankle injury, and set Isiah off. That is technically a foul - you cannot interfere with a player until his feet are back on the ground. That's why I think he's dirty. As someone with ankle problems from years of playing basketball and rolling my ankles, I'm sensitive to that.
As for Amare's comments: That was dumb. You don't need to piss off the entire Spurs team. If he had attacked Bowen, and just Bowen, it would have probably been okay (especially after the footage of Bowen kicking Amare's heel showed up). But by saying "the team as a whole" is dirty... well, it may be true in some way, but it ain't gonna help.
As for the actual play - that was dirty.
And for the rest of the series - the Spurs will take two at home now. They will go back to Phoenix up 3-1, maybe lose game 5 (maybe win), but definitely ending this in game 6. My problem with the Suns remains that I don't think they can beat a legit team. They don't have a strong defense, and their offense is two-dimension - all threes or fast breaks or layups. Stop the paint pentration, and close out on the arc, and force the Suns to hit jumpers. That's why they put Kurt Thomas into the game in Game 2, and it worked - he can hit a 12-20 foot jumper (most of the time). But if you offense is dependent on Kurt to step up and carry it... gotta bet on the Spurs....
PS: Jack Cobra (see his post today at yaysports) and Bill Simmons both called that Poppavich gave up on Game 2, and decided to wait until Game 3 to make the adjustment to the Suns adjustment (playing Thomas). That is very plausible. I am looking forward to Game 3 just to see if that is the case, and, if so, can the Suns respond and take a game in San Antonio, or will they fall behind 3-1?
By the way, I caught most of the GS win tonight, but there will be no post. I am not surprised by it (I put money on it), and I will bet they win Game 4 at home, too, in a similar fashion. Then cames crucial Game 5 in Utah. If things are tied up, I will post a preview of what I think will happen, but, barring injury or something, I believe the Warriors can win three more in a row. The key is to not play a close game (i.e. score 104 points by the end of the 3rd quarter), or they are in trouble. The Warriors can't finish a close game (FT problems), and the Jazz definitely can.
AK's defense can lead to a defensive stop when needed, Boozer can grab a needed rebound, and Okur is amazingly clutch with the threes - those are the three things, besides free throws, that determine who wins a close game.
Look at the Knicks close games this year (I cite them because I am quite familiar with how their season went): They won games late because of David Lee's rebound and clutch threes - Francis in DC; Curry in Milwaukee (Curry! Curry?), Frye against the Pistons. They lost because of FTs (Marbury against Seattle). They lost to the Nets because they couldn't get the needed defensive stop. That's how close games go. The Jazz are superior to the Warriors in all four category. This is sort of what Simmons was saying today, too, but he broke it down differently. It's true, too.
One last Simmons thing - I liked how pointed out the double standard (via an e-mail) of the Josh Hancock DUI death versus a black athlete. Like I've said before - we'll criticize Simmons when we think he's wrong, but we will definitely give him props when he is right. Here is an example of him doing some good. Maybe he does check in with the blogosphere every once in a while (considering how many ESPN writers The Starting Five as already interviewed, we can see him reading some of their work and feeling a call to respond in his way... or so we hope. Don't say we ain't idealistic, yo.). We were going to do a post on this, but as you can see we haven't been around all day. There really isn't much more to add on our part, but we will compare that to the coverage of Sebastian Telfair come Sunday (we are off tomorrow all day)....
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