BullsClips's Dynasty Blog
Suns Find A Way Behind Nowitzki, Send Spurs to Fourth Straight Defeat
Posted on May 29, 2011 at 09:13 PM.
Despite a sloppy start with five turnovers and a poor shooting effort in the first quarter, Dirk Nowitzki and the Suns came away with their fourth consecutive win to begin the 2010/2011 NBA season. Nowitzki finished his day as the game’s scoring leader with 24 points on 12-18 shooting.
“We need to fix the way we have been starting games,” Nowitzki told reporters following the game Wednesday night. “It’s been sloppy, convoluted and has started us in a hole to start games. In this league, that type of thing will start catching up to us if we don’t address it now.”
Phoenix trailed by as many as 12 points in the first half, thanks to a huge second quarter effort off the bench from San Antonio’s Jason Thompson. Thompson was 5-6 in the period with 11 points. Phoenix was able to rally to tie the game going into halftime on the back of a 10-0 run in the final 3:14 of the second quarter. That run was capped by a Mike Conley three-pointer, as he went into the locker room with 10 first half points.
“I think the key for us this evening was when Dirk (Nowitzki) came out on fire in the third;” Suns head coach Alvin Gentry told media in his press conference following the win. “He showed why he is a superstar in this league, and made sure our guys played well out of the break. It’s always important to keep momentum as long as possible, because it can change at any moment. Tonight, like last Friday (against the Lakers), we were able to hold off a late run and win the ballgame.”
Nowitzki came out firing in the third quarter after scoring 10 first half points. He carried the load for Phoenix, scoring 12 points, shooting 6-7 from the field. It was a back and forth battle between superstars as Brandon Roy put up 13 points of his own, despite his poor shooting the rest of the game. Roy was just 7-25 from the field in the game, but was 5-8 in the third, bringing San Antonio within one point after three.
The Suns bench, fueled by Brandon Bass, Nick Young and Krik Hinrich played a big role in the beginning of the fourth quarter, as they combined to score the first 11 points of the period for Phoenix. Bass finished with 10 points, while Hinrich added a season-high 10 assists in his reserve role.
Unable to fully pull away, Phoenix found itself in another close game as the final minutes approached. Spurs sixth man Mike Miller’s finish in traffic tied things at 85 with 1:51 remaining after a nice pass by Raymond Felton, but San Antonio could not find a way to take the lead.
Conley hit a monster fadeaway jumper as the shot clock expired with 1:27 left to put the Suns on top for good. After a stop by each team, Felton had a chance to pull the Spurs level at 87, but his jumper was blocked by Conley, causing a shot clock violation. Kevin Durant made two free throws with 2.5 seconds remaining to seal the victory for Phoenix. He finished with 19 points on 7-19 shooting from the field.
The Spurs (0-4) will host the Houston Rockets and Pau Gasol on Saturday night at 7:30 CT at the AT&T Center, while Phoenix (4-0) hosts the Memphis Grizzlies and Kobe Bryant on Friday night at 7 p.m. MT from the US Airways Center.
Notable Statistics: PHX: D. Nowitzki: 24 pts, 5 ast; M. Conley: 14 pts, 8 ast; K. Durant: 19 pts (7-19 fgs); B. Bass: 10 pts (5-6 fgs); K. Hinrich: 10 ast.
SA: B. Roy: 18 pts (7-25 fgs); R. Hibbert: 16 pts (8-10 fgs), 4 blk; K. Humphries: 12 pts, 13 rebs; M. Miller: 13 pts.
| Nov 3, 2010 - SA at PHX | |||||
| TEAM | 1ST | 2ND | 3RD | 4TH | SCORE |
| San Antonio Spurs (0-4) | 26 | 18 | 22 | 19 | 85 |
| Phoenix Suns (4-0) | 20 | 24 | 23 | 22 | 89 |
| San Antonio Spurs | ||||||||||
| STARTERS | MIN | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PTS |
| Raymond Felton | 33 | 1-7 | 0-1 | 4-4 | 2 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 6 |
| Brandon Roy | 30 | 7-25 | 3-15 | 1-1 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 18 |
| Ryan Gomes | 15 | 3-6 | 2-4 | 0-0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Kris Humphries | 28 | 4-8 | 0-1 | 4-5 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 12 |
| Roy Hibbert | 34 | 8-10 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 16 |
| BENCH | MIN | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PTS |
| Mike Miller | 28 | 6-16 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 13 |
| Jason Thompson | 15 | 5-7 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| Brad Miller | 7 | 0-4 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Aaron Gray | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Joe Smith | 6 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gordan Hayward | 6 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Devin Ebanks | 3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TEAM TOTALS | 34-84 | 6-25 | 11-15 | 40 | 20 | 13 | 5 | 11 | 85 | |
| Phoenix Suns | ||||||||||
| STARTERS | MIN | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PTS |
| Mike Conley | 26 | 6-8 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 14 |
| Marcus Thornton | 24 | 5-12 | 2-6 | 0-1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 12 |
| Kevin Durant | 29 | 7-19 | 1-6 | 4-4 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 19 |
| Dirk Nowitzki | 29 | 12-18 | 0-2 | 0-2 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 24 |
| Tyson Chandler | 34 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| BENCH | MIN | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PTS |
| Nick Young | 17 | 3-7 | 1-3 | 0-0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Kirk Hinrich | 15 | 1-6 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Omer Asik | 7 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Thabo Sefalosha | 5 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Brandon Bass | 12 | 5-6 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| James Jones | 7 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Daniel Gibson - DNP | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| TEAM TOTALS | 39-77 | 7-20 | 4-8 | 38 | 28 | 10 | 6 | 13 | 89 | |
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