i am not a big fan of small ball either. and i never liked to talk of the lockout season champs with an asterisk. but what horry was able to pull through made the outcome of this series unfair. i have, from that point on, no respect for horry and for pop who defended the action of his player.
i do not care much for the utah jazz and i don't really think that they stand a real chance against the spurs but still, with all my heart: go jazz! if only krilenko decides to play again...
Regardless if you believe its right or wrong what he did, he did nothing worse than what Jrich did with his flagrant 2 or Baron did with cheapshot to Fisher.
Even then, the rules to stay at your bench are clearly stated. Obviously players understand them as not everyone seems to get suspended when fights happen.
Horry made a fair foul and I know Jerry Sloan would say the same thing, but then he know what a hard foul was about back in his day.
What's funny is Kings played better in that game 5 because without Amare, the other players got involved, like Marion. Like in 2005, Spurs limited the damage from Nash and Amare and kept Marion, Bell, and the great 6th man, Barbosa under control.
And then of course on defense, they didn't do much to stop the other guys. They did well when Parker and Manu struggled. They have done bad when they did well(case in point with Manu's big game 5 and game 6). I think your team has issues at times when Manu Ginobili has 11 rebounds against your team.
There are no guarantees. Game 5's Phoenix fans and players wouldn't be as hyped if the whole incident didn't occur. Spurs bounce back well from losses. And nothing is guaranteed. The results could have been the same, could have been different, but nothing is a sure thing.
The rule is a rule, and to change that now would be unfair to any other teams that lost a player in a key moment. But hey excuses are good.
Dallas lost last year because Miami was handed the trophy. Spurs got the shaft by the refs last year against the Mavs!! Ahh, that's better!
Nash has got very little on what MJ received during his playoff years of getting roughed up.
But then, I'm a Spurs fan so I must be completely wrong, because they can never be right...Spurs cheated their way to victory, but nevermind that they had more 3's in the series and Suns averaged about 6 three's per game (during the season they averaged 10). Or that Spurs got back on transition D or that the formula for Suns success was getting support from the other guys, and not just Amare and Nash being a scorer. And then I highly doubt Stern would rather have the Spurs over the Suns moving on. Great for ratings. They'll beat out American Idol now!
Can't wait for Utah. That'll be a good fair, but physical series, with two stellar coaches.