The Gash

We are witnessing a rite of passage.

Steve Nash, the reigning MVP and hopeful usurper of the NBA crown, has been battered. He's been beaten. He's been bloodied. Steve Nash is paying his dues. Should the Suns win the title this year, there will be no more question whether or not Nash deserved his MVP trophies. He will have paid off the interest and principal on those awards in this Western Conference Semi-Final round by the time he earns his championship.

Through four games, the Spurs have hazed Steve Nash into the fraternity whose membership is made up only of league champions. Every Hall of Fame champion earned his stripes on the way to the title by getting hammered and tossed around like a puppy in a dryer. A board check from Horry. A Nut n' Honey moment courtesy of Bruce Bowen. The header Steve took into Tony Parker's forehead.

That image has become the icon of this series. If the Suns win it all, the video of Steve Nash's bandaged nose, dripping with blood as he sat helplessly on the sidelines trying to get back in the game in crunch time, will forever be linked with the 2007 NBA Finals and the entire playoffs. It has become known as the "Nose Gash," or more simply, "The Gash."

It symbolizes everything Nash has gone through in this series, scrapping and fighting his way like Rocky IV, taking the best hits the Evil Winning Machine has to offer and coming back in the end to conquer his life long nemesis. It stands as a microcosm of the beatings Nash has taken (and will take) on his way to his first Finals MVP.

That's what the stories will say. It will be all over the news and sports sites and anywhere someone writes about professional basketball, either for a living or as a hobby. Allow me to be the first to offer up this story.

The Gash is emblematic of the Suns attack on the Spurs' psyche. It has been beaten to death, the idea that the Spurs are in the Suns' heads. Take each game individually, and that could very well be seen as the case. But I've been asking for days, who is in whose head?

This is a series, not a collection of games. The playoffs are about adjustments, are they not? Who said that they had to be tactical adjustments? Who said that they had to be strategic? The Suns have been making an adjustment with as much improvisation as a Steve Nash-led fast break.

In case nobody noticed, I have been saying since game one that this series doesn't come down to match ups on the floor or on the bench. It is not about X-factors and star players or point totals. This series gets its intrigue from the match up of styles (and I see that the conventional media joined me on this particular bandwagon after game two). I said that this all would come down to who plays best at whose game.

The Suns have been getting roughed up by the officiating as much as they have by the Spurs. There is no denying it, as it has become the general topic of conversation regarding this series. The Suns are whining. The Spurs are just playing tough, physical playoff basketball. The Suns aren't mentally tough. And on. And on. And on.

But the Suns were just playing the Spurs' game. Are the Spurs not infamous for their whining and "who me, no not me!" looks when they get whistled for a foul or violation? The Suns took that from the Spurs right off the block. That's why the officiating and supposedly dirty play has been the forefront of discussion - the Suns are bigger whiners than the Spurs.

No one seemed to pick up on the fact that the Suns were outdoing the Spurs where San Antonio usually gets the biggest advantage. That foul advantage goes along way to securing three championship banners in the rafters of AT&T Center.

It started with game one, and Amare's controversial 4th foul. Then it turned into the Suns overcoming the disparity in fouls to blow out the Spurs in game two. After that, Amare said the dirtiest word in all of sports - "dirty." Then the referees seemed to assert their authority over Amare in game three. It continued on into game four.

Amare's claims brought the league's attention onto the series. Bowen's knee brought them to action. The league responded by putting three of the toughest-minded officials in the league on this game. Joe DeRosa, Jack Nies, and Steve Javie aren't known for taking crap from players and coaches, but they are known for making tough calls and letting players decide the rest.

Suddenly the Suns were getting the benefit of the 50-50 fouls. Suddenly Tim Duncan was getting called for his shuffle step that usually results in no travel call. And most poignant of all calls in the game was the charge that Steve Nash drew on Tim Duncan, the fans in San Antonio pleading for the blocking call because Nash was supposedly in the circle.

To be fair, Nash did appear to be in the circle on the replay. The best I can tell is that Steve got into position just before Duncan got there, and Duncan's momentum pushed Steve over the line. We should all understand, by now, the tricky nature of the block/charge call. I won't get into it, except to say that it was a tough call. That's what these officials are known for.

In the fourth quarter, Duncan found himself on the bench with 5 fouls. Amare did, as well, but most of those were from his own defensive lapses. The one exception being the foul in the open court, where Fabricio Oberto flopped. Yes, there was contact, but nothing truly foul-worthy.

It is a common call in the NBA, though, except when it happens on rebounds. It's a position move, where both players are fighting for the same spot. But when a player does it on the rebound, the other player doesn't flop to the floor looking for a foul. It doesn't seem too brilliant to hit the deck with three or four very large men jumping on top of you, does it? Personally, I think it should be a no-call. It's ticky-tack, and it's a move that doesn't interfere with the game, except a very large man has fallen to the floor, endangering any potential lane drivers.

Other than that, and the tough Steve Nash charge (when it could be interpreted that Tony Parker elbowed Nash into Oberto), the Suns seemed to get the benefit of a few more favorable calls than the Spurs. (I'll find a more accurate count when I download the series from the official league site.)

The Spurs were shocked, to say the least. They did not look like happy campers at all once the Suns started to make their fourth quarter push. The Spurs had their usual look of astonishment after every call, but some of them looked genuine this time. They really couldn't believe that some favorable calls for the Suns cost the Spurs the game.

That is a deep gash for a champion to take. The blood spilled from the bandage of Saturday night's Spurs win when Robert Horry decided to play a little ice hockey with 18 seconds left in the game.

The Suns did not play great basketball through the majority of three quarters. But with some tough defense and determined offense, the Suns performed the greatest rope-a-dope since October 30, 1974. Nash and the Suns took the best that the Spurs had to offer for three quarters, and the Spurs were dealing it pretty good. The Suns looked ragged on offense, clueless on defense, yet only found themselves down by seven going into the fourth quarter.

That is striking distance.

After duking it out to a 20-17 near draw for most of the fourth, the Suns got off the ropes, headed for the open court, and laid a series of jabs, crosses, and body blows and knocked the wind right out of the Spurs to the tune of a 12-1 scoring run to end the game. The Suns did what they always do when not playing particularly well against a lesser opponent. They fought hard, hung around, and turned it on in the end. They did it to several lottery teams throughout the season, as well as some playoff teams (January 2 in Chicago comes to mind).

The Suns took that game and cut a swath the size of Texas right through San Antonio's psyche. The Suns ripped out their hearts for one game (at least), and left them bloody and bent.

The Suns have to win this series. The Suns have to win the championship this year. Steve Nash has paid his dues. He's fought through the gauntlet and come out stronger.

The Suns have climbed the mountain and planted their flag in its summit. Now they have to get down the other side without falling.

That is their rite of passage. This is Steve Nash's legacy.