Why the Suns Won Game 2

So Mike D'Antoni inserted Kurt Thomas into the starting lineup, replacing James Jones, whose minutes were significantly reduced. Suns win, convincingly. The national media wonder aloud, "How could the Suns win if Kurt didn't stop Duncan?"

Although that defensive adjustment was integral in shutting down Tony Parker - no one had to double off Duncan - it was not the most important adjustment made by Coach D'Antoni. It's rather ironic, too, that it was an offensive adjustment that won the game.

No team has negated the Suns' pick-and-roll like the San Antonio Spurs. They have a nasty habit of committing to defensive assignments and clogging the lane and cutting off passing lanes. And the D'Antoni and Nash coaching tandem didn't break that defense until last night, when it counted most.

Instead of Nash and his screen both rolling to the basket for a score, D'Antoni played the screen and roll for the switch. In the second half alone I counted about a dozen times when Nash and Amare Stoudemire switched screens and reset the offense. It was subtle, but it was sheer brilliance. The screen and roll is the one part of the game (any opponent) that Gregg Popovich has shut down in his championship career. It is a big reason why the Suns can score a lot of points against the Spurs, but still lose.

So what happened? Well, generally speaking in terms of my short term recall, Steve Nash invariably found himself staring down the barrel of Tim Duncan. Amare usually landed on Bruce Bowen. That, my fans, is mismatch heaven for the Suns. Suddenly Nash has a big guy he can ace to the hole or simply shoot over if need be.

Nash may have had a terrible shooting percentage for that game, but he did net 20 points (5-5 free throws) and hand off 16 assists. The adjustment worked, as Amare let loose for 27 points on 10 of 16 shooting - AFTER starting 0-4 from the field. He also imposed his will on the rim to the tune of 6 dunks.

And Raja Bell kept the defense honest by bagging 18 points of his own on 6-9 shooting.

So did the defensive adjustment win the game? Or did the adjustment just settle the defense?

I vote for the latter because that simple offensive adjustment - flying in the face of pundits and experts everywhere who said that the Suns needed to improve their D - opened up the offense in ways that would have won them game 1 of this series. That was a FIVE POINT loss, and it wasn't decided until the final minute. The Spurs shot 50% in that game.

Still think it was a defensive adjustment?