NBA lays boots to the Suns

It hasn’t been a good week or so for the Phoenix Suns and it seems to only be getting worse. A day after Robert Horry gave Steve Nash a nice little fore-arm into the scorer’s table, the NBA suspended “Big Shot Bob” for the next two games but also took Amare Stoudemire and Boris Draw away from the Suns for one game each because they, stupidly, came off the bench during the fracas that followed the body check. This series’ officiating has been horribly lop-sided and this decision is another demonstration of that. Steve Kerr brought up in a Yahoo article yesterday that both Tim Duncan and Bruce Bowen left the bench and stepped on the court during a fight earlier in the game as well, but this seems to have slipped through the cracks of the NBA’s officiating system.

The only thing I don’t get it why the league would slant this series in the Spurs favour. Would it not be beneficial for television ratings if the offensive dynamo Suns were to move on? More people would tune in for a Phoenix-style barn burner than a slowed down fundamental game involving San Antonio. Nobody is a big fan of fundamentals; it’s why the WNBA is that awful.

Steve Nash also lost out in MVP voting yesterday as well when the league handed over the award to Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks. This was only fitting in my opinion as this was the year that Nash deserved it. In his previous two MVP seasons, Nash should’ve finished second to Shaq (2004-2005) and LeBron or Kobe (2005-2006). Now he should know how it feels when an award is stolen from you.

In basketball action last night, the baby Bulls staved off elimination one more time by beating the Pistons in Detroit; and quite easily as well. The Bulls shot 57 percent on the night and insured a game 6 tomorrow night. I still can’t see Chicago crawling out of that 3-0 hole they fell into to start the series but it sure is entertaining watching them try.

The Golden State Warriors were sent packing by the Utah Jazz last night, ending the run of their “beautiful game” or “chaos offense” as people called it. To me it looked more like a bunch of guys running around and taking the first available shot; all while playing undisciplined throughout the game. There was a reason they had three players kicked out of separate games these playoffs. It’s a shame that the team with best fans in the league has to sit out the rest of the playoffs and wait until next year to waive their yellow towels.