Nash leads Suns to 2nd victory in as many nights
Steve Nash waited awhile to get going Wednesday night against the Toronto Raptors, but he picked a great time to start. Nash scored 13 points in the decisive 4th quarter, leading the Phoenix Suns to their 2nd win in as many nights. “Captain Canada“ finished with 15 pts and 9 assists, a couple below is average in both categories.
Phoenix has started a new winning streak after the one that ended late last month against Dallas. The Suns have now won four straight overall and are 2nd in the league right now at 23-8, trailing only Dallas who is 25-7 (11 game winning streak). Six players scored in double-figures for the Suns including: Boris Diaw (15), Shawn Marion (13), Amare Stoudemire (15 & 6 blocks), Raja Bell (17), Nash (15) and Leandro Barbosa (12). This is likely the most balanced scoring attack the Suns have displayed all year. Kurt Thomas and James Jones also scored 6 & 7 pts, respectively for Phoenix.
Nash appears to be slowing a little bit - hopefully D'Antoni will start cutting his minutes a little bit more to ensure his availability come playoff time - when games actually count. The highlight of the game was a nasty rejection by Amare Stoudemire when Rasho Nesterovic tried to go up for a dunk/layup. Amare came up from the weakside and swatted away the shot. Overall, Stoudemire's intensity and aggression were active on defense against the Raptors. Most NBA analysts believe that Amare could be lead the league in blocked shots if he just focused on playing defense a little bit more... unfortunately, playing defense usually doesn't get you to the All-Star game or endorsement deals, so don't expect Amare (buy Amare Stoudemire jersey) to become the next Dikembe Mutombo.
The game marked the return of F/C Chris Bosh (buy Chris Bosh jersey) for the Raptors, and he did not disappoint. Bosh finished with 26 pts to lead all scorers and also grabbed 14 rebounds - 5 more than any Suns player.