The Suns advance to the Western Conference finals for the second straight year. They will face a deep, high-payroll Mavericks team that has found more of a defensive presence under coach Avery Johnson. The Suns don't have the depth and they don't have the balance. They try to get their perimeter, high-octane offense going -- with as many fast breaks as possible, of course -- and blow past you.
They did so last year in downing the Mavericks in a thrilling second-round series, 4-2. That they've gone as far as they did last year is a great achievement for coach Mike D'Antoni, Steve Nash, Shawn Marion and the rest of the Suns. But you have to wonder whether the lack of an inside game will mean this is as far as they can go this year.
There's nothing like a four-day gap between games for a team with tired legs. The Suns, who had been struggling just to stay even with the Clippers in their second-round series, had everything working in an impressive 127-107 rout of the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 7 Monday in Arizona.
"I guess the rest was good for us," said Shawn Marion (30 points), speaking of how the Suns hadn't played since their loss Thursday night in Los Angeles. At that point, the Suns had played 13 games in 26 days in the playoffs.
With fresh legs, the Suns hit 15-of-27 three-pointers; the Clippers were 0-for-4, meaning the Suns outscored them 45-0 from behind the arc. "We don't shoot them if we aren't making them," Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy said. The Suns stayed even with the Clippers on the boards. In their four wins, they were out-rebounded by 3.3 boards. In their three losses, they were killed by an average of 19.7 rebounds.
The Western Conference finals get underway against Phoenix with the first of two games at American Airlines Center. The Suns won the season series, 2-1. It's a rematch of the last year's conference semifinals, won by Phoenix, 4-2. Former Mavs point guard Steve Nash justified his MVP award with a breathtaking series against his old team.
The Mavs are in the conference finals for the third time ever and first since 2003, when San Antonio defeated them three years ago. Dirk Nowitzki missed the last three games of the series with an injured knee.
Sportsbook odds predict Dallas to win the series, but we will see nice and high scoring matches on this series.