NBA Playoffs Suns Spurs Game 3: The Rising Action of Goran Dragic

During rising action, the basic internal conflict is complicated by the introduction of related secondary conflicts, including various obstacles that frustrate the protagonist’s attempt to reach his goal. Secondary conflicts can include adversaries of lesser importance than the story’s antagonist, who may work with the antagonist or separately, by and for themselves or actions unknown.

“The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself in every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him.”- Abraham Lincoln

We close the third act of our tale with the most unfamiliar of turns. The unknown to many but familiar to his kin, comes forth in a blaze of fury with rod and whip in hand, and drives the horses beyond the horizon. We approach the climax of our story, suddenly, much faster than we anticipated, stunned at how this progressed. Seriously, this has gotten out of hand, fast. We’re now facing a reality where the Suns… the SUNS, led by Steve Nash, could sweep the San Antonio Spurs, led by Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. It’s a bizarre landscape, and I find myself seeking shelter. I had abandoned all hope for a Suns victory in this game long ago, as soon as the buzzer sounded to end Game 2. No way a Spurs team lets one go at home down 2-0. And then they won.

Behind Dragic.

Dragic was taken with a draft pick acquired from the San Antonio Spurs and looked absolutely lost his rookie season. He seemed like  another lost draft pick by the Suns to many (and by many, I mean me, who constantly mocked the pick). And Dragic was insane tonight. He started heating up, and then this happened:

BOOM.

That kicked off a surge of confidence where Dragic essentially took over the game. He relentlessly took whoever was guarding him to the rack, and thanks to a bizarre strategy by Gregg Popovich to religiously switch, he found hmself guarded by players who had no business trying to check him on the outside. Like, oh, say, DeJuan Blair. There was a play late where the Suns set the offense in motion, made three perimeter rotations and when Dragic was chased off the three, he didn’t settle for the mid-range J. He lunged straight for the rim and banked it in off-glass. He was fouled on the play but no call was made. Instead of complaining to the refs, he simply sprinted up court.

Parker needs to be addressed here.

I pointed out last game that Dragic had the ability to rattle Parker. And it continued in this game. Parker’s obviously is hurt, dragging and trying to play through plantar fasciitis. But he’s still capable of slicing up the Suns if there’s not a perimeter defender that can check him. Dragic can. And did. Dragic blocked the Parker baseline floater that I’ve seen Parker nail on the Suns about a million times. And for him to absolutely take over on the other end, with no one able to check him, that gave the Suns a counter they’ve never had.

For years it’s been “if the Suns get Nash to have a good game, and STAT takes over, and they hit their threes, and they don’t get killed on the glass and if puppies turn into rainbows and if you clap your hands, they can win.” While with the Spurs, it was “they’ll get consistent performance from the Big 3 throughout the series and a few games where an unlikely player steps up. But their defense will consistently keep them in games.” And thus, we have the formula fully reversed and used against itself.

I cannot say enough about how much fool’s gold Matt Bonner is. At PBT, I introduced the Matt Bonner Blown Assignment Drinking Game. It’s a quick way to the hospital. What’s worse, you can actually see the Spurs cheating on their own assignments, going to try and cover for Bonner. “I’d better be ready in case Matt isn’t where he needs to be.” And yet, he played 20 minutes! At what point do you not recognize how big a liability he is on both sides of the floor, even if he is knocking down the three, and go with a more versatile player for minutes? Huge fail for Popovich.

We now face an uncertain end to our story, because if any team, if ANY team, can come back from 0-3, it’s the Spurs, and if any team can surrender a 3-0 lead to the Spurs, it’s the Suns. But the Suns have now come back twice from double digit deficits to win by double digits. We see history being unraveled before us and the light of the Suns piercing the shrouded wasteland. This will either become the final and most crushing defeat of the Suns by the Spurs, or the final, unequivocal redemption for Nash’s Suns, regardless of their Western Conference Finals result. To go from lottery to besting the Spurs? That’s better than their wildest dreams. And as the action rose, they found themselves believing in that ideal.

The future is not set. It is what we make for ourselves.