Rising Suns

In the playoffs, the lower seed rarely expects to take the first two on the road in a 7-game series. When the game one buzzer sounds, if the road team has been defeated, they can look themselves in the mirror and say, "Yeah, but we can play for a split." The pressure is all on the home team to protect the home court in game two, or suffer the consequence of losing home court advantage in what becomes a best-of-5 series. This is how the playoffs are structured.

And so, the Suns fall victim to the structure. To a sense of complacency that a 25-point victory in game one somehow entitles them to play flat in the first half of game two. Down as many as 14 in the first half, the Suns looked like people expected them to look in game one: rusty.

Then, in the second half, they turned on the switch. a 16-2 spurt put the Suns ahead by five, but they couldn't pull away because Michael Finley...just...couldn't...miss. With the Suns' key perimeter defender, Joe Johnson, out with an injury (more on that later), Finley was able to run roughshod over the rest of the team. Finley on 12-18 shooting in what would turn out to be the critical performance in the young series.

It was a close game, a hard fought game, a game that could have easily swung in the Suns favor. But it didn't, and the Suns are looking down the barrel of two very tough road games in games three and four.

Q's three-pointer at the buzzer clanged off the side of the rim, it was a contested shot, but a shot I wasn't unhappy with. It's the exact guy I want taking that shot, too, so I don't know if I have a lot to complain about on that front (even though Q was obviously plan B in that drawn up play. I just wish they had designed it specifically that way to get Q a cleaner look). After that miss, the little things look huge: Amare's missed dunk with under two minutes to go; Amare's missed chip-shot and Marion's failed put-back on the very next possession. One of those two insanely high-percentage shots go in, it's a different outcome. But they didn't, and the Suns 25-point game one beatdown of Dallas is for naught.

Protecting home court in the playoffs is paramount, and the Suns couldn't do it. Now, they must go into enemy territory without one of their warriors. Joe Johnson suffered a broken eye socket from a hard foul levied by Jerry Stackhouse. Although Dick Bavetta and company would rule it a flagarant foul, I have to say that it looked pretty clean to me. It was a hard foul, and he caught Joe in a vulnerable position from behind, but Stack was clearly going for the ball (and got the ball, too). Joe just got caught up on the rim and slammed onto the hardwood face-first, breaking his orbital bone. Joe will miss game three, and his status for the series is tentative, at best.

That's a big problem for Phoenix, who rely on Joe to be their most accurate long-range assassin. His presence spreads the floor out for Marion, Q, and Nash to get better looks at the rim from beyond the arc, and with Joe sitting out for the forseeable future, the Suns will not get the looks that they are used to getting from long distance.

Fortunately, the Suns have Jim Jackson to step into the role. Jackson has proven a most dependable bench player and was able to step in and produce when Q went down for a few games. However, the Suns have yet to play a game without Joe (he played in all 82 games for Phoenix this season), so that could seriously disrupt the chemistry. As I said, Joe is the Suns' best perimeter defender. He's not a total lockdown guy like a Bruce Bowen or Ron Arcrazy, but he's disrupter, causing turnovers, and his absence will be glaring.

So, now the Suns will face adversity for the first time since Nash went down in the middle of the season, and the first time in the playoffs. Nash and Co. were becoming accustomed to always winning playoff games. Now, they have to go into Dallas and play for two, rather than playing for a split, which they could have done if Q's three had hit the bottom of the net instead of the side of the iron.

It's not all gloom and doom, of course. It's only tied 1-1, but it's a bump in the road and the Suns are going to have to prove that they can take on this challenge.

Hopefully, Joe will be back for game four, mask in tow, and he can do his best superhero impression.