Spurs at Suns. In the early part of the season, Sunday's tilt between these two games would have been viewed as a probable preview of the Western Conference Finals. Shoot, even a month or so ago it seemed somewhat likely.
Today? Not so much.
Yes, the Spurs are still on course and near the top of the West despite losing Friday night in Denver to snap their 11-game winning streak. Phoenix, however, lost to the Jazz 126-188 on Friday, the Suns' third
consecutive home loss. And Phoenix fell to 3-6 since Shaquille O'Neal joined the lineup.
Phoenix is now in danger of falling into a dogfight just to make the postseason, yet coach Mike D'Antoni says there's no doubt his club is better with Shaq despite the record.
"Not play-wise, but on paper and what we see," D'Antoni said. "We can be a better team than we could ever be with the little guys running all over the place. We may not be as pretty, but we're going to be much more efficient."
He said defensive improvement will determine whether Phoenix reaches its goal of becoming a hampionship contender. O'Neal has been what the Suns, who have 13 of their remaining 20 games against winning teams, expected.
Shaq scored 20 in Friday's loss and is averaging 11.1 points and 10.8 rebounds for Phoenix, and he's erased the offensive rebound woes that had plagued the pre-Shaq Suns. But the team's perimeter defense has been awful, its shooting inconsistent and the ball-handling often atrocious. Phoenix is averaging 16.5 turnovers since O'Neal joined the team, and pponents are shooting 50.5 percent from the field against Phoenix.
"We're not going to panic," Amare Stoudemire said. But a loss on Sunday would be the Suns' longest home losing streak in four years.San Antonio, meanwhile, sparked its latest surge turned courtesy of Phoenix.
The Spurs (43-18) were 7-8 in 2008 when they faced the Suns (40-22) on Jan. 31, and appeared on their way to their first losing month since going 6-8 in February 1999. But San Antonio scored 29 fourth-quarter points in come-from-behind, 84-81 win.
That victory in Phoenix began a stretch of 15 wins in 17 games for the Spurs.
Manu Ginobili led San Antonio with 24 points in Friday's and is averaging a career-high 20.7 this season. He played some of his best basketball during the winning streak, twice scoring at least 40 points and averaging 26.3 in the 11 victories.
Ginobili has scored 18.5 per game against the Suns this season, but has shot just 27.3 percent. Duncan has averaged 26.0 points and 17.0 rebounds in the teams' two meetings - but that was without Shaq in the paint.
San Antonio has won 12 of its last 16 regular-season meetings against the Suns, taking five of eight in Phoenix.
| ATS | San Antonio | Phoenix |
| Record: | 43-18-0 (.705) | 40-22-0 (.645) |
| As Favorite: | 41-9-0 (.820) | 39-17-0 (.696) |
| As Underdog: | 2-9-0 (.182) | 1-5-0 (.167) |
| At Home: | 26-5-0 (.839) | 21-10-0 (.677) |
| On Road: | 17-13-0 (.567) | 19-12-0 (.613) |
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