Subscribe

Suns Eye Red Sox Blueprint

By Ryan McNeill • on April 29, 2008

When the Phoenix Suns came out and got pummeled at home last Friday night to fall behind 3-0 in their series with the San Antonio Spurs, I couldn’t help but think back to the fall of 2004, when the Boston Red Sox went home to Fenway and got pounded by a score of 19-8. That October night was sort of surreal, the way the Sox failed to respond to the 0-2 deficit after being favoured going into the series. The way the Yankees pounded balls off and over the Green Monster. The way the crowd seemed to go numb in the face of shattered dreams. Everything felt almost exactly the same way in this Game 3.

Just as the Red Sox found themselves battered, demoralized and staring down the barrel of historically impossible odds (at that point, no team in major league history had ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit), so too did the Suns who seemed hopeless and crushed. Oh, and they faced the same historically impossible odds, as no team in NBA history has ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit. It all sounds pretty familiar, no?

Of course, we know what happened next in the 2004 American League Championship Series. The Sox won Game 4 in the most dramatic fashion possible, getting the famous Dave Roberts steal in the ninth inning, which led to Bill Mueller’s game-tying RBI, and, ultimately, the 12th inning walk-off home run that turned David Ortiz into a legend. Then they won Game 5 under equally amazing circumstances (a two-run rally in the eighth, followed by Ortiz’s game-winning single in the bottom of the 14th inning), rode Schilling to a gutsy victory in Game 6, and took it home with a barrage at Yankee Stadium.

With each victory, it started to seem a little less crazy that the Sox could pull it off. After all, they were New York’s equal in terms of talent and experience. They had the momentum. They had the starting pitchers to get the job done. All that stood in their way was baggage. The baggage that came from years of getting kicked around by the Yankees and the baggage of knowing the long odds in front of them. Yet every time they won a game, the story started to change and the pressure started to turn. After Game 4 it was, “What if we could be the first team to come from 0-3?” After Game 5 you heard, “Hey, we’ve got a chance!” After Game 6 it was, “What if the Yankees choke and become the first team to lose a 3-0 lead?” By the time both teams took the field for Game 7, the pressure was squarely on the Yankees to avoid suffering the greatest collapse in the history of team sports. The baggage belonged to the guys in pinstripes.

So, the question is: are the Suns the NBA version of the Red Sox? Let’s break it down.

Team Quality: The Suns aren’t quite Boston’s equal when it comes to success during the regular season, as the Sox won 98 games to finish with the second-best overall record in the American League. That said, Boston was perceived as the favorite in the AL despite being the Wild Card and relinquishing home court advantage to the Yankees, which very closely mirrors the way the Suns were perceived going into the series with San Antonio. In other words, even though Boston was three games worse during the 2004 regular season, they were pretty much just as good as New York. Likewise, the Suns were just one game worse than San Antonio during the regular season. These two teams are as evenly matched as it gets, which suggests that, like the Sox, Phoenix has a much better chance than a typical team down 0-3.

Recent History: No team can match Boston’s sustained pre-2004 misery at the hands of the Yankees, but in terms of recent history, the Spurs-Suns match-up looks quite a bit like the Yanks-Sox from 1999-2004. Noting that only half the teams reach the baseball postseason, we don’t see as many Boston-New York showdowns in the playoffs, but the same Immovable Force factor existed. The Yankees dumped the Sox 4-1 in the ALCS in 1999, beat them by 2.5 games to win the AL East in 2000, and topped them 4-3 in the 2003 ALCS. Meanwhile, the Suns lost 4-2 to the Spurs in the first round in 2003, 4-1 in the Western Conference Finals in 2005, and 4-2 in the second round last season.

It is the 2003 ALCS and 2007 Western Conference Semifinals that really stand out to me. The Red Sox lost when Grady Little infamously left Pedro Martinez in the game too long, which resulted in Boston relinquishing a 5-1 lead in the eighth inning, and eventually blowing it all together Aaron Boone hit a home run in the 11th. It was, without a doubt, one of the most painful defeats ever witnessed.

But not as painful as Suns-Spurs last year. First, Steve Nash was bloodied and forced to miss substantial time in the closing minutes of a Game 1 loss at home. Then, after scrapping to knot the series at 2-2, the Suns were hit with arguably one of the most unfair penalties in recent sports. As the seconds ticked off the clock in their Game 4 road victory, Robert Horry checked Steve Nash into the scorers’ table and set off a small scuffle. For this, Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw were suspended for Game 5, which Phoenix lost 88-85.

Those suspensions were overly punitive and arbitrarily administered and, in a way, rewarded unsportsmanlike conduct. The Suns had an NBA championship ripped away from them.

Perhaps not coincidentally, the Red Sox suffered that awful Grady Little game in the season directly before going down 3-0, just as the Suns were hosed by Stern in the season directly before they also went down 3-0.

Bloody Sock Factor: Obviously, one can’t discuss the 2004 ALCS without mentioning the bloody sock. And whether you think it was real blood, paint or a jelly donut, there is no denying that a large part of the Red Sox magic during that postseason was the performance of Schilling. The simple comparison to make here would be to look for another potential recovery from injury – a “Willis Reed Moment.”But recovery from injury only tells half the Schilling story, so we are breaking this one into two parts:

Recovery From Injury: This is the easy part, at least to recognize. There is no way you can discount the boost that comes from seeing a wounded teammate return to the battlefield. Willis Reed is an example of the pure emotional lift, as he barely even played for his Knicks team. Michael Jordan’s flu game is a case where a sick or injured player raised his own game in addition to the spirits of his teammates. The Suns certainly have the possibility looming with Grant Hill’s injured groin and their crack medical staff hard at work on the problem. If they can find a way to win Game 5 in San Antonio, we could see the Return of Grant Hill for an emotional Game 6 in Phoenix.

A True Believer: The part that everyone misses about the Bloody Sock is that Schilling simply refused to consider the possibility that Boston would not win. Yes, he inspired his teammates by pitching hurt. Yes, he gave a performance for the ages in Game 6. But more than that, he was the champion in the locker room who looked 0-3 in the face and laughed. He told every single guy on that Boston team that they could win and they believed him, because he’d done it before. He had a ring from 2001 and he earned it by beating the Yankees. The biggest difference from the 2003 Red Sox and the 2004 Red Sox was that the latter had Curt Schilling on the mound, and in the dugout, and in the clubhouse. He was proof positive they could do it. And Phoenix has this in Shaquille O’Neal. No, he’s not the dominant force he once was. No, he often can’t make his free throws. But he’s won titles (four of them), he’s vanquished the Spurs (three times), and he knows that he can go toe-to-toe with Duncan. He doesn’t have a bloody sock to wear in Game 5, but otherwise, he’s Phoenix’s Curt Schilling. And having one of those is a must.

A Mental Breakthrough. One of the big differences in the respective Game 4 wins was in the way each unfolded. The Red Sox enjoyed a dramatic comeback and one of the great moments in franchise history when Big Papi hit that pandemonium-inducing homer. Phoenix, on the other hand, rolled to a big victory that may or may not have the same catapult effect. But the key to turning any series around is arriving at a newly held belief that things are going to be different. For the Sox, that breakthrough came when they scored on the mighty Mariano Rivera to extend the game. For the Suns, it remains to be seen whether they have had the breakthrough, but I like their chances because of Boris Diaw. Despite getting a fairly mundane performance from Steve Nash and a virtual no-show from Stoudemire (who continues to be officiated more unfairly than any player in the NBA), Phoenix blew the Spurs off the court behind the play of Diaw and Raja Bell. There is no way they can count on sustained offensive excellence from him (although there is hope that he’s officially out of his lingering shooting slump).

But Diaw is another matter. By inserting him into the lineup at small forward, the Suns were able to generate substantial mismatches against the Spurs. San Antonio tried to play him primarily with Michael Finley and, to a lesser extent, Ime Udoka, and in both cases the result was a massacre. I am convinced that the Spurs played possum to some degree in this game, knowing that they would have to deal with this new wrinkle down the road and preserving some game-planning options.

That said, Diaw suddenly opens up a world of possibilities for Phoenix. He can take smaller defenders like Finley, Udoka and Bowen to the block where he commands a double-team or can score relatively easily. If San Antonio goes big on Diaw, he can step out and use his quickness to drive and kick. Either way, he appears to be the only Suns player that will require help defense on almost every catch – provided he’s playing small forward and is joined on the floor by Amare. Speaking of which, how did it take Suns coach Mike D’Antoni three full games to recognize this? It is especially alarming considering the fact that he watched Diaw do this night-in and night-out in the 2005 Playoffs.

Many doubt Diaw’s consistency and ability to stay aggressive, but the one time he’s shown those traits was in that ‘05 run when he was a true go-to player on the block. He strikes me as a guy that needs a clearly defined role and specific tasks in order to succeed. Well, he has that now and if he can keep it going, it represents the first major strategic advantage that Phoenix has had in this rivalry. Now that’s a breakthrough.

Road, Sweet Road. The order of the games is different for the Suns, but they will need to win one home game and two road games in order to complete the comeback, which is the exact combination Boston had to crack back in 2004.

Obviously, the comparison also has some holes. Namely in the sport that each team plays. Home crowds can be more easily neutralized in baseball due to the pace and flow of the game, officiating is far less of a wild card in baseball, and starting pitchers are like hockey goalies in the way they can dominate an entire contest. Over a seven-game series in the NBA Playoffs, as Jeff Van Gundy said on Sunday, “You are who you are.”

Which takes us back to our original question: Are these Phoenix Suns the NBA equivalent of the Boston Red Sox?

We’ll find out in the days to come.

Photo Credit: ICON Sports Media

This article was written by:

Ryan McNeill - who has written 209 posts on Hoops Addict.

Ryan McNeill is the editor for Hoops Addict and has appeared on NBA XL and WSRQ 1220. Ryan has covered the NBA with media credentials since the 2007 season.

Contact the author