You know what so many playoff series come down to? Inevitabilities. It’s inevitable that Denver’s chaotic group of misfit toys will all turn around and fire on themselves at some point. It’s inevitable that the Celtics’ age will become a non-cliche’d, genuine liability against the brand new supercomputer of the moment. It’s inevitable that the Suns’ inability to produce stops in key situations will be their downfall.
It’s also, as the Portland Trail Blazers found out tonight in their 107-88 loss to the Phoenix Suns, inevitable that the Suns offense will have a night where it just completely overwhelms you. Tonight was the night that inevitability came home to roost for the Blazers.
Check out the box score. It’s all there.
Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire didn’t have playoff career highs. But moreso than any game in this series, the pick and roll was there. They fronted, Amar’e feigned. They posted, he spun. They trapped Nash, he lobbed. And when that component opens up, you adjust. Which means somewhere, someone is open on the perimeter. Channing Frye? Jared Dudley? They were someone tonight.
Frye was due for a game like this, and lit it up. Drive and dish catch and shoots. Transition trailer. Double perimeter rotation. Open, good looks, with a Blazers team that was too busy trying to understand why it was running so hard to understand where it should be running. And with Brandon Roy looking like a guy who had knee surgery 10 days ago, the Blazers now face an elimination game in Portland.
You have to accept a game like this. It’s going to happen under the circumstances the Blazers are operating. But if they want to win this series, they’d better hope it’s the last one.