What’s so remarkable about the playoffs is how quickly things can change for any one team. The Suns, who at one point struggled to keep pace with the injury-riddled Blazers, now look like a dominant playoff team.
The nature of playoff match-ups change everything. Players, strategies, and specific styles can expose weaknesses in opponents or show their strengths, and for Phoenix, San Antonio was apparently -- despite popular, pre-series belief -- a more favorable match-up. “Our teams just match up better against the Spurs than Portland,” Steve Nash said. “We were able to use our depth and defense, and everyone took turns stepping up.”
Of course the same is also true for specific players, who can be essential contributors in one series and marginalized in the next. Such is the case with Antonio McDyess. Dice put up almost identical numbers from one series to the next in this year’s playoffs, as he averaged 6.7 points per game (54.1% FG) and 7.0 rebounds per game against Dallas, and 7.0 points per game (52.0% from the field) and 6.5 rebounds per game against Phoenix.
Yet this is a case where his overall stat line falls short of telling the whole story. In the Spurs’ first round series against the Mavs, McDyess was invaluable as a defender against Dirk Nowitzki. Dirk still dropped 26.7 points a night in the series, but when you gauge Antonio’s defensive effectiveness against that of Matt Bonner or even Tim Duncan? It wasn’t even close. McDyess also offered a semblance of offensive balance for a Spurs team that thrives on supplementary scoring. He spaced the floor, knocked down his shots, played defense, and hit the boards.
In the first round, that was more than enough. Nowitzki had a terrific series, but McDyess was able to body him up and prevent him from really catching fire. Dirk’s teammates couldn’t fill the void, and it was Dice’s defense that helped to provide the Spurs with the cushion they needed to pull out four close wins.
Fast forward to the second round, where rather than Dirk Nowitzki, McDyess is asked to match-up with either the more mobile Amar’e Stoudemire, the far quicker Grant Hill, or the scrappy hustle junkie, Jared Dudley. None of those players really fits McDyess’ defensive strengths, and while the stat sheet doesn’t show any drop-off in Antonio’s box score production from one series to the next, there’s no question that the Suns were a tough match-up for him.
It wasn’t even about the Suns’ transition game, the impact of which has, in truth, been a tad overblown. It was the other benefits of going small that gave the Suns the advantage over a player like McDyess, and whether intentionally or unintentionally, Phoenix neutralized a guy that had made a legitimate impact in the first round. It’s differences like that one that caused the mighty Spurs defense we saw in the series prior to crumble at the Suns’ feet. The Tim Duncans and Steve Nashes of the world will typically be able to impose their will on a particular series regardless of opponent, but for role players like McDyess, the specific match-ups are far more significant.
