30Oct/0810:07 AM

Suns take down Spurs in Porter’s debut

By Vince Marotta

Photo: Eric Gay/AP

As I watched the Suns-Spurs game on Wednesday night, I found it hard to believe that San Antonio superstar Tim Duncan was taking part in his 12th season opener. I found it harder to believe that the Spurs were 11-0 in season openers in the Duncan-Popovich era. Make that 11-1.

The Phoenix Suns won their 3rd straight regular season game at AT&T Center in San Antonio, knocking off the Spurs 103-98, to give new head coach Terry Porter his first win as the Phoenix bench boss.

Amare Stoudemire’s jump shot with 2:53 to go put the Suns up for good at 96-94. Stoudemire led the Suns with 22 points, while Leandro Barbosa chipped in with 18 and Shaquille O’Neal had 15 points and 13 rebounds.

The game was a classic nip and tuck Suns-Spurs matchup. It was close the whole way. No team had more than a 7-point lead, and the lead changed hands 23 times.

The highlight of the game was Duncan, who finished with 32 points, attempting a potential game tying three-pointer, which missed off the rim. It was Duncan, who hit a huge and uncharacteristic three in Game one vs. the Suns in last season’s playoffs. After the miss, the Spurs fouled Barbosa, who canned two free throws to wrap up the game.

Pluses

Depth. I know it’s only one game, but it was nice to see 10 players contribute to a Suns’ win. Only Louis Amundson and Sean Singletary didn’t get into the game for the Suns, but we’ll be saying that a lot this season.
The Suns took care of the basketball. Only 10 turnovers on the night.
Shaquille O’Neal. A lot of people have speculated about how much a 36-year old Shaq can contribute. But in the opener, he was very involved, especially on the glass, grabbing 13 rebounds. He even hit 5 of 8 free throws. The Suns will take 63% foul shooting from Shaq every night.
Leandro Barbosa. Eighteen points in 27 minutes, and showed why he’s still considered one of the top bench players in the league.
Steve Nash. The shot wasn’t exactly there (5 for 11), but Nash gave out 13 assists and turned the ball over only 3 times.
Robin Lopez. His stat line wasn’t great, but the rookie from Stanford really sparked the team in his first playing time. In a 24 second span of the first quarter Lopez had an offensive rebound, made a layup and one, grabbed a defensive board and blocked a shot.

Minuses

Raja Bell. Bell played his usual brand of defense, but never got untracked offensively, scoring only 4 points in 31 minutes. Under Porter’s style, however, this might be a more common occurrence this season.
Goran Dragic. I admit this is nitpicky, but Dragic looked tentative out there. It was his first NBA game after a whirlwind offseason, but the Suns were a -12 with Dragic on the floor while they were +17 with Nash in the game. Nash sets the bar high, I realize, but I’m confident Dragic will be more comfortable even tonight against the Hornets.
Nobody on the team can stop Tony Parker. The Frenchman had 32 points, and seemingly (still) can get to the rim whenever he wants against Phoenix. True, he can do it against most teams, but it is frustrating.
Matt Barnes. He struggled with his shot in the preseason, connecting only 39% of his attempts (25% from 3-point land), but it didn’t dissuade him from continuing to jack it up. Barnes launched 10 shots in only 19 minutes of play. People talk about Suns’ players having to adjust to Porter’s more deliberate offensive style, but that transition might even be bigger for Barnes, who comes in from Golden State, a team that also played a frenetic offensive style the last two seasons.