Top Stretches: Remembering Steve Nash At His Best

#4: Sweeping The Spurs… Finally

At the ripe age of 36, Steve Nash somewhat miraculously was able to post one of his most complete seasons ever. Nash played 81 of the possible 82 games that year, and his numbers actually improved from the year before, as he made his third straight appearance in the 50-40-90 club. Nash 93.8 free throw percentage was a career high for a single season, although it was very clear that he would be gunning for that mark early on.

Nash started the year with 12-straight made free throws, and by the end of the second month of the season, he was perfect at the line in 19 of his 22 games. In fact, in the first and last months of the season, Nash made all 23 of his free throw attempts, but that wasn’t what defined his season… at all…

The Suns made the playoffs as the three-seed, although they were almost eliminated in the first round by the Portland Trail Blazers. Despite a 25-point, 9-assist outing by Nash, the Suns fell in game one, despite leading with less than five minutes to go in the game. The Suns would also lose game four, but they came back to handle the Trail Blazers with relative ease in games five and six, winning by a combined 28 points.

Then came the Spurs…

Yes… those Spurs…

In the series, Nash got out to a strong start, with a 33-point, 10-assist double-double, which would set the tone as the Suns took the first game of the series. In that game, Nash combined for 13 points and rebounds, a mark he would hit in three of the four games that series.

Over the next two contests, Nash would post 17.5 points, 7.0 assists and 5.5 rebounds per game, while shooting just under 50% from the field and exactly 90% from the line, but perhaps most importantly, Nash would post plus/minus scores of +7 and +6, as the Suns went 2-0.

With a 3-0 lead, Phoenix had to be feeling good about itself, but things changed for the worse when Steve Nash was forced to leave the court in game four, after he was inadvertently elbowed in the face by Tim Duncan.

It seemed like Nash could’ve probably sit out the game, knowing that his team would have four shots to get a single win, but that wasn’t the case. Nash had lost three-straight playoff series to the Spurs, and he wasn’t about to leave the door open. One eye and all, he returned to the game, hitting crucial baskets down the stretch as the Suns went on to win.

Nash finished out the series averaging 22.0 points, 7.8 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game, shooting over 55% from the field and over 45% from three, and that momentum would carry over into the next round, although the Suns would fall to the eventual NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers in six games.

Nash started out the Western Conference Finals with three straight double-doubles, averaging over 14 assists per game, and in the team’s last two contests, Nash would average 25.0 points, 10.0 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game, while shooting a combined 20-of-31 (64.5%) from the field.

That series still stands out to many, because had Ron Artest not gotten his miracle putback off of a Kobe airball to win game five, the Suns likely would’ve taken a 3-2 lead, while heading home for game six. Then, if Phoenix had won just one of the last two games, they would’ve gotten to face the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, a team that they swept in the regular season, winning by an average of 12.5 points per game.

What could’ve been… What could’ve been…

Next: #3: The Streak, Part 1