Steve Nash

I went to the Warriors' game on Monday night with my bro. They played the Phoenix Suns, and ended up losing 113-110 in a thoroughly entertaining, roller coaster of a game. Watching sports live is definitely a very different experience than watching it on TV. You see a lot more going on - body language, how hard people are playing, that sort of thing.

Anyway, I haven't been able to watch too much of the NBA lately - mostly because we don't have cable, but also because I'm not the biggest fan of the NBA. I'm much more of a college hoops junkie. So just know that as I say this, I know that I haven't watched enough to say anything definitively - not that I would know even if I did watch enough.

That said, watching Steve Nash play live was pretty amazing. I've seen him play before, but not really with Phoenix too much. I've obviously seen how he's racked up the stats the last couple of years, and all that, but I never really got the whole MVP award. It just seemed to me like it was more of a race thing - Great White Hope and all that. After seeing him yesterday, though, I can understand. And that doesn't mean that I'm saying he's hands down the MVP, but he makes an incredible difference to his team. Literally, I think the Suns outscored the Warriors by more than 25 points when he was in there. Without him, the Warriors outscored the Suns by more than 20. Every time he went out, I was thinking - "Okay, now we have to make a run - take advantage of him sitting on the bench." It's amazing how everything just flows so much better when he's playing - not only does he make great passes to set people up, he also makes incredibly great passes that set up the assist pass. If it were hockey, he would probably have at least double the amount of assists. He just breaks everything down, is always in control, always makes the "smart" play, and is a pretty lethal shooter if he gets space. He just completely controlled the game everytime he was in there.

Now granted, he's a pretty bad defender. Whichever Warrior he was guarding repeatedly tried to take him off the dribble or post him up. But it doesn't matter - his effect on offense more than makes up for it, and it gets so demoralizing to watch him make the offense go.

Anyway, great game all around, except for the ending and a few brain farts that the Warriors made that allowed Phoenix to stay in the game, especially on the defensive end. The highlight was definitely Monta Ellis' dunk over Barbosa - that had the Arena rocking for about 5 straight minutes.