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Suns will tag-team Spurs' Duncan
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A lot has been made about the Tim Duncan-Shaquille O’Neal matchup in this series but O’Neal won’t guard Duncan much in the first half. Amaré Stoudemire gets the initial assignment and Boris Diaw will take over midway through the first period when O’Neal takes a break and Stoudemire switches.
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It puts Stoudemire in a tough spot early, but the Suns want O’Neal — who will play as much as 35 minutes a game, barring foul trouble — to be fresh with fouls to give when he takes Duncan down the stretch.
“I want to have all my bullets for the end,” O’Neal said.
He also gave Stoudemire some tips on guarding Duncan.
“They try to make Amaré play defense. So I’ll tell Amaré ‘Make Duncan play defense. When I was with the Lakers, he’d just turn around and shoot over our power forward. You have to make the shot tough, but even then he hits those sometimes.”
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