Bordow: Suns will remember this Alamo loss

SAN ANTONIO - There should be some hot line number stricken Suns fans can call when they play the San Antonio Spurs. Something like 1-800-I-HATE-SA.

Spurs break Suns hearts again, steal 2OT win

SLIDESHOW: View photos from Suns vs. Spurs game

Can you believe what happened Saturday?

Oh, sorry, stupid question.

Of course you can.

You remember Joe Johnson missing the first two games of the 2005 Western Conference finals with a busted face. You still wince when you think about the bloody gash on Steve Nash’s nose. You wonder if the fix was in with Tim Donaghy.

And you’ll never forgive Robert Horry.

Now you have another tormented vision, that of Tim Duncan standing behind the 3-point line, three seconds left in overtime and the Suns ahead, 104-101.

Duncan hadn’t made a 3-pointer all season.

Let me repeat that: Duncan hadn’t made a 3-pointer all season.

But there’s always a first time. And what a surprise it came against the Suns. In the playoffs.

“It wouldn’t be a Suns-Spurs series if something funky didn’t happen,” guard Raja Bell said after San Antonio’s 117-115 win in double overtime.

He’s right about that.

The Suns and Spurs don’t just play basketball games. They engage in human dramas, filled with the basest of emotions: Passion, anger, joy, heartbreak.

Unfortunately, it always seems to be the Suns who experience the heartbreak and the Spurs who are overjoyed.

“It was an amazing basketball game to be involved in,” Spurs reserve Brent Barry said. “I’m going to go home and watch it on instant classics.”

The Suns, on the other hand, went back to their hotel rooms and threw up.

They know what they let slip away Saturday. A chance to grab the series lead, wrest home-court advantage from the Spurs and make a statement that this year, this team would be different.

Instead, they were left with empty words and shaky promises. Again.

“We feel like we’re going to be very difficult to beat,” Nash said.

It’s hard to share that optimism, given how the Suns lost a 16-point, first-half lead and with it, Game 1.

Sure, Duncan made a shot he’d probably miss 99 of 100 times — “Happy Birthday, Tim,” said Amaré Stoudemire — and the Spurs needed a Michael Finley 3-pointer just to send the game into overtime.

But Phoenix lost the game as much as San Antonio won it.

The Suns had a five-point lead with 1:04 left in overtime, but Stoudemire committed a turnover and then was called for his sixth foul when he barged into Kurt Thomas rather than take an open eight-foot jumper.

“I didn’t see him,” Stoudemire said.

Didn’t see him? He was right in front of you.

Leandro Barbosa and Boris Diaw both missed potential game-winning shots, Barbosa at the end of regulation and Diaw in overtime.

And Shaquille O’Neal, who was supposed to be Duncan’s kryptonite? He picked up two fouls less than four minutes into the game, played less than five minutes in the first half and was never a factor.

If Shaq is going to spend more time next to coach Mike D’Antoni than he does on the floor, the Suns have no chance.

“We weren’t tough enough or disciplined enough to make the plays when it counted,” Nash said.

That’s the difference between a championship team and a team that hopes it can win a championship.

Game 1 wasn’t D’Antoni’s finest hour, either.

The play that ended with Duncan’s shot was designed for Manu Ginobili. The Suns did a terrific job defensively of not allowing Ginobili to get open for a 3-pointer, but why not foul him as he’s dribbling around rather than let the Spurs get off the potential tying shot?

At worst, Ginobili makes both free throws and Phoenix has the ball and a one-point lead with less than 10 seconds left.

“I know that everyone who’s not a coach wants to foul and all the coaches don’t want to,” D’Antoni said. “It’s a tough situation and a little harder than what most people think.”

Sorry, Mike, but it’s not that hard. Hack Ginobili, bump him, anything but let the Spurs move the ball around until they get an open look.

Even if the ball winds up in Duncan’s hands.

“You could imagine my horror when it went in his direction,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.

Popovich should know better.

Only the Suns know horror when they play the Spurs. It can be an accidental head butt, an intentional hip check or a 7-footer throwing up a prayer and having it answered.

As Gilda Radner said, “It’s always something.” And it always happens to Phoenix.

“It’s all right. We’ll be back. It was just Game 1,” Stoudemire said.

He’s right, of course.

So why does it feel like Duncan just stuck a dagger into the Suns?