Phoenix: 122 Golden State: 116 The end

And so the chapter of the 2007-2008 season closed. A game filled with controversial coaching decisions, unexpected playing time for bench players and big scoring form Azubuike and Croshere meant this was one strange game to follow. In the end the familair trend of the Warriors not beating the top teams when it counts and Baron electing to take a night off combined with Nelson actually following the path of perdictibility meant the Nuggets will now make the postseason.

Boxscore

First time Nellie missed the playoffs in 8 years

Baron and Nellie No one has any idea of how this relationship is like but it never seems like a strenous one. That all came apart last night when Nelson benched him for the entire second half. The timing wasn't a shock because Baron went 2-13 in the game and didn't look there at all physically. Once the reserves came in they overcame a 15 point deficit and even took the lead at one point but it wasn't enough. Props to Nelson for sticking with the reserves rather then just put Baron straight bak in. The man has guts!.

Kosta Maybe he wasn't a bad midlevel expception after all. Even though he took a lot of rough beatings from Shaq he held his own and did the little things like boxout and cut down on second chance points. His 13 minute perofrmance revealed why POB was back to the inactive list while Perovic got some burn. Even though no one in their right mind would build a franchise around Kosta he certainly could be a bigger part of the rotation next year.

Suns stars I have this team down as a drakhorse in the playoffs and when you have 3 stars who can burn you anyway possible it's a big start. Our pourous defense didn't help but it was impressive seeing Nash getting 13 points, 9 rebounds and 14 assists thrwoing passes from the corner of his eyes. Shaq had 19 points 15 rebounds shooting 75 percent (mostly dunks) and hitting 10 for 13 of his free throws allowing Amare to have his usual big game which he did with 28 points. Hard to write about failures when a very good team beat us.

Biedrins, Croshere and Azubuike When scoring was really needed Andris was required to step up in crunch time. Biedrins responded, going a fantastic 8-10 for 16 points and not being intimated by Amare at all. The foolish thing would be to set a celing immediately for this guy

As for Croshere and Kelenna these two would have been the most perdictable contributors from the bench this year. Pietrus and Barnes usually didn't bring it but last night both bought decent shooting with outstanding scrapiness which almost won the ball game. Unfortunately injuries cannot be controlled but I often wonder if one of them had been healthy would the Warriors be staring at the lottery. Most likely not. They were logically the two Free agents most likely to return which I hope happens



Jackson For a player who showed the we Belieive spirit it was refreshing to see it tonight finally having a decent game in what seems like weeks. It was too little too late but hopefully he has learned the valuable lesson , sometimes there’s more trouble than one man can handle.

So lottery here we come. A place Mullin never wanted to visit is now ready for the endless sequel. So many what-if’s. Had Jackson played from the season start would we be in this position? Had we not lost our first 6 would we be in this position? We made history tonight for having the most wins in a season and not making the playoffs, and I’m not terribly thrilled to have that honor.


To end this recap, all I can say, is that I’m sad like the many of you and we have each other to help us through this time and look forward to next year. Just think, how good is it going to be watching Monta after an offseason of training? I can’t wait!