I am sorry that you missed it.

Unfortunately for most, TNT guessed wrong last night (or, I suppose, sometime this summer) and chose to broadcast what became a standard, down-tempo, defensive struggle Detroit win at Dallas last night, instead of Suns at Nets. Rarely have I so enjoyed the privilege of living near the fetid, Springsteen-producing swamps of New Jersey as I did yesterday, in catching the 4th highest scoring game in the history of the league, Suns over Nets 161-157 in two overtimes.
It is often said that the way to beat the Suns is to slow down the game and try to play post basketball against them, which worked for the Spurs in the 2005 playoffs and almost did for the Clippers last year. Dallas finally took them down playing a hybrid of the Suns' uptempo offense, due largely to an unstoppable Dirk Nowitski. But last night the Nets had clearly decided to match their opponents' speed and creativity for the entire game.


It was a back and forth layup contest between probably the two best point guards of the era, and a look at their statistics doesn't even come close to showing how good this game was. Kidd tied Wilt Chamberlien for third on the career triple doubles list near the end of regulation, but more significant in my eyes he proved a worthy adversary for the endlessly praised Nash. The passing on both sides was absolutely stellar, and the score kept rising as the teams rarely missed after the third quarter.
An entire nerve racking hour passed after the timeouts started coming at the end of the fourth, just before Nash hit a tieing three with four seconds left. By the end of the first overtime, Carter, Stoudamire and Bell had all fouled out. Finally, near 11:30 et, three hours after the start and two and a half after I came in, the game ended in chaotic exhaustion, with Kidd dribbling off his foot and Barbosa missing a pass and having to leap above the sideline to save it. A wonderful game.