In the battle of age versus exhaustion, the old men had the edge on Thursday night in Phoenix, as the Suns pulled ahead in the second half to beat the Timberwolves, 104-95.
It was one of those results you could see coming for weeks, and that almost made it worse. It was the final game of a back-to-back-to-back for the Timberwolves and the Suns' first game since before the All-Star break; all it took was a glance at the schedule to see that the Timberwolves would be exhausted, the Suns fresh.
The challenge was obvious. It's one that Timberwolves' coach Rick Adelman has been talking about, thinking over for almost a week — "I'm still trying to figure out if they realized they didn't schedule Phoenix for a week before we play them," he said last Wednesday – and in the end, he and his team were powerless to overcome the simple truth of exhaustion.
It gets worse, though. For a good portion of the night, there was reason for hope, to think that somehow the Timberwolves had re-energized after looking dead to the world on Wednesday in Los Angeles. The team went into halftime up 51-46; the game was theirs to lose. The second half eviscerated that hope and wrenched all control from their hands.
"In the second half, we came out totally different," Suns center Marcin Gortat said. "A totally different team came out… We played the way we should."
Yes, outscoring an opponent by 14 points in a half is how a team with more than a week of rest should play. But the Timberwolves hope of winning banked on the could of it all. It banked on Minnesota salvaging energy and Phoenix struggling to find a rhythm after so much time off, and that's what happened early. But in the second half, older legs finally loosened as younger ones began to feel the strain, and though the Timberwolves might have been able to hang in there, they weren't equipped to mount a comeback.
The two oldest Suns, Steve Nash and Grant Hill, combined for 33 points. But perhaps more dooming were Nash's 17 assists, too many for a player who's more dangerous when he's getting those passes off than when he's scoring. At 38 (Nash) and 39 (Hill), the Suns' stars were in college before some of the Timberwolves' core players were walking, but after three straight grueling nights for Minnesota that ceased to matter.
The Suns' ability to stay in shape despite their age and capitalize on the Timberwolves' schedule was most apparent at point guard. Ricky Rubio, 21, grew up admiring Nash, a player whom he names among his favorites. And Nash, who as a 16-year veteran is an established force in the league, is secure enough in his age and experience to be able to cheer for the younger player and see the similarities inherent in their games.
"We're both pass-first point guards," Nash said. "We're both good in transition, on pick-and-rolls. There are comparisons for sure."
In this sport, and especially in this season, Rubio's youth should win out over Nash's experienced self-awareness more times than not. But on Tuesday, the forces outside of anyone's control rendered Rubio far less effective than Nash. Both finished with 13 points, but Rubio's two assists were an embarrassing contrast to Nash's 17.
"I'm glad it's over with, and I told the team that we have a day to regroup and try to win the game in Portland and split this road trip and go home," Adelman said.
It was a night when Adelman could call Nash a high school player (he did) and get away with it. It was a night so out of the coach's control that a blown lead seemed to affect him less than the previous day's complete breakdown in Los Angeles. It was a night that's best put in the past.
