On Sunday, the San Antonio Spurs won Game 1 of the NBA Western Conference Semifinals in Phoenix. The game was intense and close throughout, especially late in the fourth quarter. Both sides dished out several hard fouls. However, the Suns could not close the gap in the end, digging a hole early in the best-of-seven series by losing home court advantage.
For this, Suns fans might blame Karl Malone.
With 2:53 left in the fourth quarter, Steve Nash lunged from his defensive crouch for Tony Parker's dribble. Nash, the Suns' best player and two-time MVP, accidentally drove his nose into Parker's forehead as Parker ducked and turned to avoid Nash's attempted theft. Parker crashed to the floor, clutching his head. He appeared to take the worst of it, staying down for two minutes.
While Parker didn't get away without harm (as proven by the candy bar-sized lump on his forehead spotted during the post-game interview), Nash ended up with the most dramatic injury. ABC/ESPN cameras spotted a huge gash along the entire length of the bridge of Nash's nose.
The Suns' best cutman jumped to the task at hand, jamming medication into the wound and bandaging the nose. Nash returned to the court immediately to help his team come back from the slimmest of deficits, but he spent most of his court time wiping blood from his face onto his jersey.
Nash scored the next five points for Phoenix, but they were still down 2 when Mike D'Antoni, the Suns coach, was forced to replace Nash in the lineup with 54 seconds left under "Comments on the Rules—N: Guidelines for Infection Control." Adopted in 1991-92, these rules require the game to be suspended if a player has blood on his uniform and/or is visibly bleeding. The player must be removed until the situation is dealt with.
Due to this rule, Nash didn't get back in the game until only nine seconds remained. By then, Leandro Barbosa fired a highly contested 3-point shot, Amare Stoudemire tried to force his way single-handedly into the lane with limited success, and the game was nearly out of hand.
Article comments
1 - Matthew T. Sussman
"The CDC reported in 1995 that the possibility of HIV transmission in sport is a million to one."
The odds are much greater, however, of transmitting Canadian citizenship.
2 - Tuffy
Karl Malone might be well-served to contract some Canadian hospitality and politeness.
3 - Rick H.
QR Powder would have saved the day. Suprisingly the Phoenix training staff has used QR Powder before and that would have given the Suns the best opportunity to preserve the win after Nash hit that three to tie.
You can't have your team catalyst on the pines with the game on the line!
4 - Tuffy
That may indeed be true. Instead, they used a "rubber cement-like substance" whose name slipped past me as the sideline reporter said it. I tried to find it on the Internet, but none of the standard cutman gear seemed to fit the description. I hope someone else can pipe up and list the actual product used.
5 - Rick
Probably Derma-Bond...from what I hear it doesn't work well and it showed last night...an absolute shame they couldn't get Nash back on the court in time.
6 - Matthew T. Sussman
NoseOn! Apply directly to the nostrils! NoseOn! Apply directly to the nostrils! NoseOn! Apply directly to the nostrils!
7 - nicolas
blame karl malone all you want, but the odds of phoenix winning this series are slim to none even with nash fully healed. all san antone has to do is find any way they can to get him in fould trouble and phoenix is doomed.
8 - RJ
Matt - Hilarious, as usual.
Tuffy - A million to one, even if accurate (which I doubt) is still infinitely more than a million to zero. Basketball is a physical game. Bigger players like K. Malone were payed to get physical, and that kind of play can lead to open wounds. Blood-borne pathogens are no joke, especially incurable, fatal ones. And letting Magic play gave a psychological advantage to him and his team, since some defenders might not have been as aggressive against him as they otherwise would have been.
Just sayin'...
9 - me
steve nash should have won mvp
10 - ben
all i know is steve nash is awesome and bowen and kobe stinks