What is it with the West?  All of their games lately have been nothing short of exciting.  It seems they’ve all been hotly contested and played down to the wire, with the winning team doing so by only a few points.  Well, Game One between the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks was no different.

This was a homecoming of sorts for Suns PG Steve Nash, who played with the Mavs for six seasons.  He is the second player the Mavs have “welcomed back” this postseason as the Spurs’ Michael Finley also returned, looking to beat his former team. 

How did Nash do? 

Well, he showed why he was the MVP this season as he scored 27 points and dished off 16 assists.  At one point, he scored 10 straight points for the Suns during the final minutes to bring them back from a nine point deficit.  This included a drive towards the basket with the much taller Dirk Nowitzki hanging all over him where Nash basically kissed the glass high with his shot where his body was almost behind the backboard.

But the glory for each team did not lay with its superstars, but with a couple of players who arguably played their best game ever.  For the Dallas Mavericks, PG Devin Harris came up huge.  He scored a career-high 30 points, as well as hit the potential game-winning jumper bringing the score to 118-117 in the Mavs’ favor with 4.8 seconds to go.  That is until the other team’s non-superstar got the ball in the post from an inbounding Tim Thomas.  Boris Diaw scored a career-high 34 points, including the actual game-winning hook over Jerry Stackhouse that put the Suns up 119-118.  Thomas added a couple of cheapie free-throws with 0.2 seconds left to bring the final score to 121-118. 

Again, another competitive game during this season’s NBA playoffs.  If the trend continues, and I don’t see why it wouldn’t after witnessing tonight’s game, this series can go down to the wire and the two teams can end up back in Big D for a Game Seven.

*The Mavs’ Nowitzki scored 25 points and grabbed 19 rebounds.  The Suns’ Shawn Marion finished with 24 points and 13 boards.
*Each team lost a player due to injury when the Mavs’ SF Josh Howard sprained his right ankle in the first quarter and Suns’ SG Raja Bell strained his calf somehow in the fourth quarter.
*Game Two will be held in Dallas again on Friday.