In the aftermath of the Mavs' Game 3 victory, the Suns were at a loss for explaining why the Mavs shut them down. Steve Nash and Mike D'Antoni seemed to blame the loss on the Suns' attitude. Apparently, the team just wasn't trying hard enough. Well, okay, that's expected from hard-headed run-and-gunners like Nash and D'Antoni. You're never going to get them to admit that running is the wrong style for the NBA Playoffs. So, let's ask Suns' Shawn Marion -- an energetic player who understands the importance of hustling, rebounding, and defense. Can you explain how the Mavs shut down the Suns' fastbreak? "Well, I wouldn't even say that," Marion said. "I think we weren't even running tonight for some reason. Everyone wasn't making a conscious effort to run the floor tonight. Coach said it. We weren't running like we normally do and it showed." But why weren't you running like you normally do, Shawn? "I don't know. We just didn't have it in us tonight to run. We were just playing great defense, and I guess we decided we were just going to play half court with them. And for the most part I thought we played great defense and guarded them well. We just didn't get in an offensive rhythm tonight." Did you really decide to play a half court game? That just makes no sense when your coach and MVP are firm believers in the running style. Who was doing this "deciding?" It certainly couldn't have been Nash or D'Antoni. So, was there a Marion-led mutiny where the players suddenly decided that they could play "great defense?" (by the way, I occasionally saw flashes of good defense from the Suns, but there was nothing that I would term close to "great"). Marion's explanation is hogwash. Of course, the Suns wanted to run. But the Mavs' stellar defense prevented them from getting any open looks in transition. When everyone's covered, you can't hit jumpshots. And if you're still deadset on taking a shot before seven seconds have ticked off of the shot clock, you're going to take bad shots. The Suns didn't "decide" not to run. The Mavs took them out of the running game, and the Suns were forced to run a half-court offense in order to get some semblance of a good look at the basket. As a Mavs' fan, it's very encouraging that the Suns are laying all of the blame on themselves for the Game 3 loss. It means that they're going to come out firing in Game 4 even if the Mavs are playing excellent transition defense. They're going to take quick shots even if there aren't any open looks, because, apparently, having the running "attitude" is more important than making an adjustment to a superior opponent. Expect to see turnovers and missed-shots galore as the Suns try to impose their running style on the Mavs in spite of the Mavs' apparent solution to the Suns' game. The Suns stayed in Game 3 by playing the half-court style once the Mavs took away the Suns' running game, but D'Antoni will refuse to allow his team to play "traditional" NBA ball again. He'd rather die running than concede that his style doesn't work against a great defense.