No chance to rest for Spurs' defense

The San Antonio Spurs took down one of the NBA's top offenses when they eliminated Denver in the first round of the playoffs.

Their reward is a Western Conference semifinal matchup against the Seattle SuperSonics, another high-scoring team that likes to run and has more perimeter threats than the Nuggets.

Game 1 of the best-of-seven series is tonight in San Antonio, with Game 2 Tuesday.

The Spurs dropped Game 1 at home in the Denver series before sweeping the next four.

"Sometimes it takes a smack in the face to open your eyes," forward Robert Horry said. "It's opened our eyes and made us realize you have to respect all of your opponents. We have to take it four or five steps above normal."

Brent Barry played five years in Seattle before signing with the Spurs last summer. It looked like he was leaving a lottery-bound team for a title contender, but the Sonics have exceeded expectations.

"People can stop saying, `Are they for real?' " he said. "They're in the second round of the playoffs."

The Sonics averaged 99 points a game during the regular season and nearly 107 points in their five-game elimination of Sacramento in the first round. But they didn't play much defense, allowing the Kings to break 100 points in three games.

They won't see as many open jumpers against San Antonio's high-energy defense, which clamped down on Denver's transition scoring while holding the Nuggets to 90 points per game.

"We're going to have to really limit our turnovers and really execute, meaning set solid screens, a lot of screens to free each other, to free the ball, to free our shooters up," Seattle coach Nate McMillan said. The teams split their four regular-season games, with the Sonics being one of only three teams to beat San Antonio at home. The Spurs won the last two meetings.Invaluable Nash The official announcement won't come until today, but the word was out when the Phoenix Suns practiced yesterday: Steve Nash has won the Most Valuable Player award.

The Suns' energetic point guard said the honor would be a recognition of the team's success and unselfish style of play more than his individual accomplishments.

"I definitely won this award because of my role on the team," Nash said. "I didn't win this because I overpower people or I'm dominating people with physical ability, whether it's jumping ability or strength or height."

The addition of Nash was the main reason the Suns went from 29 victories in 2003-04 to a league-best 62 this season. The new-look, uptempo team averaged 110 points per game, the most in the NBA in a decade. It is, Nash has often said, the way the game is supposed to be played.

"To be considered in this setting, and the way the team plays, is really a testament to the game of basketball," Nash said of the award. "Our team couldn't come close to winning 60 games if we didn't share the ball."

Nash said he wouldn't have voted for himself.

"I would probably vote for Shaquille [O'Neal]," he said. "He's one of the greatest ever. I look up to him."