It should've felt sweeter

The Suns finished sweeping the Spurs yesterday, closing it out in San Antonio. The papers made a big deal about the revenge factor - the Spurs have eliminated the Suns the last four times the two teams have faced each other in the playoffs. The Suns players played the whole thing down, complimenting San Antonio as a class organization . Steve Nash played with stitches over an eye that was swollen shut from a Tim Duncan elbow. But everyone was quick to point out it was an inadvertent jab. . I'm happy of course that Phoenix took the series. I work with a guy that's most obnoxious about his love of the Spurs, and he kept a low profile throughout the series. But somehow I expected the juices to be flowing a lot more than they are. Maybe it's because our "reward" for this is to play the Los Angeles Lakers and Kobe "Bad Boy" Bryant. . Or maybe it's because the really dirty Spurs players aren't there anymore. They finally discovered Bruce Bowen had no NBA skills other than taking out opposing players. And Robert "Slam 'em into the second row" Horry is also nowhere to be seen. Mano Ginobili still has a face you want to punch, but that seems wrong at the moment since he's sporting a broken nose. Tim Duncan oozes classiness. So does Coach Popovich. Tony Parker is French, so I have to cut him some slack. Indeed, the whole series, while physical, was cleanly played. . My only fear is that, when San Antonio evaluates their team in the off-season, and tries to figure out what was missing, they'll come to the conclusion that they just aren't dirty enough anymore. But who knows what any NBA team will look like next year, what with a plethora of free agents for sale, and oodles of salary cap $$$ to be spent.