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Forget LeBron James and the how many ever thousand of people that filled Quicken Loans Arena with yellow t-shirts this afternoon. The real witnessing got done by you, me and anyone else who watched San Antonio and Phoenix battle to the [near] death in what was arguably the best game of the 2008 NBA basketball season.

So far.

The only downside of the double overtime thriller that saw four different buzzer (or near buzzer) beaters was that it proved Stephen A. Smith's point (yes, Jalen, this is a rivalry). The first game of what promises to be a hard fought series was everything it was billed up to be -- the best first round series ever.

Phoenix drew first blood and took an eight point lead into halftime, after leading upwards of 12 in the second quarter. But as is typical, the defending champs stormed back on the heels of a 28 point fourth quarter, and when the AT&T exploded after they tied it up with 2:14 to go in the game, it was obvious something crazy was going to happen at the end. But that was even underestimating it.

Phoenix couldn't get catch a lucky break -- Steve Nash missed a free throw, they had to take a huge 24 second violation -- and would probably like that last minute of regulation back right about now. Especially after Michael Finley hit a dagger from beyond the arc to tie it at 93 and send it to overtime.

And when Tim Duncan hit his first pointer three of the season to tie the game at 104 with three seconds left in the first overtime, that's when you three things occurred to me. One, Phoenix was going to lose today. Two, this series is blatantly going seven games. And three, the playoffs are freaking on, son.

Oh yeah, and Nash hit one of the most ridiculous shots of his career to tie the game at 115 in double overtime before Manu Ginobili iced it with a two second flailing drive. Now, it would be easy to say that Phoenix had their collective heart ripped out; I think that's actually the first thought that ran through my mind.

But when you consider that Amare Stoudemire didn't play in the entire second overtime, that it took a combined 40 points from Timmy, 24 from Manu and 26 from Tony Parker and the Suns made some unusually crucial errors late, well, the Suns are better off than initial blush might indicate. And although I think Phoenix still prevails, actually knowing who is going to win might just come down to the 50/50 chance of a Game 7 fade away buzzer beater falling in.