PHOENIX -- The Phoenix Suns avoided treating their followers to a must-whine situation by roughing up the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night at US Airways Center.
Leaning on tricky end-of-season mathematics, coach Alvin Gentry used part of his pregame chat with reporters to assure everyone that this was not a must-win situation. It didn't matter that winning a few hours later enabled his Suns to move a tiebreaker-provided sliver past the Houston "We Can't Beat Denver" Rockets in the scrum for the Western Conference's eighth seed. The numbers -- despite looming dates with the Oklahoma City Thunder and L.A. Clippers -- said so.
But if the Suns had semi-sabotaged their closing playoff kick by managing to lose this showdown with the Blazers' junior varsity, there would have been plenty for fans to whine about.
"It was one that we had to have," Gentry said in what kind of seemed like a concession to the must-win crowd. "We did what we had to do, which was good."
With assorted boo-boos further compromising an already lottery-bound lineup, Portland is slouching toward the finish line like a pack of poodles in the Iditarod. The out-of-action crew included LaMarcus Aldridge (hip), Raymond Felton (Achilles tendon), Nicolas Batum (quad) and serially inactive Greg Oden (karma).
With reloading in mind, the Blazers waved bye-bye to Marcus Camby and Gerald Wallace at the trade deadline.
So, with a starting lineup that included Jonny Flynn, Luke Babbitt and Joel Przybilla, the Blazers offered little resistance, allowing the Suns to shoot 60 percent in a 125-107 victory.
The 125 equals a season high and the home triumph was the Suns' 11th in 13 dates since the All-Star break.
The only dicey moments occurred during a second quarter that featured Markieff Morris seemingly ignoring the scouting report on Babbitt. Babbitt, who started at small forward, was working as a stretch four by the time Morris reached the action. Perhaps the rookie was far more focused on dealing with J.J. Hickson instead. Anyway, we imagine the book on Babbitt reads something like this:
"Is left-handed. Can make a 3-pointer when nobody is loitering within 10 feet of where he's parked on the floor."
With Babbitt driving left past Markieff for two buckets and knocking in a couple of teed-up 3s in less than four minutes, the Blazers crawled out of a 35-24 crater they were in to start the period to a 41-36 ditch by the 8:12 mark. Gentry subbed Channing Frye for Morris, Frye swatted Babbitt's next jumper and defensive order was somewhat restored.
"We had some lapses out there where we lost a little focus," Gentry said. "From start to fninsh, we were pretty good."
A chunk of the hot start was provided by another early scoring salvo from Suns center Marcin Gortat, who spent his portion of the proceedings running past two centers -- Przybilla and Hasheem Thabeet -- incapable of staying with him if someone rented them a pair of Harleys.
Gortat scored half of his team-high 20 points in the period, with Shannon Brown (9 of his 16) and Jared Dudley (9 of his 18) shaking free when the Blazers considered converging on the Phoenix post man. Steve Nash was credited with seven dimes in the first quarter and finished with 13 through three quarters of work.
Thanks to a solid second half from the second unit -- including 14 points from Morris and a dozen from Sebastian Telfair -- Gentry was able to limit all five starters to 30 minutes or less. Grant Hill, who wouldn't mind spending most of Wednesday night harassing OKC's Kevin Durant, also had the night off.
"All the rest we can get, we'll take," Gentry said, "because we have three games in the next four days."
Right, after a home back-to-back against the Thunder and Clippers, the Suns will take a break before the Nuggets hit town for a Saturday matinee. With playoff seeds still up for grabs this week, most opponents should be operating as close to full strength as possible.
At least all three visitors will show up without legitimate pick-and-pop power forwards in the starting lineup. It should be noted that Denver does have Al Harrington playing big minutes, taking lots of shots and possessing the potential to slip away from the Suns' four men enough times to make it a long afternoon.
But that's just being picky. While the Suns were rope-a-doping their way through January, February and the first half of March, few of us were expecting any drama in late April.
"It's a blessing, for one," Dudley said, "and also, people had us for dead at the beginning of the season, middle of the season, All-Star break. And we've worked our butts off, we've played through it, guys have learned their roles and, I think, we're ready to do it."
And the rest of us are ready to watch this continuing dawn of Phoenix's undead.
