PHOENIX -- The Suns coaching staff put three topics on the dry-erase board in players' locker room after Tuesday's morning shoot.
-- What does being a tough player mean?
-- What does playing hard mean?
-- What does being a leader mean?
One by one, players put a blue pen to their thoughts.
Goran Dragic said the Suns cannot choose the games to compete at their highest level.
"We need to play hard every game, 82 games," he said.
Eric Bledsoe wrote about recovery.
"I put it on the board that when you make a mistake, you have to hustle back," Bledsoe said. "I just tried to be a leader with that today."
Dragic and Bledsoe combined for 61 points to lead the reenergized Suns to a 116-99 victory over Indiana at US Airways Center a few hours later. Each registered his season high, Dragic with 34 points and Bledsoe with 27. They combined to make 22 of 35 field goals, and Dragic made 5 of 6 3-pointers.
The morning meeting seemed to provide a focus that at times had been missing, especially early in the four games since the Suns' 106-83 victory at Indiana on Nov. 22, when the bench did much of the damage.
Dragic called it a "small, friendly meeting" that included the coaching staff, the players and the training staff.
"We were just talking (about) what we need to do to be more successful as a unit, as a team," Dragic said. "Our assignment was to put quotes on the board. When we did that, everybody was here and we just talked."
The message took. At the heart of the matter, the Suns were aggressive from the start.
"In the last couple of games, and even since the season started, I don't think we have been playing with that sense of urgency," Bledsoe said. "We just let teams come in here and go through their plays early and we are not putting up a fight. That's what we tried to do today. No question. Not so much on offense but on defense. I think we did a great job. Everybody was locked in."
The Suns played with the kind of spunk that defined the overachieving 2013-14 group and was absent recently, when they feel behind early and could not recover. The Suns trailed by six in a road loss to Toronto on Nov. 24 and by 19 in a road loss to Denver on Nov. 28. They were down 13 at home to Orlando on Sunday and despite a big fourth quarter could not get over the hump.
The bookend victories over Indiana showed the Suns at their best.
The Suns had 13 steals, a three-rebound advantage, five blocked shots and were 12-of-25 on 3s Tuesday.
Of the recent so-so starts, Hornacek said: "I think it is more the case that we think we are at that level and that we can just show up and play and achieve the same things we did last year instead of playing like we did last year, where we were scratching and clawing from the start of the game because they were out to prove something. We have to get back to that mentality."
It did not take long. Four possessions into the game, Miles Plumlee followed Rodney Stuckey through a high pick and blocked layup attempt that barely got out of Stuckey's hand. Moments later, Dragic turned a steal into two free throws. Then Plumlee blocked a left-handed slam dunk attempt by Solomon Hill, leading to a Dragic 3 and a 16-8 lead. All in the first eight minutes.
The Pacers rallied to take a two-point lead at halftime, but the Suns pushed back in third quarter and drew it out in the fourth.
Dragic had 22 points in the first half. Bledsoe had 21 in the second half.
With Isaiah Thomas sitting out his fourth straight game with an ankle injury, Dragic and Bledsoe played a combined 73 minutes, 45 seconds.
"We tried to play our pace. We know they are a half-court team, they try to slow the pace and play a low-scoring game," Dragic said. "For us, it was try to push the ball every time we got it. Push it aggressively, and I think we did it."
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