By Randy Hill
FOXSportsArizona.com
Jan. 18, 2011
The coast -- more specifically, the East Coast -- is clear.
There's nothing to track. No juicy revelation from a source close to the alleged situation. No rumor to ponder, perpetuate or shoot full of holes. No gossip-mandated reason to impose upon Lon Babby to, once again, identify the team's point guard as the sun, moon and stars of the franchise.
In one of the biggest upsets during the opening half of this NBA season, the Phoenix Suns and Steve Nash escaped New York on Monday without significant movement on the trade-him-here meter. By the way, they also shoved off with a victory over the Knicks, giving Nash and his pals three consecutive victories, while earning a quick break from the media-fed supposition of roster-renewal talk.
"I'm not sure we fixed anything," Nash, referring to on-court issues, told reporters after the Suns hold off the Knicks in a 129-121 triumph at Madison Square Garden. "We're just competing more and not dropping our heads when things don't go our way. We're finding a way to fight."
Actually, they're finding several ways to fight. While following the Suns through their 18-21 start, you've probably noticed this is not a conventional Phoenix team. Sure, their modest success is achieved through efficient, sort-of-fast-paced offense and timely interludes of defense. But the disparate parts providing these moments -- at both ends of the floor and excluding Nash as the one constant -- tend to change from game to game. That's why Coach Alvin Gentry has had issues in hammering out a regular rotation.
Still checking in as the Western Conference's 10th seed in an eight-seed competition, the Suns have been able to close in on the pack. At some point, Gentry may have to embrace his squad's abnormalities and hope there's enough staying power to reach the postseason. And while that's the announced franchise objective, here are some of the abnormalities he's dealing with:
The Suns, who were minus-25 on the boards during a recent rout by the Knicks in Phoenix -- out-rebounded New York by 10 at the Garden. That's a nice flip. But during this first stop on what could be a telling, five-game trip, center Robin Lopez (who played a little over 16 minutes) and four man Channing Frye each collected two rebounds. Together, they managed half as many as Nash picked up, which is a third of the total turned in by leading scorer Vince Carter (29 points).
Yeah, that's odd and a little disturbing. The Suns shouldn't buy into the Lopez holdover explanation of still being conditioned to box out while Amar'e Stoudemire grabbed the rebound last season. Amar'e didn't exactly grab that many, anyway. Based on what is needed to help the system thrive, Lopez and Frye have to do more than rebound their area; to enable the Suns to generate more transition offense (they're 11th in the league in fast-break points), it wouldn't hurt for them to hunt defensive rebounds. To be fair, Frye had at least seven rebounds (with a high of 12) in the previous four games.
In limited minutes as the consistency-building starter, Lopez has a whopping 17 rebounds in the last eight games. Nash, in major minutes, has 30 in the last five. If the Suns can finish defensive stops through gang rebounding, the opportunity to reel in some of the teams currently ahead of them in the standings will increase. But, as mentioned above, better defensive rebounding by their bigs allows the wings to scram and can lead to early offense that keeps the system thriving.
And the abnormalities roll on.
Gentry's recent decision to nudge Hakim Warrick back into the rotation worked out in New York. Ironically, Hak's biggest contribution against the Knicks was a reasonable, fourth-quarter defensive stand vs. Stoudemire.
Warrick may not have had that opportunity if Marcin Gortat -- who had his chance earlier -- bothered to keep a hand up while Amar'e was preparing to attack from the elbow. He didn't, so Stoudemire shot over him and scored. Gentry, willing to try anything at this point, went to Warrick.
Hak, whose early season emergence as a pick-and-dunk specialist were trumped by lousy efforts at rebounding and defense, did very well in both categories. His game totals were nine points and six rebounds over 17 minutes. While matched against Stoudemire in the final quarter, Warrick had eight and three boards. Amar'e, who finished with a season-high 41 points, scored eight points against him in the fourth but was bothered enough by Warrick's length to miss four field-goal attempts.
* * *
Whew, the toughest stop in this five-game, East Coast swing is out of the way, right? Well, based on W-L columns, that's true. Unfortunately, assuming this Suns team can stroll in and simply outclass any NBA team would be pretty risky.
To make matters a bit trickier than the first glimpse at this schedule would have suggested, three of the next four foes also scored victories on Martin Luther King Day. Good news? That fourth team is the next up.
The Suns will spend Wednesday in Cleveland, where the Cavaliers are sitting on a 13-game losing streak and the league's worst record. They also are up to their eyeballs in injured players, but that didn't prevent them from pushing the Suns toward the lip of defeat on Jan. 9 in Phoenix.
After Cleveland, the Suns go to our nation's capital and play a Wizards team that knocked off the Utah Jazz on Monday. Then it's on to Detroit the following night for a date with the Pistons, who rocked the Dallas Mavericks (Dirk Nowitzki is back, by the way). The Suns end the trip next Monday in Philly, where the Sixers -- who picked up a win last month in Phoenix -- are 12-7 on their home court.
So, while the East Coast is clear, it still may be a bit bumpy.
