By Seth Pollack – Regional Sports Editor

Read More: Steve Nash (G – PHO), Alvin Gentry (H – PHO), Phoenix Suns

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Apr 14, 2011 - After years of pondering the “will he stay or will he go” question with Amare Stoudemire, the Phoenix Suns are right back in a similar position answering questions about their remaining star player, Steve Nash. There’s been much speculation from other NBA front offices that the Suns will explore trading Nash and many feel that Nash will ask out of Phoenix. Those things very well could happen, but for now both Nash and the Suns couldn’t be more clear about their intertwined common future.

In Alvin Gentry’s final press conference of the season, he didn’t even wait to be asked about Nash. He walked to the podium, made a little joke, and then addressed the question before it was asked.

“Alright, what do you want to know? Yes, Steve’s coming back so we’ll put that to rest right away. He wants to be back and we want him back,” Gentry opened.

Nash himself has been increasingly clear on the subject over the past few days. Every time he spoke this week his answers became more and more certain. After the final game on Wednesday, he was as definitive as he’s ever been on wanting to return.

“This is my team. This is my home as a basketball player and I want to try and get back to the playoffs with this team and try and build this team into a contender again,” Nash said in front of his locker after the Suns beat the Spurs to win their 40th and final game of the 2010-11 season.

“There’s no guarantees. You can’t just go out and say, ‘Can you trade me to this team?’ It’s very abstract to think about what the alternative is but that’s beside the point. I want to be part of this team and I want to try and take us back to the playoffs with these guys and hopefully be better next year.”

Suns President of Basketball Operations followed Gentry’s press conference with a similarly strong statement of his own. 

“There’s no change in our position about Steve Nash. He is the sun and the moon and the stars of this franchise. It was a disappointing year for us but it would be hard to say that he was disappointing. He led the league in assists and we see how we play with him and we see how we play without him. As I stand here today, I just can’t imagine a scenario where he won’t be back but there is honestly uncertainty about everything.”

Being an NBA executive and a smart and experienced man, Babby of course left the door a crack open. Some might want to stick their foot in that crack and pry Nash away from Arizona. But that crack is about as thin as you will ever hear from a front office type. 

Of course nothing is 100 percent certain. But after hearing from Nash, Gentry and Babby it’s hard to imagine him being gone.

Nash had an incredible season. For him to lead the league in assist is one of the greatest basketball accomplishments of the season considering the talent level surrounding him. Despite the injuries which severely hampered his shooting in the final few months of the season he came just a fraction away from once again being in the 90/50/40 club. He finished the season shooting 91.2 percent from the line, 49.2 percent from the field, and 39.5 percent from three.

The key, according to both Nash and Babby, is getting him help and rebuilding the Suns bench which was such a strength last season. Steve played in games he shouldn’t have because he felt he had no choice. That’s just another way of saying they didn’t trust his back up — either Goran Dragic or Aaron Brooks. 

The team will try and find another go-to scorer either for the wing or the post to take some of the pressure of Nash to generate all the offense and help him to not wear down as much. That’s a familiar refrain and one we heard after the 2007 season when the Spurs eliminated the Suns in five games in large part by focusing their defense on stopping Nash and wearing him down.

Last season the team had finally assembled all the pieces around him and the results were clear. Amare and Jason Richardson were both prime offensive threats and the bench that included Channing Frye and Jared Dudley were able to both defend and score. That all fell apart this season with the mistaken replacement of Lou Amundson with Hakim Warrik and the loss of Jason Richardson as the price for undoing the Hedo Turkoglu trade.

There will be some who feel the Suns should cut their losses now and fully embrace the rebuilding process. It’s a song we’ve heard for several years and one that has a certain appeal. But with Nash returning, along with Grant Hill who is just as likely to be back, this team can improve. 

If they did nothing more than cut Vince Carter and play a full season with the same unit they would be at least as good as this season. If they can pull off a deal or two using Robin Lopez as trade bait and make a smart pick in the draft they can get back into the playoffs.

Becoming a true championship contender will probably stay out of reach, but it’s obvious that Robert Sarver and the rest of the organization would rather have a decent, playoff caliber team with Steve Nash running the show versus the certainty of a long wasteland that a full tear-down brings.

Then again, maybe some other team will be convinced that Nash can put them over the top and make the Suns an offer they just can’t refuse. We’ll see what happens between the end of the season and the lockout that will mostly likely begin on July 1, 2011. Stay tuned.

In many ways it was a throwback game to so many past meetings between these two teams. The Suns came out with incredible energy and dropped 43 points on the Spurs in the first quarter. Everything was working right in the 65 percent-shooting quarter. A San Antonio team coached by Gregg Popovich and lead by Tim Duncan was not going to let that stand and they held the Suns to just 20-66 shooting in the final three periods.

The Spurs used their defense and interior scoring from Tim Duncan (17 points, 12 rebounds) to overcome an 18-point deficit and cut the lead to within three with under five minutes of play. In the past, the Spurs would have found a way to close out the game and break the hearts of Phoenix fans. Tonight, karma was on the side of the home team as the Suns found a way to close it out even with Steve Nash on the bench for the fourth quarter.

Nash (8 points, 10 assists, 30 minutes) tweaked his hamstring in the third quarter and didn’t return. Aaron Brooks didn’t exactly light it up in his place, finishing with just four points and two assists. All four of those points came at the free throw line from game-extending intentional fouls. Goran Dragic, by the way, recorded a triple double tonight playing for the Houston Rockets.

The Suns only shot 40.2 percent from the field and were led by Marcin Gortat’s 21 points and 13 rebounds. He defended Tim Duncan well and shot an efficient 10-13 from the field. Gortat said after the game that he will most likely forgo playing for the Polish National Team so he can spend the offseason working on his game and his body.

By winning the game, the Suns prevented the Spurs from securing the best record in the league and finished their season with 40 wins. Both coach Alvin Gentry and some of the players felt that it was important  to reach the 40-win mark.

“It’s important for us, you know really for the fans to let them know. We’ve kind of had the fans on a the emotional roller coaster this year where we played well and then we struggled, then we played well,” Gentry said.

Both Steve Nash and Alvin Gentry gave strong indications that Nash would return next season. Gentry said he expects Nash to retire in a Phoenix uniform and Nash said he could see himself playing two more years past his current contract (one year remaining) and would consider signing an extension this summer to stay with the team.

Before the Suns can look to rebuilding and adding more talent to this roster, the NBA will be facing a likely lockout as the current collect bargaining agreement expires on July 1.

Last season, the Phoenix Suns swept the San Antonio Spurs out of the playoffs. It’s quite a different story this year.

The Spurs are headed to the postseason as the Western Conference’s top seed while the Suns are closing out a poor campaign Wednesday night at home.

San Antonio (61-20) still has something to play for in its finale, since it’s tied with Chicago for the best record in the NBA. If the teams are tied after Wednesday, a random draw will decide which team would have home-court advantage in a possible NBA finals meeting.

It’s unclear how important that is to San Antonio, which rested starters Tony Parker(notes), Tim Duncan(notes), Manu Ginobili(notes) and Antonio McDyess(notes) in Tuesday’s 102-93 road loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. Coach Gregg Popovich, though, indicated that those players will all likely return against the Suns (39-42) in order to avoid any rust before the playoffs begin.

“It’s a back-to-back, and I’d rather play (Wednesday) and not have such a long time before the weekend,” Popovich said. “(The reserves) got some experience. I’m happy with what they did.”

Richard Jefferson(notes) was the lone regular San Antonio starter to play. The Spurs kept the game close throughout, and were tied with 5:56 left.

“I think it showed the character, the heart that we have, and we’re a pretty deep team,” guard George Hill(notes) said. “We tried to give the best effort we could, and that’s all you can hope for. All of us thought we could win. That was our whole motive going into the game.”

Phoenix was a step away from reaching the finals last season after eliminating San Antonio in the conference semifinals. The Suns lost to the Lakers in six games, though, and after trading Amare Stoudemire(notes) to New York in the offseason will finish with their first losing record in seven years.

The Spurs have won all three meetings with the Suns this season, limiting Phoenix to 33.3 percent shooting on 3-pointers. Jefferson has led the way with 19.0 points per game in the season series while Duncan has added averages of 17.7 points and 12.0 rebounds.

San Antonio, which hasn’t swept four regular-season meetings from Phoenix since 2003-04, has shot 50.2 percent against the Suns in 2010-11.

Phoenix survived a poor defensive effort in Monday’s 135-127 overtime win over Minnesota, which shot 54.7 percent and outrebounded the Suns 45-35.

“Good win, but we weren’t very good defensively,” coach Alvin Gentry said. “Obviously, we gave up 65 points in the first half and they shot 62 percent.”

Channing Frye(notes) set a Suns regular-season single-game record with nine 3-pointers after going 1 for 10 over his previous three games. He finished with a career-high 33 points.

“Tonight I’m just happy the ball went in,” Frye said. “My teammates did a good job finding me.”

NEW ORLEANS – The playoff mission has turned into a player audition.

Profile: Aaron Brooks

Brought to Phoenix to solidify the Suns bench in the playoff race, Aaron Brooks is left with four games to play for an eliminated team evaluating his future.

More of what Brooks did Wednesday night at Minnesota would go a long way toward a decision the Suns control. Brooks will be a restricted free agent once a new collective-bargaining agreement is in place this year, giving the Suns a chance to match any other team’s contract offer.

Efforts approaching his 19-point, six-assist game in 26 minutes Wednesday would increase interest.

“When he has his jumper going, he gives us a big lift,” said Suns point guard Steve Nash, whom Brooks backs up. “He can be an explosive scorer, and that can be a great weapon for us. We just want somebody who can play and he can play. Hopefully, he gets more and more comfortable.”

The idea of Brooks getting “comfortable” comes up repeatedly. His comfort zone has been hard to find while dealing with a seasonlong ankle-sprain issue and the in-season trade.

“I’m just trying to get comfortable, show what I can do, what I can bring to the team,” Brooks said. “I just like playing basketball again. It was a drag coming to work sometimes. I’m having fun with it. You see me smiling.

“I want to show I can fit.”

The Suns have gone 9-13 since Brooks’ arrival. Brooks’ results were erratic, but he has averaged more than 12 points in his past 10 games.

“He’s getting more comfortable learning the plays,” benchmate Hakim Warrick said. “He had a little trouble learning the plays and getting terminology and timing.”

Brooks will continue to get expanded time in the final games, when coach Alvin Gentry pledges to limit Nash’s minutes (Nash plays a team-high 33.4 minutes per game).

“It felt good to sustain something so the starters could get the rest they deserve,” Brooks said. “I’m just running the offense, knowing the plays and knowing where guys are supposed to be and knowing my teammates. Me and Josh (Childress) and Vince (Carter) are working pretty well together now.”

Brooks has improved his shooting from 34.6 percent with Houston this season to 46.2 percent with Phoenix.

“I can shoot the ball,” he said. “It’s just about getting healthy. I feel a little bit better now.”

Gentry said Brooks has made “a lot of progress” but wants to see him operate more in the middle of the floor, where he can use his speed to split double-teams rather than get pinned on the boundaries.

“They told me to be me,” Brooks said. “I want to be a better me than what they’re used to seeing. I’m still up for growth. I grew in Houston and I’m going to continue to grow and I’ll continue to learn and become a better player.”

The Phoenix Suns could be eliminated, formally, from playoff contention with tonight’s game. If the Suns lose and the Grizzlies beat the Hornets it’s over. If not, it will be over soon enough. The only reason the actual date of the playoff elimination matters is so that coach Alvin Gentry can officially begin playing for next season. He said again today at shootaround that he won’t change his rotations until that happens.

Tonight’s opponent, the Los Angeles Clippers (29-46), in any other year would be an easy win. But the Suns come into this game playing horrible basketball and have lost four-straight while the Clippers are 2-2. The teams have played three times this season with the Suns taking two.

The obvious attraction tonight is Blake Griffin. Suns defensive ace, Grant Hill, says the key to Griffin is limiting his highlight dunks that gets his team pumped up. Expect Channing Frye to start with the unenviable task of slowing Blake down.

A virus is making its way around the NBA as it sometimes does between these guys who share so much body contact. Steve Nash, Marcin Gortat, and Clippers’ center Chris Kaman all missed shootaround with “flu-like symptoms”. Nash and Gortat are expected to play while Suns’ forward Mickael Pietrus won’t due to a quad strain that’s kept him out of the last five games. He’s officially listed as day-to-day.

The game tips at 7:00 p.m. local time on Fox Sports AZ and will be broadcast on Sports 620 radio. Fans can follow along during the game with other Suns fans at the live game thread at Bright Side of the Sun. 

Yet another ugly loss for the Phoenix Suns who have many of them in the past few weeks. The Oklahoma City Thunder are simply in another class than the Suns and it showed. Unfortunately, in the process of getting blown out, the Suns disgraced themselves with multiple technical fouls and two ejections late in the game as Zabian Dowdell and Aaron Brooks were both tossed with under two minutes to go.

Alvin Gentry, with his team down 16 with five minutes to play, resorted to fouling Kendrick Perkins to put him on the free throw line. That didn’t work either.

Vince Carter, who for some reason plays well against the Thunder, led the Suns with 28 points on 11-19 shooting. The Suns held Kevin Durant to 22 points on 8-18 but couldn’t contain the rest of the explosive Thunder team.

As the Suns season comes to a close the team promise to fight and and act professionally. That didn’t happen here tonight. The Suns next game is on Friday at home against the Los Angeles Clippers. 

Alvin Gentry didn’t beat around the bush today when asked about the changes to his starting lineup that were hinted at yesterday.

“I’m going to start Marcin and I’m going to start JD (Jared Dudley). How about that for a direct answer,” Gentry said.

Here’s everything Gentry had to say about the moves, including Vince Carter’s reaction:

“JD’s played well over a stretch of games. We’ll stick him out there as starter and see if that gets us off to a better start, see if we can finish quarters.”

“Obviously, Marcin has been playing starters’ minutes anyway. This way he can probably get more rest in between long stretches then playing him off the bench. When we play him off the bench he’s basically playing the last 17 or 18 minutes of the first and second quarters. This way, I think we can break it up a little bit more and give him an opportunity (to rest), and even in the third and fourth quarters he can find a way to get a little rest where he’s not playing 16, 17 consecutive minutes.”

“I don’t think it’s a reflection on (how Vince and Robin have played). As a team, we’ve been inconsistent. It hasn’t been one guy, it hasn’t been two guys. Marcin, I put in the lineup because he can give us some additional scoring early in the game and see what happens and JD’s played well and pretty consistent.”

“I’m sure that (Carter) is disappointed. I’m glad that he’s disappointed. I would be disappointed if he weren’t disappointed but it’s just something that we want to take a look at. He’s understanding of it, I don’t think he’s real happy about it.”

Gentry said that Carter will come off the bench and play. Carter has started 907 of 915 games in his NBA career.

The Suns can’t change how this season began with the wrong make-up and it appears too late to change an ending with no playoffs for the second time in three years.

But coach Alvin Gentry is open to changing how the final 11 games start.

After center Marcin Gortat had his broken nose reset Saturday and said he planned to play against Dallas on Sunday, Gentry said, “We’ll have to try to look at what we’ll do there as far as starting or not starting and then there’s a couple of other positions we may have to look at and see.”

Mickael Pietrus (quad tendon strain) did not practice Saturday but Vince Carter returned after missing Friday’s second half with a stomach virus. But Gentry focused on another wing, Jared Dudley, the team’s top 3-pointer shooter at 40.8 percent after a 17-point game Friday.

“Jared Dudley has played real well,” Gentry said. “He’s done a good job lately so we’ll have to look at that situation and see what we want to do there.”

Gentry said he planned to decide by Sunday morning about the lineup, which starts Robin Lopez and Carter at those positions now. Lopez played four first-half minutes Friday, getting four fouls and a technical foul. Gentry did not bring him back while Channing Frye played the entire second half. Lopez has started 55 of his 56 appearances this season but averages 16.1 minutes.

Carter’s active string of 10 consecutive misses dropped him to 41.7 percent shooting with the Suns. He has started 907 of 915 career games and is expected to be available Sunday but Pietrus is questionable.

“I am contemplating a lineup change,” Gentry said. “We just have to try to take a look and see where we’re going to go from here.

“As far as the playoffs, we would have to win every game so we’re still playing to win every game but I also have to look at combinations of guys I can stick out there, even at the start of the game.”

Gortat broke his nose Friday night when he turned to run upcourt in the third quarter and smashed it into the back of Steve Nash’s head. He said it bled for 15 minutes in the locker room and he was not cleared to return to the game, which the Suns lost with his absence hurting them.

“I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t play,” Gortat said. “If I’m going to have a big headache or if I’m going to get dizzy, that’s the only case I wouldn’t.

“It’s better that it’s my nose than my knee. In the worst case, I’m going to be out 48 hours, not six months.”

He had the nose reset Saturday, opting to have it done without medication.

“It was my fault,” he said. “I should take an injection. It was painful. I don’t want to use bad words. I had dirty pants almost.”

Gortat said he would play with his nose taped because he refuses to wear a mask, knowing another hit could require off-season surgery.

“I was playing with Dwight Howard and I was playing against Shaq (Shaquille O’Neal) and a lot of big guys in the league,” Gortat said. “None of these guys hurt me that bad. All of a sudden, there’s this one guy – 5-5 tall, maybe 5-5 and a half, 170-80 pounds who doesn’t eat meat. The guy just broke my nose. It’s funny.”

Nash said he did not feel the collision. He might still be numb from going 1 for 9 from the field in a game the Suns badly needed to win.

“That put us in a really dark position but it’s not over,” Nash said. “We had a lot of adversity and I had a horrible game. A lot of things didn’t go our way. It’s been that type of year. We’ve just got to keep fighting until somebody says you’re out of here.

“Physically, I wasn’t horrible. My legs were really tired from the week but I just didn’t have a good game. It was one of those nights where I wasn’t there. I was fighting and fighting. I just couldn’t find it.”

The Suns left Los Angeles on Tuesday night with broken hearts, weary legs and at least one bad stomach from a triple-overtime loss to the Lakers.

Photos from the game | Box score

The last thing they wanted was to find out they had lost two games in LA.

After all, the Toronto Raptors already were waiting in Phoenix, rested and ready to face the Suns on Wednesday night at US Airways Center.

“We have to make sure not to compound the mistakes and lose another one,” Suns reserve Jared Dudley warned before the game. “Playing back-to-back is already hard in itself, and anytime you play triple-overtime (it’s harder).

“The thing is, we’re coming home against a team that’s bad, and we need every win we can get. You don’t want it to carry over. The starters played big minutes and the bench has to play big.”

The reserves did just that.

With backup point guard Aaron Brooks scoring 25 points, the Suns found enough left in the tank to dig out of a 13-point second-half hole and beat the Raptors 114-106.

“I thought it was our best win of the year, really,” Suns coach Alvin Gentry said.

“Everybody who came in did a little something to help the team. That’s what was good about it.”

Gentry essentially turned the game over to his reserves, especially after Grant Hill came out after six minutes and headed to the locker room because of flulike symptoms.

“Grant tried to start the game, but he’s just exhausted and we sent him home,” Gentry said.

It got worse when reserve Mickael Pietrus also exited after spraining his right knee. He will undergo an MRI exam Thursday to determine the extent of the injury.

And Steve Nash, who still is trying to recover from pelvic instability, was limited.

So remaining reserves combined to score 63 points. Marcin Gortat had 15 points and eight rebounds.

Dudley scored 13.

But it was Brooks who lifted the Suns out of the 13-point deficit.

Then Channing Frye, Dudley and Brooks hit big 3-point shots down the stretch.

The Suns couldn’t afford a Los Angeles hangover as tired, disappointed or sick as they might have felt.

Two teams the Suns have to leapfrog to reach the playoffs – Memphis and Houston – won. The Grizzlies won in Boston. The Rockets drilled Golden State.

“It was kind of hard. We got in late, but we got it done,” Brooks said. “Coach told us to be ready, and we came in, provided a little spark.”

Trailing by 13 points late in the third quarter, the Suns came alive behind Brooks, who fueled a 15-2 Phoenix spurt.

He scored nine points in the run, capped by a driving layup at the buzzer.

The Raptors came back to take a three-point lead again, but Gortat scored inside, Brooks drained a 3-pointer, and Nash closed out Toronto by connecting on an 18-foot jump shot with 23 seconds to go.

“The starters came out there, and they got a little tired, and sometimes the ball wasn’t bouncing the right way,” Brooks said. “We knew the importance of this game, and we came in and did our job. They carried the torch in the Lakers game, and it was our turn to go in there and do our jobs.”

The Raptors, who came in with only six victories on the road all season, got 27 points from center Andrea Bargnani, who got them off to the fast start.

Like Hill, Nash played only six first-half minutes and 21 in the game. He still finished with 16 points and eight assists.

“It was tough, obviously,” Nash said. “It was a tough game (in Los Angeles), physically and emotionally. But we had guys step up, and mentally we really responded. Aaron, in particular, was great, but I thought everyone played their parts.”

View from the press box

Suns coach Alvin Gentry has shown in the past that he trusts his players. And when he found that Aaron Brooks was struggling when Gentry called plays for him, he told Brooks to call his own plays. Brooks credited that freedom for his season-high 25-point effort as he was able to get into plays more quickly and maintain a flow in the offense.

Report

Key player

Aaron Brooks came off the Suns’ bench to play more than 33 minutes in relief of Steve Nash and scored 25 points on 9-of-16 shooting. He hit 4 of 7 3-point shots.

Key moment

The Suns trailed by 13 late in the third quarter when Brooks caught fire. He hit a 3-point shot and three driving layups in a 15-2 Phoenix run that tied it. The last basket just beat the buzzer at the end of the quarter following a turnover by former Phoenix St. Mary’s High standout Jerryd Bayless, whose night got worse when he picked up a flagrant foul in the fourth quarter against Channing Frye.

Key number

63 Points scored by the Suns’ reserves.

The NBA suspended Phoenix Suns guard Aaron Brooks for today’s game at the Los Angeles Clippers, likely for his action in the fourth quarter when he turned the ball over falling out of bounds, got up and threw the ball toward an official.

He was assessed a technical foul at the time and Suns coach Alvin Gentry immediately took him out. The Suns just learned of the suspension this morning, which is not much notice for a 12:30 p.m. game.

Again, carrying a third point guard proves huge. Zabian Dowdell can step in for playing time just as he did when Steve Nash was out for two games last week.

As a member of the Houston Rockets, Brooks also was suspended in February when he walked off the court during the fourth quarter of a game because he was upset over his diminished playing time. The Suns traded Goran Dragic and a first-round pick for Brooks on Feb. 24 in order to shore up the backup point guard position and help the second unit, but Brooks also has been inconsistent and said he is still bothered by a season-long problem with an ankle sprain.

Brooks is averaging 7.8 points, 3.8 assists and 17.0 minutes and shooting 39.7 percent.

Brooks is in Los Angeles with the team.

NEW ORLEANS – Steve Nash came back but the Suns just fell farther back.

The Suns’ playoff light turned dim when the lost a crucial playoff race game Wednesday night at New Orleans, 100-95, for their fourth consecutive defeat.

Photos from the game

The Suns dropped back to .500 at 33-33 by losing for the sixth time in eight games. They are three games behind eighth-place Memphis, which has the series tiebreaker, with 16 games remaining. Phoenix could slide to 11th place in the West if Houston wins tonight at home against Charlotte.

The Suns’ offense needed resuscitation from poor shooting and sloppy care of the ball during the losing streak but had more of the same even with the return of Nash, who clearly was not at full strength in his attempt to return after four days of rehabilitation. The Suns shot 43 percent from the field and committed 17 turnovers. Nash finished with eight points and 10 assists, missing all three of his 3-point tries.

Phoenix made 14 of 34 3s to even have a chance with guard Vince Carter making five for 21 points and reserve forward Jared Dudley also making five for a team-high 25 points.

Chris Paul continued his hot tear of play with 26 points and nine assists while center Emeka Okafor added 16 points 11 rebounds for the Hornets, who are now five games ahead of the Suns.

The Suns got off to their best start in five games with Nash back but still wound up trailing for a fifth consecutive game after the first quarter when Chris Paul scored the final seven points in 29 seconds for a 31-29 lead. Continuing a pattern of recent losses, the Suns broke down against penetration, rolls and post-ups to allow New Orleans to score 16 of its first-quarter points in the paint.

The Suns’ second unit made the deficit worse, giving up a 9-0 Hornets run when the Suns tried and missed four 3-pointers on a string of five scoreless possessions. But once Nash and Grant Hill returned, the Suns worked their way back into the game with the help of New Orleans’ sloppy offense. But once the Hornets’ lead was trimmed to 48-46 on the Suns’ seventh 3 of the first half, Paul again led a deflating Hornets close to a quarter with six of the points on an 8-0 New Orleans run that included an Alvin Gentry technical foul for a non-call when Nash was driven out of bounds.

The Suns fell behind by as many as 19 in the third quarter, giving up an 11-0 run with Phoenix committing the 15th of its 17 turnovers at that point with the third quarter not even halfway done.

After scoring just 36 points in the middle quarters, the Suns staged a fourth-quarter comeback to get the New Orleans lead down to five with three minutes to go but then could not score off three consecutive scoreless possessions and wound up down seven with 29.5 seconds to go when David West made a jump shot off Emeka Okafor’s offensive rebound.

HOUSTON – Suns point guard Steve Nash missed a second consecutive game Monday night, but that does not mean he is resting.

Nash needs workouts more than anything, and he had one when the team arrived in Houston on Sunday night, another one Monday morning and one during the game Monday night. With two more workouts Tuesday, Nash said he should be able to play Wednesday night at New Orleans.

Profile: Steve Nash

“I expected to play on Wednesday,” Nash said. “Aaron (Nelson, Suns head athletic trainer) just thought it was best to get these two (game) days and then you get another day. We can hopefully not have setbacks with the extra days.”

Nash first experienced pain with pubic-symphysis irritation March 4 at Milwaukee and played through it three more games before it worsened in Thursday’s loss to Denver. In addition to work with Suns athletic trainers, Nash brought his personal physiotherapist, Rick Celebrini, in from Vancouver for work in Phoenix this weekend and on this two-game trip.

“Most of it is retraining myself to move properly because I’m in a negative movement pattern that is making it worse and worse every day,” Nash said.

Nash also sat out two games in November.

“It’s basically similar,” Nash said. “I hope the rehabilitation workouts will get me back to near enough 100 percent and I can just move on from the there, finish strong and get in the playoffs.”

Suns coach Alvin Gentry said he never planned on playing Nash on Monday.

“I don’t think it does us any good when he’s kind of feeling good but not sure,” Gentry said.

Asked about life after Nash, Gentry said, “At some stage, we are going to have to transition and start looking for a guy that can be a replacement. That guy is not going to be Steve Nash no matter how good he is. And we’re very happy with Aaron (Brooks). We think Aaron is going to be a really good player for us.

“He’s as sharp and smart as anybody who ever played in the game. We’re not in denial from the standpoint that eventually that’s going to happen. But right now he’s playing at such a high level that the only thing we’re thinking about is getting him healthy and then going from there.”

Gortat’s shots

After Sunday’s game, Orlando center Dwight Howard commented that he was not surprised about Suns center Marcin Gortat taking jumpers because that is what he did with his extra time when they were Magic teammates. “I just wish I could have more shots,” Gortat said after the game. “Then I would keep shooting.”

Gortat’s mid-range shot has improved rapidly since his December arrival, particularly with his daily post-practice work on it.

“I believe I’m a pretty solid jump shooter,” Gortat said. “I’m not saying I’m going to hit every day five, six jump shots in a game, but if I’m open, I’m going to take it. I have this freedom and I’m mentally free. Coach told me, ‘If you’re open, take a shot.’ I’m going to try to help the team. One day, someone is going to have to step in and guard me, so the middle is going to be open for somebody else.

Free throw

Gentry on Houston coach Rick Adelman: “We look at the way they played, and we took a lot of stuff that we even do right now from Rick’s team in Sacramento. I think he’s one of the best offensive coaches out there. It’s worked out great for us.”

Suns guard Steve Nash did not play in Sunday’s loss to Orlando and might not play Monday at Houston, and teammate Grant Hill can understand why.

It might seem rare to hear about a player sidelined with pubic-symphysis irritation, at least that specifically, but Hill went through it as recently as the 2008 playoffs.

“I had surgery on it my second-to-last year in Orlando,” Hill said of the 2005-06 season. “After the surgery, I tried to come back. It didn’t work. I basically had to shut it down and go to Vancouver for three months for rehab in the off-season. It flared up in the (2008) playoffs.

“It got worse and worse to the point where I was getting injections and it didn’t help. You’ve got to be careful with that injury and be smart. We want him out there, but he has to get that right because it can spiral and get really bad.”

Nash missed his first game since taking two off in November for the same injury. After feeling like playing Thursday was a setback, he said he improved Sunday after pregame work with head athletic trainer Aaron Nelson and in-game work with his personal physiotherapist, Rick Celebrini.

Nash said playing Monday at Houston “is probably 50-50 or even doubtful, but I feel really positive that I’ll be back by Wednesday (at New Orleans) at the latest. I feel like I’m making progress. If I don’t play (Monday), with a couple days I should be ready to go.”

Nash battled the injury for two weeks, shooting 35 percent over eight games. He said he has played through pain and it would hurt the team to continue.

“He’s playing in so much pain,” coach Alvin Gentry said. “The shots he’s missed and the shots he’s passed up, anybody who’s seen him in the last seven years knows he’s not right.

“It’s not going to be right until after the season. We know that. We don’t have the luxury of having him rest.”

If Nash is out again, point guard Aaron Brooks will start against the team that traded him Feb. 24.

“I’m still feeling it out,” Brooks said. “Find out everybody, where they want the ball, trying to figure out the offense, trying to watch Steve, see what he does, implement that since this offense has been so successful. You pick up things here and there, but you’ve got to keep yourself.”

Clark’s future

The Suns drafted Earl Clark for potential and defense. They saw the type of defender who could eventually be the type of player they put on tall scorers like Dirk Nowitzki but also switch on a screen-and-roll against a guard.

Clark came in rough and immature professionally and left Phoenix in the six-player trade in Orlando with raves about his work ethic and progression. And while Clark’s rotation time with the Magic has come only because of injuries, he has intrigued Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy.

“My point to him has been, as a scorer he’s good, but he’s not above everybody else,” Van Gundy said. “But defensively, with his size and length and ability to move his feet, he could really set himself apart from other people his size and become one of the best defenders in this league.”

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Forward Mickael Pietrus picked up his sixth technical foul in 32 Suns games. He had two technicals in 148 games with Orlando.