That’s all for today guys, i’ll be back to blog you tomorrow.

CBSSports.com wire reports
Jan. 11, 2012

LOS ANGELES — Bum wrist and all, Kobe Bryant showed why he’s one of the NBA’s best closers, breaking open a tight game with 15 of the Los Angeles Lakers’ final 17 points.

Bryant finished with 48 points, tops in the league this season, in a 99-83 victory against the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night, the Lakers’ seventh consecutive victory at home and third in a row overall.

“Not bad for the seventh-best player in the league,” Bryant said, referring to an online ranking of the NBA’s top 500 players.

The NBA’s leading scorer topped the 40-point mark for the first time this season with his fifth consecutive game of 25 or more. Bryant was 18 of 31 from the floor and made 12 of 13 free throws. Pau Gasol added 16 points and 12 rebounds.

“If I play bad or have one bad game like I did in Denver, everybody cries for a change or cries for the fact that I’m too old. It’s just a bad game with a bad wrist,” Bryant said, referring to his 16 points in a loss against the Nuggets on New Year’s Day. “You got to figure out a way to get it done.”

Bryant said he gets an injection before every game to cope with his ailing right wrist.

In his previous four games, Bryant had 26 points against Memphis on Sunday, 39 against Golden State, 30 at Portland and 37 against Houston.

“He’s always going to be aggressive and assertive to score, but he’s picking his spots and he’s doing it in a very efficient manner,” Derek Fisher said.

“That ranks it right up there with the best of them because it doesn’t look like he’s trying to do it. He’s just doing it within the flow of the game. That’s been very effective for him and for us.”

The victory was especially sweet for Bryant, who has never hidden his disdain for the Suns, a team right behind the Lakers in the Pacific Division.

“I don’t like them,” he said. “They used to whup us pretty good and let us know about it. I won’t forget that.”

Channing Frye scored 17 points, Marcin Gortat had 16 points and 12 rebounds, and Steve Nash added 13 points and eight assists for the Suns, who had their two-game winning streak snapped.

The Suns hung around until the game’s final 6½ minutes, when they trailed by one. That’s when Bryant took over with a variety of moves, banking in a jumper, dunking on consecutive baskets, hitting a fade away and making his free throws.

“He’s the best player in the game, so you come to expect that type of performance from him, if not regularly, then throughout the season at different times,” Nash said. “He was phenomenal.”

Shannon Brown scored Phoenix’s first six points of the fourth quarter, twice drawing the Suns within one. He and Frye then hit consecutive 3-pointers that got the Suns to 83-82, but they were never able to take the lead in Brown’s first game against his former team. He finished with 11 points.

“If he don’t care about his wrist, I don’t care about his wrist,” Frye said. “Everybody makes a big deal about it, but he’s been scoring 28, 30 a game. So let’s just call it what it is. He’s a great player, he’s the best individual player in basketball, and every night he comes to work. For us, we don’t like losing to the Lakers. But they came out and played a good game, and he played an amazing game.”

Phoenix led by one in the third and tied the game twice after that before getting outscored 11-6 to end the quarter trailing 73-68.

“I thought we did a good job of defending Kobe, but the guy makes tough shots. There’s a reason he is who he is,” Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. “Obviously, Kobe took the game over at the end there and we just couldn’t make the shots. Part of it was their defense, and part of it was that we just didn’t make the doggone things.”

The Lakers led 46-40 at the break after allowing the Suns to erase most of their 12-point lead in the second quarter. The Suns got balanced scoring in a 15-2 run that drew them within one before Bryant and Gasol keyed a 9-2 spurt to end the first half, when Bryant scored 23.

Bryant scored 13 of the Lakers’ final 15 points to put them up 25-19 in the first quarter after they trailed by nine.

Notes

• It was Bryant’s 108th career 40-point game. He had three last season.
• The Lakers had 15 turnovers after turning the ball over 27 times in a 90-82 victory against Memphis two nights earlier.
• Lakers G Jason Kapono missed the game to be with his wife after she gave birth to twins and F-C Troy Murphy sat out with an upset stomach.
• Brown said he had mixed emotions about facing the team he won two NBA titles with before leaving the Lakers as a free agent. Bryant scored over Brown to end the first quarter.
• The game was the first of 18 back-to-back sets the Lakers will play in this lockout-shortened season. They’ll be at Utah on Wednesday night.

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by Paul Coro – Jan. 11, 2012 12:05 AM
The Arizona Republic | azcentral.com

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LOS ANGELES (AP)

Bum wrist and all, Kobe Bryant showed why he’s one of the NBA’s best closers, breaking open a tight game with 15 of the Los Angeles Lakers’ final 17 points.

Bryant finished with 48 points, tops in the league this season, in a 99-83 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night, the Lakers’ seventh straight win at home and third in a row overall.

”Not bad for the seventh-best player in the league,” Bryant said, referring to an online ranking of the NBA’s top 500 players.

The NBA’s leading scorer topped the 40-point mark for the first time this season with his fifth straight game of 25 or more. Bryant was 18 of 31 from the floor and made 12 of 13 free throws. Pau Gasol added 16 points and 12 rebounds.

”If I play bad or have one bad game like I did in Denver, everybody cries for a change or cries for the fact that I’m too old. It’s just a bad game with a bad wrist,” Bryant said, referring to his 16 points in a loss against the Nuggets on New Year’s Day. ”You got to figure out a way to get it done.”

Bryant said he gets an injection before every game to cope with his ailing right wrist.

In his previous four games, Bryant had 26 points against Memphis on Sunday, 39 against Golden State, 30 at Portland and 37 against Houston.

”He’s always going to be aggressive and assertive to score, but he’s picking his spots and he’s doing it in a very efficient manner,” Derek Fisher said.

”That ranks it right up there with the best of them because it doesn’t look like he’s trying to do it. He’s just doing it within the flow of the game. That’s been very effective for him and for us.”

The victory was especially sweet for Bryant, who has never hidden his disdain for the Suns, a team right behind the Lakers in the Pacific Division.

”I don’t like them,” he said. ”They used to whup us pretty good and let us know about it. I won’t forget that.”

Channing Frye scored 17 points, Marcin Gortat had 16 points and 12 rebounds, and Steve Nash added 13 points and eight assists for the Suns, who had their two-game winning streak snapped.

The Suns hung around until the game’s final 6 1/2 minutes, when they trailed by one. That’s when Bryant took over with a variety of moves, banking in a jumper, dunking on consecutive baskets, hitting a fade away and making his free throws.

”He’s the best player in the game, so you come to expect that type of performance from him, if not regularly, then throughout the season at different times,” Nash said. ”He was phenomenal.”

Shannon Brown scored Phoenix’s first six points of the fourth quarter, twice drawing the Suns within one. He and Frye then hit consecutive 3-pointers that got the Suns to 83-82, but they were never able to take the lead in Brown’s first game against his former team. He finished with 11 points.

”If he don’t care about his wrist, I don’t care about his wrist,” Frye said. ”Everybody makes a big deal about it, but he’s been scoring 28, 30 a game. So let’s just call it what it is. He’s a great player, he’s the best individual player in basketball, and every night he comes to work. For us, we don’t like losing to the Lakers. But they came out and played a good game, and he played an amazing game.”

Phoenix led by one in the third and tied the game twice after that before getting outscored 11-6 to end the quarter trailing 73-68.

”We did a good job of defending Kobe, but the guy makes tough shots. There’s a reason he is who he is,” Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. ”Obviously, Kobe took the game over at the end there and we just couldn’t make the shots. Part of it was their defense, and part of it was that we just didn’t make the doggone things.”

The Lakers led 46-40 at the break after allowing the Suns to erase most of their 12-point lead in the second quarter. The Suns got balanced scoring in a 15-2 run that drew them within one before Bryant and Gasol keyed a 9-2 spurt to end the first half, when Bryant scored 23.

Bryant scored 13 of the Lakers’ final 15 points to put them up 25-19 in the first quarter after they trailed by nine.

NOTES: It was Bryant’s 108th career 40-point game. He had three last season. … The Lakers had 15 turnovers after turning the ball over 27 times in a 90-82 win against Memphis two nights earlier. … The Lakers G Jason Kapono missed the game to be with his wife after she gave birth to twins and F-C Troy Murphy sat out with an upset stomach. … Brown said he had mixed emotions about facing the team he won two NBA titles with before leaving the Lakers as a free agent. Bryant scored over Brown to end the first quarter. … The game was the first of 18 back-to-back sets the Lakers will play in this lockout-shortened season. They’ll be at Utah on Wednesday night.

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By Seth Pollack

– Regional Sports Editor

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Jan 10, 2012 – The Phoenix Suns (4-4) will get their first crack at the most hated team in the NBA Western Conference, the Los Angeles Lakers (6-4). The Lakers aren’t the same Lakers that won two NBA championships in the last three seasons. Gone is the versatile Lamar Odom who would kill the Suns off the bench. Gone is the Zen Master, Phil Jackson and his precision triangle offense.

But the Lakers are still a dangerous three-headed monster with Kobe Bryant, Pao Gasol and Andrew Bynum. Kobe is playing through a wrist injury but that hasn’t slowed him one bit. KB24 is scoring 27.6 points per game and shooting the ball a LOT (23 FGA/gm). The one thing Kobe isn’t doing well (yet) is shooting from three — he’s just 20 percent so far which is career-low which probably won’t last.

The Suns will guard Kobe with Grant Hill who is regaining his defensive form after a September knee surgery.

Kobe’s shooting aside, the Lakers are most dangerous upfront with the talent of Pau Gasol at power forward and the size and improved skill of Andrew Bynum. Bynum is averaging 15.7 rebounds per game and will out-reach and out-muscle Marcin Gortat.

The Lakers are vulnerable, however, if the Suns can keep the pace high and take advantage of the lack of depth on this version of the Purple and Gold.

Projected lineups and injury report:

TV Broadcast info:

The game tips at 8:30 p.m. Arizona time with TV at Fox Sports Arizona and radio at Arizona Sports 620. Bright Side of the Sun has the live online game thread who also has this game preview:

Phoenix Suns Vs. Los Angeles Lakers Game Preview – Bright Side Of The Sun
In addition, if you can’t get jacked up with Laker rancor, Suns pride, and L.A. celebrity animosity, then you may as well avoid this one and call your grandma or sort your socks tonight.

For the latest AZ sports, follow us on Twitter @SBNArizona and “Like” us on Facebook.

Read More: Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns at Los Angeles Lakers, Jan 10, 2012 8:30 PM MST

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Running low on time today, i’ll be back tomorrow hopefully with some more news.

by Bob Young, columnist – Dec. 24, 2011 05:48 PM
The Arizona Republic

That’s all for today guys, i’ll be back to blog you tomorrow.

by Paul Coro – Dec. 14, 2011 09:31 AM
The Arizona Republic | azcentral.com

Gotta run!.

Phoenix Suns update:

Ronnie Price went from sitting at home Monday night in Utah and wondering where his next NBA job would be to practicing with the Suns on Tuesday night.

A late-night call on Monday led Price to a 4 a.m. wake-up call on Tuesday, followed by a 6:30 a.m. flight to Phoenix to sign with the Suns as their new third point guard.

Price went from an undrafted player out of Utah Valley State to a six-year pro with a defensive calling card but came out of the lockout last month as a free agent with no team. The Suns showed interest in him before signing Sebastian Telfair last week and circled back when it decided to waive an injured Zabian Dowdell.

“It’s been a long wait but I’m happy that the wait led me here,” Price said after practicing with the Suns at Grand Canyon University. “I’m very fortunate and thankful that I have the opportunity to play for this organization.”

Price will undergo a dramatic adjustment, like what Raja Bell once had when he came from Utah’s rigid system to the Suns. Price wanted to return to Utah but the Jazz put Earl Watson, Jamaal Tinsley and Keith McLeod behind Devin Harris for training camp.

“Just a fresh new start for me,” Price said. “This is a playing style that I always wanted to be a part of. They really get up and down the floor. It’s something that I wanted to do. I think, in my NBA career, I haven’t really had a chance to get up and down the floor the way these guys do and I’m looking forward to the opportunity.”

Suns General Manager Lance Blanks spoke earlier about how Price gave the Suns a different dynamic, defensive look. Price, at 6 feet, also keeps the Suns point guards on the smallish side but defends bigger than that with his toughness and athleticism.

“I’m a defensive-minded player first,” Price said. “I love my defense. It handles itself. I can guard the one and the two. It’s something I enjoy doing. Offensively, those things come naturally. When you’re playing in a fluent offense like this, every NBA player who can play the game should have a chance to make some things happen in this offense. If you sit around and wait for things to happen, you can get lost. If you just play the game and let the game come to you, then good things will happen.”

Price said he adapts quickly. Suns fans should take quickly to him too. He is a classy person who detests the Lakers like they do after having three postseasons end with losses to the Lakers.

“Probably most of my technical fouls have been against the Lakers,” Price said.

Price arrived in Phoenix, took his physical exam in the morning and was on the GCU court for the two-a-day’s second session by 5:30 p.m.

“The intensity level is still really good,” Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. ”We have some guys that really compete and obviously adding Ronnie Price to the mix doesn’t do anything but make that a lot more intense. Defensively, he’ll get after you.”

And he’s got a little bit of this … 

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Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 09:52 PM

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If anybody needs tickets to games, remember to click the tickets link at the top.

Robert Sarver read through the NBA schedule last night when it was released, and he’s not happy that many of the Eastern Conference’s top teams won’t be making their way to Phoenix, since that represents a big financial loss at the ticket counter. From the Arizona Republic: “Phoenix is the only team that will not have a home game this season against Boston, Chicago, Miami, New York or Orlando. ‘I was disappointed for our fans,’ Suns Managing Partner Robert Sarver said. ‘When the preliminary schedule came out, I asked the league to reconsider and they didn’t. You’ve got to factor in all the arenas and timelines, and they weren’t able to move dates around.’ Although some West teams are visiting only once this season, Phoenix will get two home games against the Lakers, Mavericks, Clippers and Spurs, Sarver noted. Eleven of the other 14 West teams play at least three of those five top East teams at home. Golden State and Oklahoma City host all five attendance boosters. Houston did not fare much better than Phoenix, getting New York at home but not Boston, Chicago, Miami or Orlando. ‘For the most part, the schedule is computer-generated by a consulting firm that does schedules for the NHL and NBA,’ Sarver said. ‘Unfortunately for us, given the short schedule, we’re not going to see some of the elite teams in the East.’ The Suns will be on ESPN or ESPN2 nine times this season and twice on TNT (home vs. Dallas and the Clippers).”

That’s all for today guys, i’ll be back to blog you tomorrow.

by Paul Coro – Jul. 7, 2011 01:04 PM
The Arizona Republic | azcentral.com

Feel free to leave your comments below.

by Paul Coro – Jul. 7, 2011 01:04 PM
The Arizona Republic | azcentral.com

Feel free to leave your comments below.

Phoenix Suns update:

If Mickael Pietrus’ comments in a French newspaper mean that he would like to leave the Suns, they probably would be happy to say au revoir to him and his $5.3 million salary.

According to a hoopshype.com translation of an interview Pietrus did with L’Equipe, Pietrus said, “A lot of teams are interested in me, like the Lakers or the Celtics. This came from the best player in the world: Kobe Bryant. He told me two months ago that he would like to see me with the Lakers.”

Two months ago, Pietrus was supposedly undecided on whether he would exercise the $5.3 player option in his contract for 2011-12 or become a free agent. It was a no-brainer choice but he did not commit to it until June 13.

Pietrus also told L’Equipe, “Phoenix didn’t use me but that’s their problem. I’m going to continue working. The only thing I care about is winning a title.”

That is up for interpretation. After the December trade, the Suns used Pietrus extensively in the beginning before sending him in and out of the rotation in January. Then he played in 26 consecutive games, although his role and time sharply decreased in the games before he suffered his quadriceps-tendon strain when landing on a blocked shot attempt.

Pietrus was not expected to be out long but wound up not returning for the remainder of the season. The Suns left him in Phoenix to rehabilitate during a five-game trip in April. When they returned, Pietrus said he could barely walk and did not return to play.

Last month, his agent said he would not be surprised if the Suns made a trade because of the overload of wing players but was optimistic how a training camp would help Pietrus. It is true that Pietrus could be a different player with a full season. He had never been traded in the middle of a season previously and can bring a defensive intensity that is not always seen in the rest of the roster. He can find ways to score and hit the 3-pointer but he also can follow any make with a couple of horrendous shots.

The Suns are faced with the same dilemma on the wings if Grant Hill re-sings to join Pietrus, Jared Dudley and Josh Childress, especially with Alvin Gentry and Lon Babby saying the Suns need to add a go-to wing scorer. If there are indeed “a lot of teams” interested in Pietrus at $5.3 million, the Suns would be willing listeners to trade offers.

Pietrus will be joining France’s national team training camp this month in preparation for the European Championship, which starts at the end of August in Lithuania. Suns center Marcin Gortat is also expected to play there for Poland.

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Thursday, July 7, 2011 at 12:43 PM

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Updated Apr 14, 2011 3:02 AM ET

PHOENIX (AP)

The San Antonio Spurs lost a shot at home-court advantage throughout the playoffs and saw a grimacing Manu Ginobili leave the court in pain early in the game.

Not exactly a beautiful ending to a powerful regular season.

”Now,” coach Gregg Popovich said, ”the fun starts.”

Despite the 106-103 loss to Phoenix on Wednesday night, the Spurs are the No. 1 seed in the West and early indications were that Ginobili’s hyperextended elbow wasn’t serious.

Popovich sat Ginobili, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker in a loss to the Lakers in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, but all three were in the starting lineup Wednesday.

”You can’t predict anything and there’s no reason to second guess and I don’t think any one of us are going to do that,” Duncan said. ”Luckily, it’s not serious and hopefully he can be ready to go once the playoff starts. You cross your fingers, you hope for that, and you move on.”

The Spurs move on to a first-round playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies, a team that seemed to want to face San Antonio.

”They sat their guys for the last three or four games,” Duncan said. ”They’re trying to stay where they’re at. Obviously, they’ve chosen their matchup and want to stick with it.”

Marcin Gortat had 21 points and 13 rebounds to help the Suns avoid being swept in the four-game regular season series.

The Spurs, at 61-21, finished a game behind Chicago for the best record in the NBA.

Had San Antonio and the Bulls finished tied and faced each other in the NBA finals, home-court advantage would have been determined by a random drawing because all other tiebreakers were equal.

Ginobili went down with 9:46 left in the first quarter. The star guard slid to the floor near the San Antonio free throw line, then the Suns’ Grant Hill fell on top of him.

X-rays for a more serious injury were negative. An MRI was planned Thursday.

Ginobili, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker sat out the Spurs’ 102-93 loss to the Lakers in Los Angeles on Tuesday but all three were in the starting lineup against Phoenix. Duncan had 17 points and 12 rebounds in 31 minutes. Parker scored 12 points on 4-of-12 shooting in 25 minutes. Neither were on the court when the game ended.

”Tony’s been under the weather. He got 25 minutes so I thought that was about enough for him,” coach Gregg Popovich said. ”We got Timmy about 30 so that was good. They needed to get a good run and they did so they could keep a rhythm. And then you like to win, but we didn’t and that’s the way it goes.”

Channing Frye and Jared Dudley scored 17 apiece for the Suns.

”We’ve kind of had our fans on the emotional roller coaster this year,” Phoenix coach Alvin Gentry said, ”where we played well and then we struggled then we played well.”

Phoenix failed to make the playoffs for the second time in three years after a surprise run to the Western Conference finals a year ago, which included a second-round sweep of San Antonio.

”It’s been a long year so to finish it off with a couple of victories was good,” the Suns’ Steve Nash said. ”I think it was important for us too for our psyche. It’s a good feeling amidst a lot of disappointment.”

Nash, with one year left on his contract with Phoenix, said he has no desire to play elsewhere.

”This is my team,” he said.

The Suns shot out to a 17-point lead in the first quarter Wednesday night and the Spurs never could catch them.

After shooting 65 percent in the first 12 minutes (17 of 26), the Suns made 20 percent (5 of 25) in the second to lead 61-53 at the break.

San Antonio cut it to 66-63 on Parker’s short jumper three minutes into the second half, but an 11-1 Phoenix run made it 77-64 when Dudley made a pair of free throws with 5:01 to play in the period.

Down 85-74 after three, the Spurs came back to make it a free throw shootout down the stretch. Aaron Brooks sank two from the line to put Phoenix ahead 106-103 with 3.9 seconds to go. Gary Neal threw up an airball from the corner for San Antonio just before the buzzer.

Notes: Hill became the seventh player in NBA history to average at least 13 points at age 38 or older. … Ginobili missed two games this season, only one because of injury: March 28 against Portland because of a bruised left quad. … Nash led the NBA in assists for the fifth time, joining John Stockton and Jason Kidd as the only players to do so. … San Antonio had the best record in the West for the sixth time in franchise history – five of them with Duncan. … The Suns won 40 games for the seventh straight season.

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Phoenix Suns update:

Suns (38-41) at Mavericks (45-30)

 

C: Marcin Gortat … Tyson Chandler

PF: Channing Frye … Dirk Nowitzki

SF: Grant Hill … Shawn Marion

SG: Jared Dudley … Rodrigue Beaubois

PG: Steve Nash … Jason Kidd

 

Key Mavs subs: Jason Terry, Peja Stojakovic, Brendan Haywood, JJ Barea, DeShawn Stevenson, Corey Brewer.

 

Today’s Orange Slices . . .

 

* Tip-off is 4:30 p.m. Phoenix time.

 

* Steve Nash will be back in the lineup today after resting a right hamstring strain in Friday’s loss at New Orleans. Nash has sat out three of the past five games but plans to play the final three games over four days.

 

This starting lineup has only played five games together, winning just once. This season’s most successful lineup was the previous one to this. The Nash-Carter-Hill-Frye-Lopez lineup was also easily the Suns’ most common starting lineup, going 19-11. No other lineup was used in 10 games.

 

Nash’s league assist lead is looking safe so far today with Boston’s Rajon Rondo off to a slow assist start today against Miami. Nash entered the day at 11.4 assists per game with Rondo at 11.3

 

* The Suns and Mavericks split the first 16 regular-season meeting and two playoff series after Nash left Dallas for Phoenix. Since then, the Suns are 1-7 against Dallas. The Mavericks can finish a four-game season series sweep of the Suns today for their first sweep of Phoenix since 1986-87, the season that John MacLeod was fired. The Suns lost the last meeting March 27 in Phoenix despite holding Dallas to 38 percent shooting.

 

* Some player notes, with the help of Phoenix Phactoid Pharaoh Vince Kozar (still the Pharaoh despite a tweeter calling Hakim Warrick the Pharaoh):

• Aaron Brooks is averaging 12.4 points and 4.6 assists with 50 percent shooting in the past 11 games.
• Vince Carter has averaged 13.0 points and shot 46 percent as a reserve, not far removed from his overall average of 13.8 point per game as a Sun and an improvement for his overall 42 percent shooting.
• Josh Childress has appeared in the past 10 games, his longest streak since he played the first 23 games of the season.
• Jared Dudley is averaging 15.8 points and 5.6 rebounds in 12 starts while shooting 53 percent.
• Marcin Gortat is averaging 13.9 points and 11. 1 rebounds in nine starts.
• Robin Lopez has played 16 minutes in the past three games without scoring, grabbing three rebounds and committing nine fouls.
• Hakim Warrick’s 81 dunks ranks 18^th in the NBA.

 

* Dallas sits in third place in the West,  one game behind the Lakers and one game ahead of the Thunder with those two teams playing today. Dallas would have to pass the Lakers to get second in the West because the Lakers have the tiebreaker, as would Oklahoma City have to pass Dallas because of the tiebreaker.

 

* Corey Brewer started in Friday’s win against the Clippers that snapped a four-game losing streak but his 20-point, six-rebound, four-assist, four-steal game won’t keep him there. Kidd is returning to start after two games out. Brewer went from shooting 39.7 percent with Minnesota to shooting 54 percent in 10 games with Dallas, which signed him after New York waived him.

 

* Kidd had become a better 3-point shooting in the past two seasons, making more than 40 percent of his tries. But in March and April, he has gone 23 for 98 on 3s (23.5 percent).

 

* Three of the league’s seven oldest players are in today’s game, including 75 years of starting point guards.

 

* If the Suns win their final road game tonight, they will finish with an 18-23 road mark, the same one they had two years ago. That team also missed the playoffs but still won 46 games because it went 28-13 at home. These Suns are 21-18 at home with games remaining against Minnesota on Monday and San Antonio on Wednesday.

 

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Just seven years removed from his NBA playing career, it hasn’t been unusual for first-year New Orleans Hornets Coach Monty Williams to run across current players who were once teammates or others Williams played against.

But Phoenix Suns forward Grant Hill and Williams, who played together with the Orlando Magic, share a bond so close that Hill and his wife, Tamia, named their second daughter after Williams’ oldest daughter, Lael.

So the last time these teams played March 25 at Phoenix, Williams and Hill engaged in running repartee between each other and game officials about Hill’s exaggerating falls to the floor.

“It is weird. It’s even more weird because we’re close friends,” Williams said. “We were actually yelling at each other last game because he’s flopping, and I was telling the ref he was flopping. So he comes down the floor, and he’s talking to the ref, but he’s really talking to me that he wasn’t flopping.”

Hill smiled at the recollection Friday night at the New Orleans Arena.

“I learned a lot from him,” Hill said. “Put it that way. I learned a lot from him. As he knows, when you get older, you’ve got to try to use every advantage you have.”

Hill said Williams is a caring friend and person on whom he leaned during injury-filled years in Orlando, when a recurring and degenerative ankle condition nearly caused a pre-mature end to his career.

“I’m a big fan of his,” Hill said. “We lived about four houses down from each other in Orlando. And he was there when it was a real dark time for me, when I thought about quitting. He and his wife (Ingrid) are unbelievable people. To have him as an example, and to hang out with him, learn from him. Obviously, I’m tickled to death how much these guys are responding and how much success he’s had as a coach. But I’m more impressed with him as a person and human being.”

“He’s very smart. He knows how to relate to guys. I think he cares about guys; I think he genuinely wants guys to do well on and off the court, and I think the guys respect that and certainly are aware of that and makes them want to go out and compete and play harder for him.”

Hill had 15 points for the Suns in the Hornets’ 109-97 win.

Williams, who began the year as the youngest coach in the NBA at 39, since eclipsed by Indiana Coach Frank Vogel, also has coached against Dallas’ Jason Kidd and Miami’s Juwan Howard whom he played against, and is currently coaching Willie Green, who was a rookie with the Philadelphia 76ers in Williams’ last season.

“I’ve had a number of guys I played against and played with and now coaching against those guys,” Williams said. “It’s weird because they obviously never thought they’d see me coaching, let alone being a head coach — and they’ve let me know it a number of times.

“It’s amazing. The bible says, ‘God uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.’ I’m definitely one of those foolish things. I think there’s a little bit of respect for what we’ve done, but a little bit of a wow factor that I’m the one kind of heading it up. They laugh and crack their jokes. After a while, then they realize we’re trying to do a good job.”

NO NASH: Two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash sat out Friday night’s game for the Suns because of a right hamstring injury.

That put Aaron Brooks in the starting lineup at point guard for Phoenix.

“That probably frees them up a little more, and they’ll look for scoring somewhere else,” Williams said. “Aaron Brooks gave us a tough time last time (scoring 17 points in 15 1/2 minutes), but it also takes a two-time MVP off the floor. It obviously changes them, but that can’t change our focus.”

Brooks scored nine points with nine assists Friday night.

EYE ON THE BOARD: Williams steadfastly has held true to the mantra of not looking ahead.

But now that the Hornets have clinched a playoff berth, he conceded he’s doing some scoreboard-watching to see how the final seedings might fall.

Late Friday night, the Lakers were playing at Portland, which entered the night a half-game ahead of New Orleans in sixth.

Would be Lakers’ fan Friday night?

“Never, ever, ever, ever will I be a Lakers fan,” Williams said. “I’m just hoping Portland doesn’t play as well. Whatever that means.”

Running low on time today, i’ll be back tomorrow hopefully with some more news.