Suns (8-13) at Rockets (12-10)
C: Marcin Gortat … Samuel Dalembert
PF: Channing Frye … Luis Scola
SF: Grant Hill … Chandler Parsons
SG: Jared Dudley … Kevin Martin
PG: Steve Nash … Kyle Lowry
Key Rockets reserves: Goran Dragic, Jordan Hill, Courtney Lee, Patrick Patterson and Chase Budinger.
On to the Orange Slices:
* With Wednesday’s win and a home game Saturday night against Charlotte, tonight’s game is the key to putting together a three-game winning streak for the first time this season. The back end of a back-to-back is always tough (the Suns are 2-3 in them this season) but the Bobcats are only 3-20 and are missing top scorer Gerald Henderson, although Boris Diaw surely will save his best game for Phoenix on Saturday night.
The Suns had beaten tonight’s opponent, Houston, in seven consecutive meetings until their last game at Toyota Center, a 95-93 loss when Steve Nash was out and Jared Dudley missed a 3-pointer to win.
* Suns forward Grant Hill did not play the second half of Wednesday night’s win at New Orleans due to soreness in his right knee, the one that underwent surgery in September. He will return to action tonight and start. The knee had bothered him since Monday morning’s shootaround. Until Wednesday, Hill had averaged 12.3 points over a seven-game stretch.
Hill not only is playing but takes on the key assignment of defending Houston shooting guard Kevin Martin, the leading scorer on the NBA’s No. 5 scoring offense. Martin has averaged 29.2 points in his last six appearances, although the missed two late January games with a foot injury. He returned from the injury and scored 29 in each of the Rockets’ past two games, ones that Houston lost despite his 10-for-17 3-point shooting.
* Sebastian Telfair has posted his three highest scoring games of the season in the past four games but Wednesday night feature more of what Telfair needs to be offensively.
Telfair carried the offense with a stretch of nine straight Suns points at the end of the third quarter but he also was a distributor in the first quarter, running two clean pick-and-rolls with Marcin Gortat and throwing an alleyoop pass to Josh Childress. New Orleans took the lead during his first-half time but that had more to do with the big men on the floor getting beat by Emeka Okafor’s and Gustavo Ayon’s activity.
“I’ve got to pick my spots when I’m looking to be the scorer for the second unit,” Telfair said. “I definitely have to be aggressive. A lot of our plays are set up for everyone to be aggressive. When you don’t take open shots, it breaks down everything we’re doing. I definitely have to be the one to put some points on the board for us.”
Telfair has the quirky stat line of being a 31.3 percent shooter from the field overall but a 45.5 percent shooter on 3-pointers. That 3-point clip is second best on the team to Markieff Morris (although Steve Nash is not above 40 at 40.3) but Telfair has a small sample size — 10 for 22.
* One of the biggest contributors to Steve Nash’s 30-point, 10-assist game Wednesday was three days off.
His bruised left thigh needed it to free his mobility.
“I felt pretty good,” Nash said. “The leg was really sore and stiff but in really rare times and positions. It didn’t bother me much and the pad protected it well. I had some energy in my legs from a couple days off.”
* Houston rookie Marcus Morris was assigned to the D-League today and headed for Rio Grande Valley this morning. Morris had been excited on Thursday about the chance to watch his best friend and twin brother, Markieff, play tonight. He said he was going to wear his only suit, his draft-night one, for the occasion. The twins did get to share a Thursday night dinner, the first time they have spent together since the lockout ended. There will be a story more about their relationship that will be on the site on Sunday.
* The Suns canceled a scheduled Thursday practice after having to stay in New Orleans overnight after Wednesday’s game. Fog in Houston nixed the Suns’ usual itinerary of flying to the next city after a game.
* Since returning to the starting lineup, Dudley is averaging 16.7 points over those three games and has made six of 11 3-pointers and 20 of 23 free throws.
* Two nicknames have stuck to Goran Dragic in going from Phoenix to Houston – his nicknames.
Dragic gets more attention for them in Houston. More people call him “Gogi,” a Slovenian nickname that was more common in his homeland than Phoenix. And the nickname “Dragon” has taken on new life in Houston, where they flash a dragon on the video screen at high points for him.
“It is the Year of the Dragon,” Dragic points out for the Chinese New Year.
Indeed, it is.
Dragic faced Phoenix twice last season soon after the trade in two games that were six days apart. The teams split and Dragic went 0 for 5 in 20 minutes of play with six points, four assists and three turnovers.
“I know Steve’s game and he knows my game,” Dragic said of facing Nash tonight. “But he’s going to be tough with all those pick-and-rolls. I know I’m going to get hit by big guys but I’ll try to play my game. Marcin, we know what he’s going to do. Set the screen, roll hard, dunk. Hopefully, Channing and Jared don’t have a hot hand.”
* Phoenix Phactoid Pharaoh Vince Kozar matched Steve Nash’s doozy of a game with a doozy of a phactoid. Nash became of seven players in NBA history to make 13 or more field goals on 16 or fewer attempts in a double-digit assist game. The others were Deron Williams, Gary Payton, Ray Allen (yeah, he had 10 assists), Mark Price, Pooh Richardson and Magic Johnson.
The always optimistic Pharaoh also points out that the Suns are 1-0 in February.
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