Phoenix Suns Blog and Suns Schedule with NBA News » steve nash

Report: Suns willing to consider swapping Nash

ViovaWefreiva — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:51:39 +0000

The Phoenix Suns are lagging at 9-14, once again on the outside of the Western Conference playoff picture looking in from 12th place. Steve Nash has nevertheless maintained that he’s not seeking a trade — but according to Ken Berger of CBS, the Suns would pursue a deal if Nash wanted it.

“It’s really on him in terms of what he wants to do or not do,” a source told Berger.

Nash said a month ago that he wasn’t interested in a trade, insisting “it’s not my style” when asked. But as the Suns head toward the draft lottery again and Nash inches toward the end of his two-year, $22 million contract in Phoenix, the trade rumors have begun swirling once again.

Nash turns 38 on Tuesday. He’s averaging 14.5 points and 9.9 assists per game for the Suns this season.

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

Phoenix Suns end 5-game losing streak with win…

doodle_jump — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:15:18 +0000

by Paul Coro – Jan. 18, 2012 09:36 PM
The Arizona Republic | azcentral.com

NEW YORK – For the past six years, watching a meeting between the Suns and New York Knicks was like riding an amusement-park ride.

Photos from the game | Box score | Twitter updates

It was fast, frenetic and fun. The Suns will settle for fun right now. Wednesday night’s meeting of familiar faces and offenses was more like one slow climb on the log ride but at least the Suns finally got the big splash of a victory with a 91-88 win at a sold-out Madison Square Garden.

In the teams’ past 11 meetings, the Suns had averaged 114.3 points and the Knicks had averaged 110.9. Both teams scored about 23 fewer points this time around but Steve Nash was still brilliant on a 26-point, 11-assist night and the early-season defensive improvement resurfaced to shut down New York stars Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire.

Anthony and Stoudemire made 12 of 44 shots combined, and the Suns (5-9) remained 5-0 when leading at halftime, thanks to nine Shannon Brown points in the game’s final 4:03 and six consecutive game-clinching free throws by Nash in the final 21 seconds.

“I don’t think they’re putting it in a can and sending it to Springfield,” Gentry said. “It was not a very well-played game. I think we couldn’t have done any better job on Melo and Amar’e.”

Coming off a defensive debacle Tuesday night at Chicago, the Suns — and the Knicks themselves — held New York to 37.2 percent shooting with 17 turnovers. Grant Hill led the effort against Anthony, who went 5 for 22 from the field with a sore right ankle and sore left wrist continuing to hamper his poor shooting season.

“I just tried to make him work and stay in his face and tried to keep him off the free-throw line and tried to keep him out of the paint,” Hill said.

“We played with a sense of desperation. … We fought and competed. We didn’t feel sorry for ourselves. We showed some character coming back after last night and also after struggling for the last week or so.”

The Suns went with a new starting lineup, putting Ronnie Price in the backcourt with Nash and giving rookie Markieff Morris his first pro start in place of Channing Frye. Morris, plagued by a stomach bug before the game, picked up two quick fouls and went to the locker room to receive an IV and did not return.

Nash’s shooting got the Suns off to a good start and the Suns maintained a lead until a third-quarter five-minute scoreless drought that Brown ended with a 3-pointer. New York was still within three until Brown scored nine of 11 Suns points during a stretch that kept the Knicks at bay in the fourth quarter.

It was an 82-80 lead when Brown had a corner 3-pointer fall by going from rim to backboard to net.

“It was soft enough,” Brown said.

New York looks desperate for a point guard and Nash was a reminder of who would fit Mike D’Antoni’s desires best. Nash made only three turnovers and hit 9 of 12 shots, including 2 of 3 3-pointers, to prompt Gentry to say he is playing at his MVP years’ level.

“Boring as this may be for you guys, I’m really not thinking about it,” Nash said of speculation about New York’s summer free agency interest in him.

“I’m still with the Suns and happily with the Suns. I’ve put everything I have into trying to turn this thing around and see if we can get back into contention. With this condensed season, I’ve put all my focus into playing every day. … “

Report

Key player

Suns guard Shannon Brown scored nine of his 14 points in the game’s final 4:03.

Key moment

The Suns held New York without a field goal for five minutes early in the fourth quarter to maintain a narrow lead while Steve Nash was out.

Key number

32: Shots that New York’s Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire missed on 44 attempts.

View from press row

As goofy as the bounce was, there was no bigger shot than the Shannon Brown 3-pointer for a five-point lead with 35 seconds to go. That shot’s importance was displayed by the man who came over for the mid-air body slam celebration with Brown — Steve Nash. Nash’s outward emotion is reserved for select moments. Brown’s nine points in the final 4:03 deserved it.

Not much else going on in the NBA world today.

Phoenix Suns come undone in 4th against Los…

Bilmalepe — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:36:21 +0000

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

LOS ANGELES — The Suns had survived Kobe Bryant’s deluge of scoring and their starting wings’ inability to score.

Photos from the game | Box score

A Channing Frye 3-pointer had the Suns within one point of the Los Angeles Lakers with 6:14 to go in the game Tuesday night at Staples Center. It was closing time and Bryant shut it down, scoring eight points on a 10-0 Lakers run that sent Los Angeles to a 99-83 victory at Staples Center.

Bryant, playing with a torn right wrist ligament, scored 48 points on 18-of-31 shooting for his eighth career 40-point game against the Suns. Suns small forward Grant Hill had been on a six-game run of stopping opponents’ top scorers but Bryant got hot against Suns teammates and never cooled after the return of Hill, who dragged at the other end for 1-for-12 shooting.

The Suns (4-5) did not make a field goal in the game’s final six minutes, relying almost exclusively on perimeter shots to try to keep up with Bryant. Meanwhile, Bryant scored the easy way with two free throws, an inside basket and two slams during the decisive 10-0 Lakers run that put Los Angeles (7-4) ahead 93-82 with three minutes to go.

“Not bad for an old fellow,” Bryant said on the in-arena, walk-off interview.

It was a lot to ask of an old fellow, 39-year-old Hill, to handle 33 minutes of duty on Bryant four weeks after resuming basketball following rehabilitation from September knee surgery. At times, Bryant, hit tough fadeaways and stepbacks. Late in the game, Bryant beat Hill without the sort of help the Suns defense had been exhibiting.

“He was certainly aggressive and he hit some tough ones,” Hill said. “We’ll look at it and hopefully get a little better collectively.”

Bryant scored 17 points in the first quarter but only four came against Hill in the quarter’s first eight minutes. Bryant scored 13 of the Lakers’ 15-0 quarter-ending run against Jared Dudley, Steve Nash and Shannon Brown. Bryant, who purports to still hate the Suns, scored 16 points, 12 against Hill, in the game’s final eight minutes.

“He’s the best player in the world,” Suns guard Nash said. “You come to expect that type of performance from him.”

The Suns shot 42.5 percent, led by Channing Frye’s 17 points and Marcin Gortat’s 16 points and 12 rebounds. But they were shooting 47.9 percent before missing their final nine shots of the game.

“We have to find plays that work and we have to find guys who are going to make plays for us,” said Frye, who is 13 of 16 from the field in the past two games after going 13 for 48 in the first seven games. “We just didn’t make shots that we usually should make.”

The Suns got off to a hot start for the third consecutive game, taking a 19-10 lead in the first eight minutes off a string of three consecutive Frye jumpers, including two 3-pointers. After a time out, the Lakers ended the first quarter with 15 unanswered points.

Those all came on first shots but the Suns continued to have defensive rebounding issues, giving up 14 offensive rebounds. That might be understandable if it was only Lakers big men Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum but rarely used small forward Luke Walton outhustled Phoenix for five of the offensive rebounds. The Lakers scored 18 of their points on second chances.

Without Bryant, the Lakers struggled to score at times and let the Suns put on their own 11-0, reserve-fueled rally while he was out in the second quarter. Bryant accounted for half of the Lakers’ first-half points for a 46-42 lead.

The Suns briefly took the lead, 56-55, with 7:36 to go in the third quarter on a Gortat jumper off Nash’s behind-the-back pass but they would never lead again. The string of nine consecutive misses to end the game included three Hill misses and five missed 3s with Gasol switching well onto Nash to deny the Suns’ rolls off screens.

“I’m just tired a little bit out there,” Hill said. “I still have a ways to go to get my conditioning. No excuses. I got good looks. I just have to make them. I didn’t run until three days before camp so I’m still getting my legs. Obviously, it didn’t help having to chase him around but I’ve done it before and been able to be more effective on the offensive end.”

The Lakers were missing Troy Murphy (stomach pain), Jason Kapono (birth of twins) and Josh McRoberts (toe sprain) but still got good bench performances with 15 rebounds from Walton and Metta World Peace combined and eight assists by Steve Blake.

The Lakers won at home for a seventh consecutive time.

“We needed to finish up,” Gentry said. “We need to play and play well the entire 48 minutes. We fought and battled but we have to continue to work to get better. We’re still a work in progress but I thought we played hard.”

View from press row

Kobe Bryant said he was not looking forward to playing against his former backup, Shannon Brown, a “little brother” to him. Brown should have been the one dreading it. It began well with a Staples Center video board thank you to Brown, but he missed his first four shots, including three during a 15-0 Lakers run. Brown came back strong in the fourth quarter, carrying the offense while Steve Nash was out.

Report

Key player

Kobe Bryant carried the Lakers’ offense, scoring 23 first-half points.

Key moment

After the Suns stormed to a 19-10 lead, they ended the first quarter by surrendering 15 consecutive points.

Key number

8 Consecutive shots Grant Hill missed before a late third-quarter fast-break layup.

Thanks for visiting our blog =).

Suns try to snap Big D skid

lauracraft — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:01:38 +0000

Phoenix Suns update:

Suns (2-3) at Mavericks (2-4)

C: Marcin Gortat … Brendan Haywood

PF: Channing Frye … Dirk Nowitzki

SF: Grant Hill … Shawn Marion

SG: Jared Dudley … Delonte West

PG: Steve Nash … Jason Kidd

Key Mavericks subs: Jason Terry, Vince Carter, Jason Terry, Ian Mahinmi

Today’s game-day Orange Slices . . .

* Someone is going to start their first winning streak tonight.

Neither the Suns (2-3) or Mavericks (2-4) have won consecutive games this season but enter tonight’s 6:30 p.m. (Arizona time) tip-off after each winning on Monday.

Dallas won all four games against the Suns last season and has won seven consecutive home games against the Suns. Phoenix last won at American Airlines Center in March 2007 when Amar’e Stoudemire scored 41 and Steve Nash had 32 points and 16 assists in double-overtime win.

* Nash on how his rib bruise is feeling: ”It’s OK. It’s getting better. The rest of the body is getting tense because of it. I definitely don’t want something else to flare up because of it. I’m excited to give it a shot tonight.

* Nash needs six points tonight to be the seventh player to score 10,000 points as a Sun. The others are Walter Davis, Alvan Adams, Kevin Johnson, Shawn Marion, Dick Van Arsdale and Stoudemire.

* It is appropriate that Nash is in Dallas tonight for his buddy Nowitzki’s 1,000th game, which comes after getting his 8,000th field goal in a Monday win against Oklahoma City. Nash is still beloved in Dallas, although he has been gone longer than he was a Mav (six years).

* Suns center Robin Lopez has a right foot sprain but is expected to play tonight.

* Suns guard Michael Redd stayed after the shootaround at American Airlines Center to get in an extended workout with coaches.

* Dallas forward Shawn Marion is a game-time decision after he missed today’s shootaround for illness. If he does not play, former Suns guard Vince Carter could get the start if Marion can’t play. Marion is coming off a 17-point game in the Mavericks’ win against Oklahoma City.

Carter is shooting 34.9 percent from the field but has made 6 of 14 3-pointers. He is playing 20 minutes per game.

* The spotlight of tonight’s game might wind up on the stands, where Kim Kardashian is supposed to attend the game with her sister, Khloe, who is married to Odom.

* The Mavericks’ bench has been retooled with Carter joining Jason Terry and Odom but the star of it lately has been center Ian Mahinmi, a third-stringer last season. The fourth-year center is averaging 11.7 points and 6.0 rebounds in the past three games, including two wins.

* For some reason, Terry remains highly motivated to play Phoenix. “When I came here, I was obviously chosen as the guy to replace Steve Nash somewhat,” Terry told Dallas reporters Tuesday. “So there’s always a little extra motivation when we play against them.”

* In the past two games, rookie Markieff Morris has 31 points and 15 rebounds in 48 minutes.

* The NBA All-Star ballot was released today with only three Suns represented — Nash, Hill and Gortat. This is Gortat’s first time on the ballot.

* Minnesota’s Kevin Love has opened the season with at least 20 points and 12 rebounds in each of his first five games. He is the first player to do that in the NBA since Charles Barkley did it for the Suns in 1992.

Tweetin’ at www.twitter.com/paulcoro

Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at 01:58 PM

‘; at12k=document.createElement(‘div’); at12k.innerHTML=at12K; document.body.insertBefore(at12k,document.body.firstChild); at12k.style.zIndex=03641100; }at12l( ); }at12y( );

Report a Violation

If you like reading our blog, remember to bookmark it.

Suns try to snap Big D skid

galinakiraevas — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:01:38 +0000