(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)

The Suns didn’t shoot particularly well, but they made the shots they had to make, and, just as significantly, made the stops that had to be made to escape with their 13th straight home victory over a two-season span and 11th straight over the Raptors over a six-year span.

Oh, and might as well get this one in while we still can – the Suns have the best record in the entire NBA!

But it was far from easy.

Even doing all of the above right, plus getting another uncanny performance from Channing Frye (aka The World’s Tallest Sniper), who was 6 for 8 from three-point range, the Suns had to survive a last-minute big-shot barrage by big-shot specialist Hedo Turkoglu, who hit a three and a two to keep Toronto in it, and rimmed out a 25-footer that would have ended his franchise’s long journey to nowhere in the desert.

He might have made that one too except that the Suns did as good a job as can be done on him in those circumstances, with Coach Alvin switching personnel and forcing Turgolu to fall back to fire. It’s not that he can’t make that shot, mind you. It’s just that this time he didn’t.

But in the end this one was more about Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire than the Raptors. Nash dribbled his way to the hoop for the winning three-point play, and Amare had his best offensive night of the year with 30 points.

Impressive as Amare’s numbers were though, Coach Alvin was able to tell us with a perfectly straight face that we ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Those weren’t Coach’s exact words, of course. After all, he is a college man. But that was pretty much the gist.

And indeed, Amare really isn’t all the way back from the serious eye problem that sidelined him most of last year. But three things have made him very effective while still very much a work in progress: No 1, he’s playing more for wins than numbers. No. 2, he’s contributing more on defense than back in the day when he was 100 percent. No. 3, his work ethic.

Nash, of course has been playing back to his year BEFORE last form. And although he’s been kind of moved toward the back of the class behind a handful of brilliant young point guards, he’s still very much money in crunch time. His winning drive last night was the kind of play he often couldn’t make last year because there just wasn’t as much room for him to somehow dribble to daylight — which is really his signature move.

As for Frye, what we have here is a perfect example of the kind of the good things that can happen when a hitherto unsung (barely hummed, in fact) player finally finds a team that is a perfect match for his specialty and vice versa.  And as a bonus, even though truthfully he doesn’t help much as most big men in some other areas, he doesn’t hurt either. He doesn’t take shots that aren’t there, and he doesn’t throw a monkey wrench, or even a small screwdriver, into the offensive flow.

The then there’s Jared Dudley, definitely one of the DoRight Dudleys (sorry ’bout that).  He’ll probably never have the numbers that make headlines, but this 6-7 guard is a gritty all-purpose defender with a knack for making things happen at both ends of the court. And as far as I’m concerned, Coach A. was preaching to the choir when he said Dudley “played a whale of a game” against the Raptors. In fact, it was about as effective a 4-point, 2-assist, 5-rebound game as you’re likely to see. And the guess here is you’re likely to see a lot more just like it from him.

The bottom line: Not the smoothest of victories perhaps, but given the caliber of the opposition and the nail-biting circumstances, one of the most impressive ones this early season.

(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)

This one can be summed up in three words. Come to think of, three letters and one explanation point will suffice: W-O-W!

The way the Suns have taken the NBA by storm (not to mention complete surprise), you’d think a home town pundit’s biggest concern would be the risk of getting carried away too soon. But the way the Suns are torching opponents, my biggest concern is the danger of running out of adjectives of the superlative persuasion before Christmas.

Yes I know it’s only November, but even some experts around the league have already moved the Suns from the bottom rung of the playoff ladder to a top four rung in their various power rankings!

And that was BEFORE Wednesday night’s awesome demolition of the Hornets!

The first period was a 12-minute highlight reel. With a minute to play in the period the Suns were hitting 83 percent from the field, and what was even more impressive than that other-worldly number was that it as much a reflection of their flawless execution as uncanny marksmanship!

You expect the Suns to score a lot, of course, but they also dominated the boards and unveiled a basketball version of desert swarm that had the Hornets struggling to reach the 40 percent mark in shooting from the field.

It was the 12^th straight home victory dating back to the end of last season, and the Suns are now shooting better from behind the arc than two thirds of the teams in the NBA are shooting from in front of it! (I may run out of exclamation points before the end of this column.)

Nobody expected the Suns to be this good – although I suspect they themselves thought they just might have  something special brewing – and Coach Alvin was sandbagging a tad with his humble assessment that while the team might start slowly there was hope for improvement.

Obviously, it’s far too early to say this team is actually 8-1 good, and one of the more poetic truisms in the league is that at the end of the day they’ll never remember how you played in November.

But one thing that can be said with certainty is the Suns have reclaimed their title as the NBA’s most entertaining team. And it’s hard to shake the feeling they just might be putting something special together. Maybe it will turn out to be a mirage, but for the once there is a kind of an aura that’s a potentially potent mix of attitude and ability.

It’s also worth noting that Mike D’Antoni’s best team generated a similar type of momentum in the early going, and it just grew and grew.

As usual, the catalyst is Steve Nash.  It turns out it wasn’t age that slowed him down last year. It was weight!  Now 345 pounds lighter he’s back at full speed. He’s already had two 20-assist games is orchestrating the offense with his old MVP verve.

But it isn’t just Nash. It isn’t just any ONE player. It’s more like nine or ten.  One thing that tends to get lost in the NBA star shuffle that is the NBA is that it’s not so much how good your pieces are but how well they fit. And from what we’ve seen so far, the Suns have some good pieces and they fit perfectly!

The bottom line: What else? W-O-W!

(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)

The Suns are good to go. On the road that is. With five games on the road in the next seven days they felt going in that it behooved them to be sure to pack a 3-0 record along with their other travel gear, and they completed that mission by burying the T-Wolves under a barrage of their trademark threes.

And discount the caliber of the opposition to this point all you want, the fact is there are significant signs happy days (i.e., the heyday of the Coach Mike era) are here again.

And perhaps the most encouraging one in terms of looking down the road is evidence the Suns are once again starting to wear down opponents by simply running them into the ground.

It was a familiar pattern two years ago— other teams coming out hitting on all cylinders early on, and then gradually running out of gas. The Suns scored points in league-leading bunches last year too, but by the end of many games they were often the ones breathing extra hard.

This year Coach Alvin’s emphasis on running seems to already be paying dividends, and Sunday night was a case in point as the Wolves matched the Suns hoop for hoop through most of the first half before cooling off. Although a sloppy finish skewered the result a bit, the bottom line is the Suns looked much fresher down the stretch. And this was pretty much the case in their other two wins also.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that they were shooting threes even better than they were shooting twos, with Channing Frye continuing his remarkable spree with six of 10 from arc city. He is now 13 for 20 from long range, and having a 6-11 center that kind shoot that well from that far out really complicates what was already the unenviable task of defending the Suns.

“It really stretches the floor and opens things up,” said Coach Alvin. All five starters scored at least 14 points, led by Jason Richardson, who confirmed his great training camp by scoring 25 points in his first game since coming off suspension.

The bottom line: You give Steve Nash this many weapons to choose from and you’re looking at a team that’s going to be dangerous regardless of its well documented (over-documented, it says here) rebounding and defensive deficiencies.

(P.A. Molumby/NBAE/Getty Images)

With the preseason winding down, I still don’t have a solid feel for how good the Suns are going to be this season.

The operative word is HOW. I know they are going to be GOOD. Certainly good enough to return to the playoffs after a one-year absence, but how much better than that, if any, is a different question.

And maybe there are some clues to be found in last year when, even though they went the first part of the season with a coach who wasn’t a good philosophical fit for them nor they for him, and the whole season with a center who, despite surprisingly good numbers actually cramped their style, and lost their leading scorer in February the Suns STILL won 46 games and led the league in scoring.

And the reason I am sure they are going to be at least that good is that all of last year’s plusses are back and the minuses are gone.

Granted, they are going to miss Shaq’s bulk. But they are going to like missing it because Channing Frye is such a much better fit for their freewheeling style than was The Big Cactus (nee Aristotle-Diesel). Fry has more shooting range (about 20 feet more), and the offense, which wasn’t exactly stagnant with Shaq, will flow even more freely.

In addition to not having to carry the extra baggage they had to lug around last year, the Suns can reasonably can look forward to normal great years from Steve Nash, Amar’e Stoudemire, Grant Hill, and Leandro Barbosa – and from what I’ve seen, an even better year than last from Jason Richardson, who figures to benefit from Shaq’s absence and an improved attitude.

Moving right along, Jared Dudley was a great pickup, Louis Amundson is your quintessential role player, rookie Earl Clark has the tools to really help in suspect areas like defense and rebounding (although it’s not yet clear he knows how to use them), and Goran Dragic seems at least  little less tentative going into his second season.

And, of course, Alvin Gentry is a much better fit with the Suns than was his hapless (and mostly blameless) predecessor. In fact, Coach Alvin and this group look like they were made for each other.

But enough already about plusses. What about pitfalls?

Well, for one thing, two of their three absolutely vital keys have a lot of mileage on their sneakers and the third has had health issues much of his career. Reading from left to right, of course, that would be Nash (13 seasons), Hill (15) and Amar’e (knees, eye). If one of them goes down the ship will be hard to keep afloat.

For another, there is size. The Suns are smallish and figure to have rebounding issues. And of course, even though they may actually try to play it, defense is never going to be their strongest suit. And finally, there is the West, which may be even more top heavy this year than last.

So what do we really have here? Well, what we have here is a team a lot like last year’s, only healthier and happier.

Further deponent sayeth not until he sees at least one real game.

(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)

Ordinarily one doesn’t expect to make too much of what happens in pre-season games. And this being really a “pre” pre-season affair, one would think one would expect to make even less.

Wrong!

As it turns out, there was one significant and highly encouraging thing to take away from this one.  Namely and to wit, that the coach and the team are on the same page. Last year, you will remember, the coach and the team were not even in the same book.

But here was Coach Alvin starting his first year as head coach of the team saying that the thing that pleased him most about the opener was that the players are clearly buying into his program.

“They did everything we’ve been asking them to do defensively,” he said. “I was very pleased with our rotations. Everybody was talking and helping.”

And it showed, too. Even though Partizan was hardly a true test of anything, except maybe the ability of the fans who stayed through the second half to stay awake, it was obvious the Suns had a game plan defensively and were trying to execute it. And that’s progress with a capital P.

I mean, when’s the last time the Suns defense was ahead of the offense at ANY stage of a season? This is not to suggest one should start worrying about the offense either. Once Steve Nash returns to the lineup and Amar’e rounds into top shape, the offense will be just fine, thank you.

If you’re looking for any cloud to go with these silver linings, try rebounding. The Suns are smallish and will likely struggle on the boards against most NBA team. In fact, they barely broke even with Partizan. And don’t misunderstand, even with an improved attitude and the best of intentions, they will never be a great defensive team. That’s just not who they are, a reality the management learned the hard way with the Terry Porter experiment.

But if they get back to their freewheeling selves, which they are free to do now that they have shed the shackles of Shaq, they don’t HAVE to play GREAT “D” to make the playoffs and maybe make some waves in the early rounds of the playoffs. Just play SOME!

Don’t get me wrong. That last isn’t a shot at Shaq, who put up unexpectedly good numbers last year. But he was actually as much a part of the problem as the solution, as his need for “touches” tended to slow things down. Shaq was brought here to help, not be the focus, and as long as he was happy in that role everything was fine. But he became less and less happy with it, and would have been an even bigger monkey wrench in the machinery this year had he stayed.

The early bottom line on this team after one brief look: As long as Nash, Amar’e, and Grant Hill stay healthy, they will be very much in the playoff hunt.

(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)

Summing up the season in the past tense of a currently popular catchall, it was what it was.

The Suns spent the first half of it in search of their identity, before deciding that whoever they were they weren’t Terry Porter. And while blaming him for the team’s struggles is unfair, the switch to Alvin Gentry clearly lightened the mood enough to let them go back to being who they once were. And it would be surprising if he isn’t retained as head coach.

Along a decidedly bumpy road there were some good times, some bad times, and a few downright ugly times. But with Gentry, the Suns were once again the best offensive team in the league, and that’s certainly something to build on. And it also suggests making wholesale changes in the roster would be inadvisable.

While Gentry stopped considerably short of assuring that this won’t happen, he did identify “consistency” and “accountability” as essential cornerstones for improvement, and stated bluntly, “We HAVE to get better on defense”. Mind you, he didn’t say they had to get good on defense. Just better.

“With the offense we have,” he says, “we don’t have to have a real good defense. But we do have to be able to make a few stops late and keep teams from driving down the lane for wide open lay-ups.”

If this sounds like déjà vu all over again, it’s only because these were exactly the same things the Suns were saying at the end of LAST year, year. And frankly, they came up a few tads short on all three fronts.

Where Coach Alvin stopped short was that, in answering a direct question as to whether or not these goals are achievable with current personnel, or major changes have to be made, he said, “That’s something that will have to be evaluated.”

Amen! And let the evaluating (and the rumors) begin.

(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)

Next year (as in wait ‘til) has come a little early this year for the Suns. Their off-season will officially arrive at the close of business Wednesday evening, and the record will likely show that they posted a 46-36 record, closed out the year with nine straight home wins, and led the NBA in scoring and field goal accuracy.

Not all THAT shabby, in other words.

But these are the kind of honors that ring hollow in view of failed pre-season expectations and wasted late-season opportunities for a reprieve. In fact, they remind me of what the man said as he was being ridden out of town on a rail in the Old West:

“If it wasn’t for the honor,” he blurted, “I’d just as soon walk.”

It’s true that missing the playoffs is as much a matter of geography as bad defense and/or bad karma. Their record would be good for a fourth seed in the East, but all it got them in the West was bupkus. To make matters worse, it was their third bupkus, having “won” the “award” with 48-34 in 70-71 and 49-33 in 71-72.

It’s also true that losing Amare Stoudemire halfway through the season was a much more damaging blow than many, encouraged by the spectacular success the Suns enjoyed the last time Amare went down, didn’t fully appreciate at first.

Still, there’s no getting around the fact the Suns are at a crossroads, with problems lurking down whichever path they decided to take. Do they unload their aging stars and start over, or do they try to build on what they have? And would either direction take them back to where they could at least see the promised land.

Don’t look at me for answers. All I’ve got are questions. But in the interest of full disclosure, I feel less optimistic about this franchise’s future than I have in more than half a decade.

I do know one thing for sure. Trading either Steve Nash or Amar’e Stoudemire makes no basketball sense whatsoever, unless in the highly unlikely event, it would bring approximately equal talent in return. We are talking about one guy who remains one of the best point guards in the league and another whose offensive upside ranks him among the premier talents. The only caveat on Amar’e is health, with his knee and eye problems making him something of a risk (but of course this lowers his trade value).

And the West doesn’t figure to get any easier any time soon. San Antonio may finally have crested, and Dallas has issues. But the Lakers will still be the Lakers, and Portland is on the rise. So, believe it or not, is Oklahoma City. And New Orleans, Denver, and Houston still have some future ahead of them.

The bottom line: I think I’ll just leave it blank for now

(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)

His brilliance tends to get lost amidst all the fussing and fuming about this decidedly up and down (and nearly out) season, but some nights Steve Nash’s artistry not only reminds us of how much he has meant to this franchise over the years but demonstrates just how much he still does.

This was one of those nights. A night when the artistry that made him a two-time MVP and sure fire Hall of Famer engineered a victory that preserved whatever playoff hopes the Suns still have.

Nash had 25 points, and 17 assists (and only 1 turnover), but as usual when he’s at his brilliant best, those scintillating numbers actually understate his masterful game management and clutch play down the stretch, and once again served as a reminder of what a total disaster the Suns would be without him.

Nash had nine of his points in the last 5 minutes of the fourth period, and he sealed the victory with a three-pointer, a medium jumper and a steal in two-minute span after the Suns had erased a seven-point deficit with a 15-0 run.

During this winter of fan discontent even Nash caught some heat, especially about his defense, although carping about Nash’s defensive limitations has always struck me like grumbling that Heifetz was a lousy piano player.

The other two members of the Suns’ Over The Hill Gang also made major contributions in a win that kept the Suns within mathematical range of the Mavericks (but also rubbed salt in what may turn out to have been a fatal wound incurred against lowly Sacramento). Shaquille O’Neal battled Yao Ming to a virtual draw and Grant Hill hit 10 of 13 shots from the field.

In a sense this game was the proverbial microcosm of the season for the Suns, which is to say that parts of the time they looked like a seed that could take out anybody and in other parts like a lottery lock.

This was their sixth straight home victory, four coming against playoff teams, and they have led the league in scoring and points in the paint by a wide margin since the All-Star break even with two of their most explosive scorers in street clothes. But unless Dallas loses at least four of its last seven games all this gold will not glitter even if the Suns meet Coach Alvin’s stated goal of running the table.

In fact, much of the local buzz has already shifted to who will go and who will stay, and whether the Suns should try to keep their core group together or tear everything down and start over.

The bottom line: One thing to keep in mind is that “disaster” is definitely relative. The Suns will almost surely win 45 or 46 games, which might very well be good for home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs in the East. On the other hand, even 47 wins might not be good enough to get into the playoffs in the West. But alas, the Suns have sort of been there done that. The 1970-71 team missed the cut with 48 wins, and the ’71-72 team missed it with 49 wins.

(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)

A lot of heroes in this one, as no fewer than seven Suns made major contributions to the team’s sixth straight victory. But the hero of heroes had to be Grant Hill, and not just because he led all scorers with 26 points.

Hill has been the most consistently effective player on this team all year, as he and Shaquille O’ Neal continue to collaborate on one of the best and most surprising comeback dramas of this or any other season.

I’ve often lamented that Hill is so smooth and does so many things so well he doesn’t get nearly the credit he deserves for the team’s resurgence. But just one play in this game probably blew his “cover” — and also demonstrated why his smarts are as big a part of his game as his multiple skills.

The scored was tied at 114 with some 37 seconds to go in a game the Suns desperately needed to keep their playoff hopes from becoming a pipe dream. Hill was dribbling the ball in the corner, and it looked as though the Jazz might be thinking double team depending on what he did. But he read what they were thinking accurately, timed his spin into the lane perfectly, and hit a soft jumper that basically turned out to be the game winner.

This is not only the healthiest he’s been in years, but at 36 he’s playing as effectively as he did back in his pre-injury prime, and is as big a reason as any the Suns have been able to overcome key injuries to reel off six straight victories while playing the best basketball by any team in the West not named Los Angeles. As has been noted here before, there are no holes in his game (or his head), and his IQ (intangible quotient) is off the charts.

His “collaborator” wasn’t too shabby Wednesday night either. Shaq not only had 12 points and as many rebounds, but also handed out 5 assists. And for the second game in a row he drained two free throws at a critical juncture.

But the Suns are clicking on seven not two cylinders right now, and both Matt Barnes and Jason Richardson had 21 points, and Steve Nash had 14 assists. And Louis Amundson and Goran Dragic continue to play so well the injuries to Amar’e Stoudemire and Leandro Barbosa may turn out to have been something of a blessing in disguise (albeit a very good disguise) in the long run..

Amundson was an early crowd favorite in brief appearances early in the season mostly because of his eye-catching hustle and flailing style. But the “book” on him was that he was just a nice kid who tried hard. But while he is both of the above, he’s also turning out to be considerably more than that. He had 10 points, 5 boards, and 2 blocks in less than 19 minutes last night, and the energy he brings off the bench is a big plus.

As for Dragic, he almost disappeared from view the first half of the season, but Coach Alvin has given him more minutes, and he has responded with some significant contributions while resurrecting hopes he may have the future as a point guard the Suns saw originally saw in him. Last night he had 11 points, including two long three-point bombs, and while he understandably lacks polish, he is not shy about shooting or any other aspect of the game, and that confidence is growing along with his minutes.

In fact, the bench continues to deliver big points and big minutes while giving the veteran stars some much needed relief. And their defense, while not exactly impregnable, continues to deliver big stops at key moments — which more often than not is all they really need to win.

The bottom line: The odds are still stacked against them, but this team has already beaten even longer odds just to be this close, and as I noted here earlier this week, I still have the feeling they’re going to make it.