(Layne Murdoch/NBAE/Getty Images)

For the Suns, it’s all a matter of returning to what worked early.

It’s a little more defense, a little more rebounding, a little more chasing down loose balls as if they’re made out of $100 bills. And the Suns have been doing it all without surrendering their strengths, things such as sharing the ball and then burying the shot.

Add it all together and what do you get?

The answer is a four-game winning streak. And not just any winning streak. As you know, the previous three wins came on the road against teams with winning records. Two came against teams battling for a playoff spot, the other against a team expected to finish within the top two or three sports in the West.

But the Denver Nuggets had better not get too comfortable, because the Suns proved they have the firepower to make it happen on any given night.

Yes, I know. The Nuggets were playing without injured All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony. Still, they had won nine straight at home before the Suns rolled into town, so let’s not read to much into Anthony‘s absence. Either way, the Nuggets are pretty good. Today, it’s easy to believe the Suns are, too.

Would you believe the Suns are playing as well right now as at any other time this season, maybe better? That’s hard to imagine when you consider their fast break of a start, in which they became the first team this season to win 10 games. They also won thrillers in Boston and Philadelphia on that first road trip. This one has taken place against some of the better teams in their own conference.

As Suns coach Alvin Gentry said, “As far as the class of the team and the quality of the team, it’s probably the best we’ve played on a stretch of road this year.”

Meanwhile, All-Star guard Steve Nash said the Suns have simply been a little grittier, displaying “the same characteristics I think you saw when we played well in November.”

It’s all just a matter of being a little tougher. “We’re coming up with a few more hustle plays, a few more loose balls, making a few more baskets with just determination,” Nash added.

Nash speaks the truth, as the Suns have outrebounded their opponents by a 174-157 count during the streak. Leading the charge has been none other than center Amar’e Stoudemire. All he’s done is average 27 points and 13.3 rebounds in the past three games.

“When he rebounds, we’re a much better team,” Nash said. “We know he can score the ball. When he gets on the glass and does some other things, we become a little more dynamic.”

Stoudemire described the Suns’ play as of late as “scrappy.” It’s not often a word that’s been associated with a team that’s usually known for its high-octane offense and finesse style. But right now it works, and right now, these Suns are proving they can adapt.

We all knew earlier this season that there would be a few valleys. That’s just the way things go in an NBA season. Considering the Suns spent the offseason getting younger, there are likely to be a few more.

But the Suns seem to have learned from their struggles, finding a new rhythm and adding a new wrinkle to their game that is likely to benefit them in the long run.

“We were in a funk for a while,” Stoudemire said. “We’re kind of uniting now through difficult times and it’s helping. It’s helping all of us.”

THREE-POINTERS

* The Suns snapped a 10-game streak against the Nuggets in which the home team had won every time. The teams play twice more (March 1 and April 13). Both games are in Phoenix.

* There’s still plenty of business to be handled on the road, as the Suns play three of the next four in a city other than Phoenix. All of this will change in early March, as the Suns begin the month by playing eight of nine at home.

* Finally, before you think the Suns may be relinquishing a little offense these days, consider that they have scored 100 or more points in 22 of their previous 23 games, including 10 in a row. The last time they failed to reach 100 was Jan. 16, when they scored 99 against Charlotte. In other words, if there’s one thing this team knows, it’s how to run and be tons of fun.

Just as savvy in multi-media world as he is on the court, Steve Nash conducted an interview via Twitter on Wednesday for all of his tweeple.

The way the interview unfolded was that fans tweeted to @NBA with their questions for him, and then @NBA tweeted out his answers. You can also see his answers by looking Nash up under his Twitter name (@the_real_nash).

Fans asked him about a variety of subjects, including his passion for soccer, his relationship with the Clippers’ Baron Davis, mustaches, being a point guard, whether he can still dunk, his love for hockey and Paula Abdul. At one point, the Suns’ All-Star complemented Atlanta’s Al Horford, which then prompted Nash to send a shout out to his Dominican friends (Horford is Dominican) in Spanish.

One of the most intriguing questions came from @asdfeijadsk, who asked the Canadian superstar if he’d rather win an Oscar for directing or an NBA Championship. Nash replied, “Tough one! NBA title coz of years put in. Films aren’t black&white like ball.”

@spreaditaround asked the two-time MVP who’s the most talented teammate he’s ever played with and Nash responded that it was Amar’e Stoudemire. When @asiftherock questioned if STAT was even more talented than Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki, Nash said that Stoudemire was indeed more talented than the Maverick forward and former MVP.

If you want to check out all of Nash’s answers, head to @NBA or @the_real_nash on Twitter. For everything to do with the Phoenix Suns, head to @PhoenixSuns on Twitter.

(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)

Leandro Barbosa’s injured wrist might be inhibiting him from playing right now. It might even be preventing him from signing autographs.

But for fans attending Suns Fans Fest at The RoomStore location in Mesa this weekend, it won’t stop the former Sixth Man of the Year from posing for photos with them this Saturday. The leading man in many of Steve Nash’s comedic shorts, including the latest spoof of Avatar, will be on hand to greet fans on Feb. 6 from 1-2 in the afternoon.

Tipping off at 12:30 p.m., the event will begin with appearances from the Gorilla, Suns Dancers, Verve Sol Patrol and APS Solar Squad. The RoomStore’s address is 1661 South Alma School Rd. in Mesa.

(Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

Amar’e Stoudemire, who created a created the Each One Teach One Foundation to help at at-risk youths after arriving in the NBA, appeared on a Sports Illustrated for Kids’ radio show for a short Q&A yesterday.

The SI Kids show that featured Stoudemire, which was hosted by Professor Paul Ulane, consisted of questions that were e-mailed by listeners to the station. STAT fielded questions on a variety of subjects, including which pro players he admired growing up, which sports he played as a kid, how old he was when he first dunked a basketball and how the Suns break a zone defense.

The five-time All-Star revealed his unique middle name, why he wears the No. 1, who is the toughest player in the NBA to guard, his greatest basketball accomplishment and his favorite 2Pac song.

When Ulane asked STAT about his dreams as a kid, he told listeners, “I always dreamed of being in the NBA. That was my dream for as long as I could remember.”

After covering a variety of subjects, Stoudemire left his youthful listeners with a powerful message, “Stay in the school. Never be afraid to smart.”

You can listen to the entire segment by clicking here.

Check out the February issue of Fast Company magazine for writer Chuck Salter’s article on Steve Nash’s non-basketball business interests, which include a little bit of everything these days.

When he’s not attacking the lane or draining threes on a gamenight, look for the two-time NBA MVP everywhere — from his movie and TV cameos to social media networking and, of course, his rapidly expanding filmmaking ventures.

Before you go thinking that No. 13 is doing it all to build up his portfolio (although I can think of a lot potential employers who would jump at the chance to hire this particular 35-year-old go-getter), Nash admits that the added personal exposure can only benefit his charity foundation.

“I didn’t want the attention for a long time,” Nash said after today’s practice, “but I realized that if I wanted a foundation that could grow, I needed to realize my goals through different ventures. And those added a lot of value.”

To read the entire article in Fast Company, CLICK HERE.

To watch some of Nash’s short films, CLICK HERE.

To learn more about Nash’s foundation, CLICK HERE.

(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)

Everything that’s been wrong with the Suns is right again! At least for now.

Execution, defense, rebounding, ball handling, and energy, all the minuses that have plagued the team during its’ six-week slide, were almost magically turned into the very plusses that enabled them to get one of the oddest monkeys in professional team sports (i.e., 18 straight losses on TNT) off their backs.

Since I don’t pretend understand this team’s past, I won’t pretend to know whether this victory means the 14-3 team is back or was just making a cameo appearance. But what can be said is that it pulled the Suns back from the ledge of the cliff they’ve been teetering on lo these many losses.

A defense that has been able to make even “slows”, let alone “stops” down the stretch held the Mavericks to 16 fourth period points. The turnovers that have been killing them late?  The Suns had only two in the fourth period, leading to only one Maverick point. Rebounding? The Suns had a 37-34 edge, including 9-7 I n the fourth period.

Energy? The level hasn’t been this high, especially at crunch time, for more than a month.

As far as individual performances go, there were so many good ones it’s hard to decide where to start, but I’m going to go with the tremendous job Grant Hill did on All Star forward Dirk Nowitzki, frustrating the Maverick star all night. Dirk did manage 19 points, but that’s six below his average, and he never came close to getting his devastating game going.

Then there was Goran Dragic, who not only scored some huge points, but led a bench brigade (Dragic, Channing Frye, Jared Dudley, Louis Amundson, and Earl Clark) that twice brought the Suns back into the game. Good as his numbers (13 points and 4 of 6 shooting) were, the transfusion of instant energy he provides is even more important.

Obviously nobody told HIM the season’s is already half way down the drain. (Either that or he didn’t get the memo).

Dragic, who won’t turn 24 until May, is still very much a work in progress, and there are those who grumble the kid can’t play the point and isn’t big enough to play two guard. But he’s got spunk and he’s got a shot. And while I admit I’m not quite sure exactly what it is yet, he’s got game too.

Amundson, who is just as tireless and spunky as Dragic but not blessed with quite the talent, came up big on the boards in the clutch, blocked two shots, and contributed 7 of the team’s 28 fourth period points. And they don’t win this one without Dudley’s 8 points and 6 boards either.

In case you’re wondering about the usual heroes, Nash had 19 points and 11 assists and hit his usual quota of critical shots late, and Amare returned somewhat to form with 22 points.

Indeed, just about everybody made a significant contribution, including Coach Alvin, who I though had one of his better games.

The bottom line: There’s no such thing as a bad win, but some are better than others. And all things considered this was the best one this season.

(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)

Some would say the Suns are in the midst of an identity crisis, but what I say to that is they should be so lucky.

A much more disturbing possibility is that they know exactly who they are.

And of course there can be no doubt about WHERE they are, namely with one foot on a slippery slope and the other on an oil slick.

That this is a team that has lost its way was driven home in painful fashion when the Charlotte Bobcats completely shut down what used to be the NBA’s most fluid offense over the final 17 minutes of play… leaving the Suns to scrape and scrap even for the meager 15 points they managed in the fourth period, and looking like a team just HOPING to score in overtime.

That’s the most painful part of this painful loss.

We’ve learned to forgive the Suns their defensive and rebounding trespasses, but were confident you could always count on them for entertaining and explosive offense to ease much of the grief they cause.

True, the Bobcats, who had never won a game in Phoenix and have already clinched this year’s Jekyll and Hyde trophy (18-5 home, 3-17 road), needed a three-pointer from Stephen Jackson just to get into overtime, but even had he missed and the Suns escaped with a “W’ it would have glossed over the fact they are perilously close to free fall.

If one were looking for some crutches to lean one could note the Suns were without Grant Hill, and have been without the best of Leandro Barbosa for more than a year, and wonder out loud if there isn’t something physically wrong with Amare Stoudemire or if he is just distracted by trade rumors that surface every year about All-Star time.

Coach Alvin, for his part, had no probably pointing the finger at who to blame for this latest loss.

“Everybody,” he said. “It’s everybody’s fault. We’re just not executing.”

At this point I’m not sure which is harder to explain—the 14-3 start or the 12-18 skid that followed. I certainly didn’t see either one coming. Even with my rose colored glasses I realized they had too many deficiencies to really be a 14-3 type team over the long haul. But on the other hand, I was confident they had enough offense to keep them from ever being a 12-28 either.

So sue me for double jeopardy, or treble damages or something.

The real question, of course, is can they turn this thing back around? Or even how hard they should try? There is even grumbling they should forget about salvaging this season and concentrate entirely on the future.

Alas, at this point I don’t have an answer I’m comfortable with for either question.

Frankly I don’t see anything right now to suggest the new ceiling for this team is the seventh or eighth seed, and even those lowly rungs on the playoff ladder are slippery. And that’s certainly nothing to cling to if there are viable rebuilding blocks to be had out there.

On the other hand, writing off a season would send a damaging message to an already dwindling fan base, and as long as Steve Nash doesn’t run 45 over night there’s always the possibility one or two wins could get the team back on a faster track.

Somehow beating Dallas Thursday would be a good place to start— the operative word there, of course, being “somehow”.

It’s that time of the year again. With the trade deadline a mere month away, the rumor mill has officially begun to churn about which teams around the league are looking to make moves or trade away some of their personnel.

Fans, who are attempting their best Steve Kerr impersonation, have e-mailed me or posted comments on my blog stating what the Suns should do to improve their chances for a postseason run. And while I love the feedback and suggestions, there are several mistakes fans routinely make when they propose trades that I think should be addressed.

Let’s call it Trading 101… if you will.

First things first, players’ salaries have to be relatively close to each other in terms of pay if they are to be traded for each other. I mostly wrote this part for all of the fans who wrote in and declared that the Suns should’ve traded Shaquille O’Neal for the No. 1 pick last year.

This is an oversimplification of the rule, but for example, if you were trade a Suns player for a Clippers player, the Suns player couldn’t make more than 25 percent of the other player or 25 percent less than the other player. Or if the Suns player was being traded for two, three, or four players, it would still have to work out where the sum totals of the contracts would have to be within roughly 25 percent of each other. (If math wasn’t your strong point, don’t worry, there’s a handy little device called the ESPN Trade Machine that will let you know how legitimate or illegitimate your trade is financially.)

So, since Shaq is making a cool $21 mill this season and the No. 1 pick (Blake Griffin) is making $4.98 million, that doesn’t quite work out mathematically. However, if the Suns would have traded O’Neal for the No. 1 pick, Baron Davis and Marcus Camby, those numbers would have allowed for the trade to occur.

Now, having seen how a trade works financially, the next key is finding out if the trade would work from a basketball standpoint. Theoretically, if the Suns and Nuggets wanted to (and we have no reason to believe either team wants to), they could trade shooting guard Jason Richardson for Denver’s Chauncey Billups and the trade would work financially.

As unbelievable of a player that Billups is, the Suns are pretty well stocked up at the point guard position. It just doesn’t make basketball sense (before I get any e-mails, this is just an example people).

Finally, there’s the overall economic climate to consider and that’s where the salary cap comes into play. Since the salary cap went down this past offseason and a lot of players’ salaries went up as basketball revenue went down, teams are even more aware of exceeding the luxury tax.

In case you didn’t know, every time a team goes over the salary cap ($69.92 million), they get taxed dollar-for-dollar. That means, if a teams’ payroll amounted to $74.92 million, not only is the team paying an extra $5 million dollars out in salary, but just for the right to do so, it has to pay an additional $5 million to the league.

And as the trade deadline approaches, that should be a major consideration league-wide. So as I caught up with Kerr after practice, I inquired about the state of the team and what’s going on in his office these days.

“It’s busy because this is when teams really start to talk,” he said. “From October until December teams are trying to figure out who they are and where they’re going. By now, everybody knows who they are.”

So where does he think the Suns are?

“I think we are what our record says we are,” Kerr said. “We’re a potential playoff team. We got off to hot start, but we’ve been cold lately and I’m hoping we can develop some consistency and put together a nice stretch this month.”

Kerr noted that this is the point of the season where some teams might be giving up on their seasons and a player that was considered untouchable at the beginning of the season might be someone a team could acquire now. On the flipside, many teams believe that they’re just one piece away from winning it all.

Some teams are even showcasing certain players so other clubs may try to make a play for them.

“We haven’t done that but we’ve seen other teams do that,” Kerr said.

Kerr’s stance on trades has always been that he will make moves if he believes it will make the franchise better in the long run. He also recognizes that gaining a financial leverage is instrumental in making any sort of deal.

But for now, he’s hoping his team re-ignites to the form it displayed earlier this season.

“We need to be tougher mentally to withstand some adversity,” Kerr said. “We’ve had several guys go into shooting slumps at the same time so we need more consistency throughout the roster just in terms of guys being productive and battling through some their struggles.”

(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)

One of the bromides baseball managers find most soothing after a loss is, “Some nights you’ve just got to tip your cap to the other guys.”

And although there are no caps in hoops, let us tip ours anyway to the Chicago Bulls for a brilliant effort at both ends of the court, and fire a 21-cap salute to Derrick Rose, who has been a thorn in Phoenix’s side ever since he came into the league.

Rose not only scored 32 points, but needed only 21 shots to do it, and many of those were highlight quality. And an especially deep doff of the cap to the Bulls for bottling up Steve Nash, which is the basketball equivalent of putting toothpaste in the tube.

Nash not only had a decidedly uncharacteristic 4 for 12 night from the field, but never really was able to generate any of his patented havoc-creating penetration. Somebody, more often than not Kirk Hinrich, always seemed to be in front of him. And when he did get past that roadblock the Bulls inside people did a good job picking him up.

Perhaps the most disconcerting aspect of all this is that while the Bulls had won only four road games all year, this wasn’t one of those cases where a below .500 team somehow managed to steal one. In administering what was basically a wire-to-wire walloping the Bulls simply looked like the better team.

However, while the Bulls richly deserve full credit, this does not mean the Suns don’t deserve any blame.

Au contraire!

Defense has never been the Suns’ long suit, but this time they were flat out void, especially in the first half.

The Bulls are very athletic, but a scoring machine they are not. They came in averaging less than 95 points a game and shooting 44 per cent. Yet they torched the Suns for 64 big ones in the first 24 minutes while shooting 58 percent from the field.

And while Coach Alvin correctly noted, they did hit some tough shots, they also had a slew of wide open looks against what appeared to be a 3-2 defense— three of the Suns playing zone and two man to man.

Meanwhile the Suns, who lead the league in scoring, hit only 39 percent from the field, and the Bulls, as noted, do deserve much of the credit for that. But not all of it. There have been nights lately when the offense seemed to lose its way, and this is a luxury this defensively challenged team can ill afford.

Somewhere along the line the offense that was purring like a well-oiled machine in November has developed a few knocks, and this is perhaps the most discouraging thing about the 11-16 record since December 1. Like it or not, the way this team is put together, offense is what it has to hang its hat on.

The bottom line: There’s no need to hit the panic button yet, but it wouldn’t hurt to check just where that sucker is just in case.

Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty

This was a Must game, although assuredly not the conventional sense. This was Must as in “must not come remotely close to losing”. And given the circumstances it is not surprising that Coach Alvin sounded almost as relieved as pleased.

Coming off a four-game road bagel, losing to the lowly Nets would have turned the “sky is falling” whispers around town up to a loud roar and triggered demands to trade and/or fire just about everybody from the owner on down..

By way of driving the point home about the peculiar pressure on the Suns in this one Coach Alvin’s opening post-game remark was, “We needed this win in the worst way.” I mean, that’s like sweating out a three-inch tap-in to win a Major. And the 3-38 Nets are about as minor as it ever gets in a major sport.

So “Phew! is almost as appropriate as “Wow!” for this 24-point blowout. And indeed, the more determined gloom-and-doomers are probably grumbling in their half-empty glasses that it was a bit slow in developing.

But actually this is more about good news than avoiding the bad.

And the best of the good was the continued emergence of Robin Lopez as a positive force in the pivot. Lopez, beginning to shake free of the obscurity and rust that has been his lot since he was over-drafted two years ago, scored a career high 20 points, grabbed 7 rebounds, and did a better job on his more celebrated brother, Brook than the box score might indicate. Brook did score 26 points, but needed 22 shots to do it.

The Suns, who have fought chronic softness in the middle much of their franchise history, needs to get this kind of production from the 7-foot, 265-pound Stanford product. Granted, he’s still got a long way to go, but he’s come a lot further than many thought he would just in the last few weeks.

Drafting him so high caused people to expect too much too soon from him, and eventually he all but disappeared— which in turn caused people to expect too little from him. The position here has been from the start that he could be a productive NBA player. And it still is.

Another encouraging development last night was Jason Richardson returning to form with 26 points and 10 of 14 shooting by way of celebrating his 29^th birthday. Also, Steve Nash had another MVP night with 15 assists in just 28 minutes, and Amare Stoudemire, who will be starting for the West in the All-Star Game in Dallas next month, led all scorers with 27 points.

If you wish to asterisk these accomplishments, as in: *it was against the NETS for cryin’ out loud, be my guest. But I’ll tell you this: This is not a bad team that had a good month early but a good team that had a bad week.

The bottom line: This not a great team, or even a championship contender, but it’s not a terrible team either. And it is most certainly not a dull one. It is a good team, that, flaws and all, still figures to win in the neighborhood of 47-48 games and will be causing some grief in the playoffs.