(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)

It tells you a lot about both teams that although the Suns were not only without a key player but also without their A game that the Lakers still had to sweat out a hectic fourth period stretch to stagger away with the victory.

What it tells you about the Suns is that they very much belong in the middle of the wild scrum for playoff seeding in the top-loaded Western Conference, and what it tells you about the Lakers is that they have fallen from Super Power status into, if not the middle, at least into that scrum.

I realize there is one school of thought that the Lakers are just of bored with the regular season, and will play up to their pedigree come playoff time. But I am not enrolled in this school. The other teams in the West are just too good, and the Lakers are just not that GREAT.

Translation: They may very well win the West, but it will be a fight, not a coronation.

To give you an idea just how top-loaded the West is, by the way, the eighth seed in the East as of Thursday was at .508, the eighth in the West at .580.

Getting back to the scrum motif, this one had quite a few, with the teams taking turns playing raggedly. But what it boiled down to was that for the second time on this home stand one period doomed the Suns. Against Utah it was a 21-44 fourth. Against the Lakers it was 5 for 23 shooting in the second.

Things got wild in fourth period, which included the ejection of Coach Alvin, who had to be restrained after a non flagrant foul call on Pau Gasol. The normally loquacious coach flatly refused to discuss the incident, saying it would be up to the league to review it.

The good for the Suns is that while they didn’t shoot nearly as well as they usually do, they did play some pretty decent “D”, switching effectively between zone and man to man and keeping Kobe from being Kobe. The bad news is that they got caught between switches a few times in the third period when the Lakers built a 15-point lead.

Bryant took only 16 shots, which is practically a sabbatical for him. And while he had 10 rebounds and 8 assists, he also had 7 turnovers, and the Suns had more than a little to do with that. Not everything maybe, but more than a little.

On the other side, Amare had the big numbers (29 points, 16 boards), but the night belonged to Louis Amundson, who had 11 points, 10 rebounds, 4 blocks, and a steal, and played with enough energy to power both the Suns and the crowd. (Granted, he didn’t get the fans quite as pumped as the officials managed to, but bear in mind this is Conspiracy City).

Stoudemire had 17 of his points and 8 of his rebounds in the first period, but sat half of the second, and it seemed at times in the second half as though the Suns underwent to him at times in the second half.

Although he still seems to be bothered some by various aches and pains (and by the way you’ll never hear about them from him) Steve Nash still managed 8 assists and 14 points.

On another encouraging note, incidentally, the Suns actually more than held their own on the boards against the long and strong Laker front line, finishing with a 43-40 edge overall. They also had a 14-12 edge at the offensive end, and the second chance points were about even.

The bottom line: Disappointing loss, but hardly discouraging.

(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)

There are few things more enjoyable in pro basketball than watching the Phoenix Suns these days. And that’s coming from a guy in Cleveland.

I’m talking about the previous two-plus weeks, as the Suns have won eight of their previous 10. One of those losses came by a measly three points in San Antonio (113-110 on Feb. 28). The other was a close one against Utah (116-108 on March 4). Overall, in the past 10 games, the Suns have outscored the competition by an average score of 108.4 to 99.7. That’s almost 10 points a game, folks. That’s what we call domination. Not a bad way to go considering the world champion Los Angeles Lakers are coming to town. It comes after the Suns’ longest break of the season, a whopping five days that was much-needed.

That’s because the Suns’ guards have resembled a MASH unit lately, as Steve Nash (back, abdomen) and Goran Dragic (ankle) have been banged up. Also, Leandro Barbosa had surgery in late January to remove a cyst from his right wrist.

But, as was reported earlier on Suns.com, all three are expected back in time for the Lakers.

“I’m very hungry to come back and help my teammates,” Barbosa said. “I don’t know if I’ll have the same minutes I used to have, but I’m just going to help the team. The bench is playing great, and I just want to add to that.”

The news gets even better when you consider the frontcourt, especially Amare Stoudemire. Anyone who has been following the NBA knows all about what Stoudemire has done lately — having scored 30 or more points in eight of the previous 17 games. In the four March games, he’s averaging 27.3 points and 9.3 rebounds.

So it’s safe to say, like the entire team, Stoudemire is playing close to his best basketball when it means the most. And remember, it was less a than a month ago when it seemed like Stoudemire would get traded away. Now, he is become the type of player who could lead the Suns on a Cinderella-type run through the playoffs.

Today, the Suns are 40-25 and holding tightly to the sixth playoff seed in the Western Conference. They’re also a whisker away from stealing the No. 4 seed from Utah, and if the Suns keep playing they way they have been, they WILL steal it.

And whoever thought we would be saying that this late in the season?

L.A. BACK ON TRACK

The defending champion Lakers snapped a three-game losing streak Tuesday, having beaten Toronto on a jump shot by (who else?) Kobe Bryant with 1.9 seconds left. Interestingly, both of the Lakers’ games against the Raptors came down to a final shot by Bryant (he missed a chance to win it at the buzzer last month in Toronto.

The Suns are 1-2 against the Lakers this season, having won the last matchup back in December. Reserve forward Jared Dudley had one of the better games of his career, coming off the bench to supply his usual dose of energy and score 19 points.

The Lakers (47-18) hold a seven-game lead over the Suns in the Pacific Division. But now is the time for the Suns to make up some ground, as they play five straight, and six of their next seven, at home.

Sam Amico covers the NBA for NBA.com, and is a regular contributor to Suns.com.

(Noah/Graham/NBAE/Getty Images)

Suns All-Star Amar’e Stoudemire announced his Youth Basketball Academy for boys and girls ages 8-15 from June 7-10, 2010 at the Arizona Premier Basketball Academy in Gilbert, AZ. The Academy will run daily from 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. with an early departure on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. It is limited to the first 125 kids.

The first 50 campers to sign up will get a FREE clinic with Amar’e Stoudemire on April 15.

The Academy is great for fundamentals training and is excellent preparation for campers looking to take their game to the next level. Through out the Academy, participants will have lectures, basketball drill stations, player evaluations, games, basketball contests as well as educational sessions on diet, weight training and exercising.

“I am looking forward to my Youth Academy again this year,” Stoudemire said. “One of my favorite parts is putting the campers through some of the drills and games that I remember growing up. The camp is set up so that kids have fun while they are educated on the fundamentals of basketball.”

The Amar’e Stoudemire Basketball Academy seeks to develop a positive all around athlete on and off the court. Committed to the development of fundamental skills and technique enhancement, the Academy also gives campers an opportunity to fully realize their potential in an enriching, fun and safe environment, an environment that encourages teamwork, gamesmanship, self-confidence, respect and dedication to the game.

Campers learn ball handling, rebounding, passing, court spacing, post moves, defensive skills, and team offense. The Academy’s success springs from Amar’e’s strong dedication to the campers, providing them with a template they can use to create their own winning formulas for life.

The camp is open to boys and girls ages 8-15 and will cost $250.00 per camper, which includes a Nike t-shirt, photo with Amar’e Stoudemire, a Nike basketball and instruction from some of the top coaches in the Phoenix area.

For more information on the Youth Academy , visit www.amarestoudemire.com, email youthbasketball@amarestoudemire.com or call 480-248-6645.

Although the Lakers will be rolling into town to take on the Suns this Friday, the Suns already brought L.A. to Phoenix this past weekend. Hollywood descended upon US Airways Center this past weekend when celebrities traded in the red carpet for the hardwood in the 9th Annual Jack in the Box Celebrity Shootout.

The celebs were divided into two teams, with Team White being coached by Suns All-Star forward Amar’e Stoudemire and Team Orange being coached by Suns swingman Jared Dudley. Proceeds from the event went to Phoenix Suns Charities and Suns Nite Hoops.

Team Orange, featured actor Michael Clarke Duncan, Stomp the Yard’s Columbus Short, Malcolm in the Middle’s Frankie Muniz and actor Jamie Kennedy. Team White was led by Grammy Award-winner Common, Friday Night Light’s Michael B. Jordan, soap star Josh Morrow and Don’t Mess With the Zohan’s Nick Swardson.

The stars were introduced the way the Suns are for player introductions, with all of the players having their credits announced by in-arena-MC Cedric Ceballos. Tip-off pretty much signaled the final moment of any seriousness being displayed.

Ceballos playfully heckled the celebrities throughout the action, doing his best Michael Clarke Duncan impersonation and telling Michael B. Jordan that he should’ve dunked his layup “with a name like that.” At one point in the game, Jamie Kennedy grabbed the mic from Ceballos and announced to the crowd that fatigue had gotten the best of him and that he “was about to throw up.”

That was only in the first half.

The game was tight throughout, although Team Orange seemed to have the advantage in the paint with Clarke Duncan roaming around down low. After running out of gas two years ago in this event, the Green Mile star vowed to put himself through extensive cardio-vascular training in preparation for this year’s contest.

The 6-5 Academy Award-nominee claimed to have trained by running the Hollywood Hills with 75 lbs. of weights on his back. And it all seemed to pay off… for at least the first quarter. However, one of the greatest females ever to play the game, Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman, kept Team Orange close by using her “Lady Magic-like” court vision to feed cutters slicing to the basket.

Suns Head Coach Alvin Gentry, who seemed to have brought his entire family to the game for a pleasant day out, revealed his true motivation for his attendance in the first period when he began jeering Stoudemire and Dudley with overly-sarcastic shouts of “fire the coach” and “draw up a play!”

When Gentry was reached for comment the next day, the veteran coach reiterated his point, “They should keep their day job. I think they’re much better at being coached than coaching. But I give Amar’e props for having the best assistant coach I’ve ever seen though.”

Gentry was referring to pop star Ciara, who due to her plane being delayed, showed up early in the second half to a nice round of applause. It wasn’t quite as dramatic as Willis Reed entering Madison Square Garden’s court during the 1970 Finals, but it certainly energized the arena.

Especially, the male contingent.

“Best part of the day was Ciara coming out,” Dudley remembered fondly. “She had the outfit of the day and she was Coach of the Year.”

Atypical praise from an opposing coach, but the leather pants-wearing R&B siren was certainly well-deserving of it. So much so, that Gentry’s 8 year-old son even commented.

“My wife put on some leather pants the other day and my wife asked my son what he thought and he said, ‘Mom, those are out of style,’” Gentry recounted. “So yesterday my wife said to him, ‘Ciara has got on leather pants, I thought you said those are out of style.’ And he said, ‘Not on her mom.’”

After some sizzling performances from the Suns Dancers and the Verve Sol Patrol, the second half continued with Team White taking control. The heckling from his coach wore on Stoudemire, who decided to map out some strategies on the whiteboard.

“The play was fist-up short,” STAT explained. “We ran it to perfection and the campaign started for Common to be MVP right there.”

Common, who said that his game most resembled New Orleans guard Chris Paul’s, took over during winning time with his slashing drives to the basket and clever dishes. The hip-hop artist shined bright, with his only blemish of the day being a loss to Valley resident Frankie Muniz in a skills competition during a second-half break.

Although he was the opposing team’s coach, Dudley was quite complimentary of Common.

“Nancy had the most game, but I was most impressed with Common,” the 6-7 forward decreed. “He looked athletic out there. He was the best defender.”

Despite his wits on the court as a player, Dudley’s mental lapses as a coach may have led to his team’s undoing. Dudley flagrantly miscalculated his big man’s level of fitness, as those in attendance watched poor Michael Clarke Duncan run out of mojo down the stretch.

“He said he had done some conditioning, but we didn’t see it out there,” the Boston College alum remarked wryly. “I was trying to monitor his minutes like Shaq, but it didn’t work out.”

Perhaps the best moment of the afternoon didn’t even occur during game action. During a timeout segment called “Dancing With the Stars,” Gentry’s 8 year-old son, Jack, got the crowd’s juices flowing.

The segment consisted of four contestants having 30 seconds to dance off again each other. Gentry’s son brought the house down by pulling off an impressive robot and then besting it with his Michael Jackson-like moonwalk.

“He got that from his mom, not from me,” Coach Gentry boasted. “He messes around a little, but I never thought that he would get out there in front of the crowd and do it. He didn’t seem to be intimidated at all.

“We laughed our butt off. I didn’t think he had it in him.”

Not that it mattered, but Team Orange came away with the victory and Common took home the MVP trophy. The day was best summed up by Team White’s co-Head Coach Amar’e Stoudemire.

“I had a great time,” STAT said. “It’s always good to give back to the community and I hope we do it again next year.”

Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty

One giant step forward for Utah, one small step back for Sunkind. Or, as Coach Alvin said, “It was more what they did than what we didn’t”

But although the Jazz richly deserved Alvin’s praise for their fourth period execution (no pun intended), an autopsy of the corpus delecti, so to speak, also revealed several all too familiar self-inflicted wounds, most notably failure to hold leads, points yielded off turnovers, and inability to keep teams off the offensive boards.

The Suns had a 13-point lead in the second period and a still had 11 of it at 7:43 in the fourth, but they wound up paying the usual price for failing to really put a worthy opponent away when they had a chance, which was in periods one through three when the visitors couldn’t hit a barn door from inside the barn.

Gentry said he had a premonition of potential problems at halftime when he looked at the stat sheet and noted his team had shot 65 per cent from the field to Utah’s 40 and yet led by only eight.

That trend continued through the third period, but in what was the most impressive fourth period performance by a visiting team in recent memory the Jazz hit 68 per cent, including a crushing 7 of 11 threes, dominated the boards, and all but completely shut down the NBA’s most potent offense.

The easiest, and perhaps most comforting explanation for that 41-22 fourth period is that the Suns came down with a case of the chronic back-to-backitis virus that has been so rampant in the league this year. Or, in layman’s terms, they simply ran out of gas.

However, Gentry refused to grab this lifeline, citing it as a fact but not an excuse. Still, the Suns did seem a half step slow down the stretch. And it didn’t help matters that they not only continue to be at or near the top in turnovers, but pay a higher price for them than any other team. The tendency is to look only a turnover totals, but a more significant number is points off them — and last night-s 13-24 deficit was painfully close to normal.

It also didn’t help that the Suns were without Goran Dragic (ankle). He often provides that extra push, especially in the second period when Steve Nash usually rests, that often turns 13 point leads 23-point ones.

The bottom line: As disheartening as the loss was, it was only one game. In fact, it was only one period. The good news is the Suns are still perched on the cusp of a fourth seed in the West, their next six games are at home, and there’s even a five-day layoff in that stretch to get ready for a visit from the Lakers. Of course, on the flip side, if this was indeed a prevue of a coming first round attraction in the playoffs, Suns fans might not want to see the movie.

(Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images)

Tonight’s Phoenix Suns game against the Utah Jazz represents the 15th time this season the team has played in back-to-back games.  With the Jazz only 1/2 game ahead of Phoenix for home court advantage in the playoffs, the history of the back-to-backs this season could indicate how well the team will do. 

Stefan Swiat wrote a blog about the Suns schedule and how the team felt about back-to-backs.  Now that we’re heading into the home stretch of the season and have the majority of them behind us – while yet having some big games ahead of us – I thought I would take a look at some trends to see how we have fared.  And maybe even find some trends to watch for.

In the 14 completed back-to-back games so far this season:

• Phoenix is 10-4 in the first game
• Phoenix is 6-8 in the last game
• The team scores an average of 109.3 points in the first game; they allow 104.7 points
• They average 104.9 points in the second game and allow 109.6
• Only two of the back-to-backs have been losses in both games
• Two of the back-to-backs have had a loss followed by a win
• The final back-to-back is against current Western Conference playoff teams – Denver at home on April 13 and Utah away on April 14

Tonight’s game represents the fourth time this season where Phoenix has played an away game and then a home game the following night.  They are 3-0 in the second game in those situations – against Houston, Philadelphia and Denver) so fans should feel fairly good going into the game.  However, both teams know what they are playing for tonight and Utah hasn’t played since Monday so they are well rested.  The fact that these teams would be facing each other in the playoffs if they started today and the fact that both teams are especially strong at home should make it all the more interesting only increases the importance of this game.

What are your thoughts on back-to-backs this season and the way the Suns have played in them so far?

Our Hometown Heroes in purple and orange have 20 games left in the 2009-10 season, and in the current standings would make the playoffs with the 5th seed.  But in the Western Conference, you don’t even need to play a game to change your position in the standings so while this is up-to-date as of 9:00am on March 3, this is likely to change nearly every day. But I thought it might be fun to look at the top 8 teams in the West and who you would rather face in the first round.
In order of rankings, here are your choices:

Team	Dan Hilton	Daniel Banks
Lakers #1, 46-15	Most of the games should be in primetime because it’s the Lakers… only problem is, we would have to play the Lakers. Key player: Jared Dudley averages 14 points against the Lakers.  His season average is 8.	The showcase matchup in the NBA against arguably our biggest rival. We’ll get to see replays of the 2006 series. Octagon anyone? The Lakers are tough and with Artest on the floor you never know what could happen. It’s like West Side Story meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Mavericks #2, 41-21	We get to see Steve Nash play his former team.  But we’ll have to read a bunch of stories over and over and over again about how Steve Nash is playing his former team. Key player:  Richardson averages 20.3 points against Dallas.  When he scores more than 20 points in a game, the Suns are 18-3.	We’ve seen this team nosedive in the postseason before. Will Dirk pull another Greg Norman?  On the other hand, we’ll have to see this:
Nuggets #3, 40-21	We have already beat the Nuggets twice and they haven’t won on our home court since before Steve Nash came back to the Suns.  But Denver is a really good team and one of the times we beat them, it was without Carmelo Anthony. Key player:  Steve Nash averages 18.7 points and 9 assists against Denver.	Denver traditionally gets hot in the second half of the season and cruises into the playoffs ready to do some damage. They are dangerous, and not just because of Chris Anderson’s hair.
Jazz #4, 38-22	We have only played the Jazz once this season and lost by 9 so we’re not exactly sure what we are getting with them; they have one of the loudest home crowds in the league. Key player:  In his one game against Utah this season, Goran Dragic scored 32 points.	The Utah Jazz have a personality disorder. At home they are a formidable team, but when they go on the road they turn into a very beatable squad. If we get the home court advantage, we have them right where we want them (away from EnergySolutions Arena).
Thunder #6, 36-24	Maybe they’re just happy to make the playoffs and won’t try that hard once they get there?  Then again, Kevin Durant is averaging 37 points against us this season. Key player:  Amar’e Stoudemire averages 32.5 points and 11.5 rebounds against Oklahoma City.	Youth is a double edged sword – when the pressure of the playoffs in upon them, will their power players perform? Perhaps.
Spurs #7, 34-24	It’s the Spurs.  Somehow, we always seem to find a way to lose to the Spurs in the playoffs.  We have lost four straight playoff series to them. Key Player: STAT averages 34.5 points and 13 rebounds against San Antonio.	The Spurs are struggling this season and needed a rare missed dunk to beat us in their house. The big bad Spurs aren’t so scary anymore.
Blazers #8, 37-27	They’re currently the 8th seed and we have a better record than they do.  Then again, we have played them twice this season and lost both times. Key Player:  Grant Hill averages 15.5 points and 2.5 steals against Portland.	Unfortunately, the Blazers have more wheelchairs than wins this season. They have been decimated by injuries and have outperformed expectations. That kind of play has an expiration date.

Who do you want to face? Tell us in the comments why we’re wrong.

(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)

I’m about to say something so outrageous, you may want to order Bill Cartwright to impale me on one of his elbows. So preposterous, you may dispatch the Oklahoma City Thunder to find some lightning to strike me with. So potentially upsetting, you may want to think of Charles Barkley in a tutu just to get your mind off what I’m about to say:

I have seen the future of the Phoenix Suns…and it is on defense.

No lightning? No sign of Coach Cartwright? Thank goodness. But still, I can sense most of you are staring at this blog right now the way Neanderthals stared at the dude who hit on the whole fire thing. “What’s up with that, and what does it mean?” I’ll explain.

But first, a primer on defense for Suns fans, who haven’t really seen a team that was characterized by top-notch defense since…since…the days of Dennis Johnson? Can that be right? Good grief, I think it is. Sure, the Suns have had good defensive players since then (Shawn Marion, Mark “Started Every Game With Three Fouls” West, etc.), but they haven’t really been a squad characterized by fierce defense the way some other teams have.

But I digress. Back to the defensive primer:

1. Defense is not de thing around de parking lot.
2. Defense is not “break-time” between scoring possessions.
3. Defense involves remembering there are two baskets on the floor and that your goal is to keep your opponent from putting the ball in the hoop behind you.
4. Defense involves communication between teammates during play that goes beyond, “Nice slam, J-Rich.”
5. Defense is more than falling down and hoping for a charging call (although most teams need to learn this, not just the Suns).

You’ve seen some of these things over the Suns’ recent hot streak. There’s probably more to the concept of defense, but since it hasn’t been seen in Phoenix, really, since the early 1980s, that’s all I can remember. Why, you may ask, have I come to this conclusion, that the Suns we see down the road will be known for their defensive tenacity?

Because (cover the ears of the children and the faint of heart) I have been thinking a lot about life in a post-Nash world. Sure, the Sidewinder has been the best point guard in the NBA this season by a mile, defying anyone who says skills slip after age 30. The only thing that slips in Steve Nash is the occasional disc. But the man can’t play forever. He just can’t. I’m reasonably certain. Like, 75% certain. The Suns won’t be without him next year, and probably not the year after that. But someday. And probably sooner rather than later, relatively speaking.

Additionally, the Suns have shown they consider Amar’e Stoudemire to be a valuable commodity in trade scenarios, so it seems somewhat probable to speculate he won’t finish his career in the purple and orange, much as I’d like it to be so. And while he’s played better of late, the biggest number Jason Richardson has put up continues to be his salary, and in this age of NBA cost-cutting and labor uncertainty, that makes him a prime candidate for relocation at some point.

So, if we assume that, in three years, none of these guys (nor Grant Hill, who will be busy with his new duties as Image Director for AARP) will be in Phoenix jerseys, where does that leave the team? I, personally, have a hard time thinking free agents are going to continue to regard the Valley as the desirable destination it has been in the past. Budget conditions have changed too much in the league overall and inside the organization specifically. So we’re not likely to get a “core” guy we can build around by going that route. Who, then, from today’s team seems likely to be here?

To my mind, it’s going to be Robin Lopez, Goran Dragic, most likely Louis Amundson, probably Leandro Barbosa, maybe Jared Dudley and, if he shows something next year, possibly Earl Clark.

Not a lot of scorers in that group. LB has best shown he can be a prolific NBA scorer, but he’s famously streaky. Dragic has tantalized us with his offensive potential, but we haven’t seen enough.

But most, if not all, of those guys can play defense, and play it well. Better still, they can all improve, and they all seem like they actually enjoy playing defense. So, barring the unexpected arrival of a scoring savant in the draft, and positing that the Suns will be left with a team that doesn’t come by scoring opportunities as easily as they once did, it’s easy to conclude (speculatively) that the Suns will be a club that wins its games on the defensive end.

Now, don’t claw your eyes out. Defense can be fun! Think about it – after a Nash assist, a STAT slam, and the cheerleaders throwing t-shirts into the crowd, what’s the single most exciting event at a basketball game? No, not the Kiss Cam. The blocked shot. Crowds get absolutely juiced by a rejection. And, unless they’re thugs like the late-80s Pistons or mid-90s Knicks, defensive teams are lovable, often considered underdogs, and referred to by such fun adjectives as “scrappy.”

Defense. Possibly coming soon to a Purple Palace near you. But not before Steve Nash is done shoveling a few hundred (thousand?) more assists into capable offensive hands, and not before Amar’e throws down a few hundred (million?) more rim-wreckers. Until then, we happily live in a triple-digit world, safe from foreign concepts like defense as a team hallmark…and visions of the Chuckster in “Swan Lake.”

(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)

A look back at some trends for the Suns over the past week (February 23 through March 1):

1. The Suns outscored their opponents 546 to 507.
2. The win against the Nuggets capped a stretch of five games in seven days.  They won four of those games and their one loss was by 3 points.
3. Phoenix scored the least number of cumulative points in the 4th quarter over the past week.  They averaged 23.8 points in the 4th quarter as opposed to at least 27.2 in each of the other three quarters.  They scored 17 points twice in that stretch.
4. Amar’e Stoudemire has average 26.4 points over the past week.  Steve Nash averaged 11.25 assists over 4 games – he didn’t play in the first game against the Thunder.
5. The Suns bench averaged 26 points.  The bench of the opponents averaged 33.6 points.  This number is skewed by the Spurs whose bench scored 55 points against the Suns.  But the three players on the bench who scored were Richard Jefferson, Manu Ginobili and DeJuan Blair.  The Spurs starting five only scored 58.

One more number:

1. Lori Ann was wondering how the Suns did when the Suns scored at least 25 points in each quarter and how the team did when at least 25 points were scored in the first quarter.  So I ran some numbers.  The Suns are a perfect 11-0 when they score 25+ points in each quarter.  When they score at least 25 points in the 1st quarter, the Suns are 34-15 – a 69% winning percentage.  So if you’re looking to practically guarantee the Suns a win, root for them to score at least 25 points a quarter.

Have a numbers question yourself?  E-mail me at blog@suns.com and I’ll try to track down the answer.

Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty

You can’t say Robin Lopez hasn’t paid his dues!

Last year as a newcomer he was limited mostly to cameo appearances, and lucky to get those. And toward the end when he did get a few walk-ons you had to look really close to see even a potential second or third banana in the making. And even when he started getting somewhat bigger roles this year nobody exactly hung a star on his locker. About the nicest notices he got grudgingly conceded he “might” have a future as a defensive stopper.

But he kept plugging away, and little by little he got better and better. And lo and behold, last night they DID hang a star on his locker! And the rave notices mentioned that he was only going to keep getting better and better.

And on a night when the defense rested (dozed off actually) for the first time in the current surge, the 7-foot, 255-pound center’s  30-point, 12-rebound breakout game was the key to a 125-112 victory that was more of a struggle than that score suggests, or really had to be.

If he keeps progressing at his present pace he could develop into the most imposing post presence in the history of chronically  true center-challenged franchise (the operative word there, of course,  being “could”).

“This is really his rookie year,” said Coach Alvin, “and he’s made more progress than I could ever have imagined. He’s been working very hard, and Bill and John (assistant coaches Bill Cartwright and John Shumate) have done a good job with him too. We always felt he could help with defense and rebounding, but he’s exceeded all of our offensive expectations.”

They needed all the help he could provide at that end on a night when a defense that’s been giving opponents an unexpectedly hard time turned unexpectedly soft, giving the Clippers, who are among the league’s bottom feeders offensively, far too many good looks. (Fortunately, being the Clippers, they also launched quite a few bad shots.)

And, thanks mostly to Robin, and a late surge by the bench brigade, and the Clippers being the Clippers, the Suns stretched their winning streak to five games and moved l4 over .500, thus giving them a full head of steam for pivotal games against the Spurs there and the Nuggets here Sunday and Monday.

And although the Suns had to do a little sweating in the first three periods, the bench was solid enough that Coach Alvin was able to again sit Steve Nash out the entire fourth period — and when is the last time a Suns’ coach felt confident enough in his bench to do that? And being able to actually rest Nash down the stretch instead of just talk about resting him could loom large in the playoffs.

The bottom line: What with Amare’s 20 and Channing Frye” 15 to go with Robin’s big three oh the Suns got 45 points from the three guys who have started at center at one time or another this year. Frye’s numbers are especially encouraging because they indicate he seems to be settling comfortably into his new role coming off the bench.