Suns Not Who We Thought They Were

Sean Deveney - SportingNews.com

Few NBA teams are hotter than the Suns, who have recaptured the magic that helped them get off to a 14-3 start. After Wednesday's rout of the Clippers, Phoenix is 8-2 after the All-Star break and 13-3 since Jan. 28. But from the viewpoint of coach Alvin Gentry, few have noticed that the Suns have become a pretty good overall team.

"Everybody talks about our defense," Gentry said, "but they never talk about the fact that every time we play somebody, they must turn into the worst defensive team in the league because we lead the league in scoring. No one ever really writes about that."

All right, we're writing about it here -- the Suns are still an offensive force. But they've been a high-scoring force all along. What's behind their recent surge are some hidden secrets. Such as:

1. They're not in as much of a rush as you think. The Suns aren't the fast-breaking offensive juggernaut their reputation would suggest. They're averaging 15.7 fast-break points per game, fifth-best in the league. The Suns are scoring a league-best 109.4 points, which means they get 14.4 percent of their points on the break -- that's 10th in the league, but is a similar number to the nine teams behind them. They actually run a good deal of halfcourt offense, and they do it very well.

"Even at the start of the season, we weren't as much of a running team as we were before," point guard Steve Nash said. "We still want to be able to take quick shots, but teams know that and sometimes they are going to take away those quick shots -- and we have to find different ways to score, we have to run our plays, run our offense."

Gentry takes it further, suggesting that the Suns -- even at the peak of coach Mike D'Antoni's days -- were more efficient than fast. "I think there is a misconception," Gentry said. "The whole seven-seconds-or-less thing, I think if you go back and look at that, we didn't shoot a lot of shots early in the shot clock. Occasionally, we would get a layup after a made basket or something. But there were a lot of possessions, even during those years, where the shot clock was 10 and under or 12 and under. "

2. Defense? They can do that. Still, the Suns do play faster than most teams. The average NBA team takes 81 or 82 shots per game. Suns opponents are averaging 87.5 shots, and that disparity often makes the Suns look like a worse defensive team than they are.

"We also give up a lot of extra possessions," Gentry said. "If there are 10 extra possessions, even if you hold them to 40 percent, you are still giving up eight extra points. When you look at the points per game we give up, I don't know if it is a fair evaluation. But I tell the guys, whatever you guys want to write or say about our defense, in the locker room, we know we are getting better and playing harder. What everybody else says on ESPN or TNT is an opinion. And you know what we think of opinions."

A more accurate way to look at the Suns' defense? "Shooting percentage," guard Jason Richardson said. "We're going to give up some points with our style of play, but our offense is pretty good. So we just need to hold teams to a lower percentage than we shoot. When we focus, we are capable of doing that."

By that measure, the Suns actually are a slightly above-average defensive team. They are allowing 45.6 percent shooting, 13th in the league. In the first 10 games after the All-Star break, they held opponents under 90 points three times, something they hadn't done at all in their first 53 games.

3. Shaq is gone, but they still have centers. One of the keys to the Suns' turnaround has been the insertion of center Robin Lopez into the starting lineup, moving Channing Frye into a more comfortable role as a big sharpshooter off the bench. Lopez is a good defensive center who has shown himself to be capable of making defenses pay for cheating off him -- he scored 30 points last Friday in a win over the Clippers. Frye, who competed in the NBA's 3-point shootout during All-Star weekend, is a good outside shooter and too tough to cover for most bench units. In the first 21 games after Lopez moved to the starting five, he combined with Frye to give Phoenix 22.7 points, 10.5 rebounds and 2.0 blocks from the center position.

"I don't think either one of us is trying to do more than we are capable of doing," Lopez said. "We have to know our roles and understand where we are on the order of things as far as scoring and shots go. Amare is our top guy, we need to get him his shots. Then Steve is a great shooter, he needs to shoot. Jason is the third option. Grant Hill is a scorer. So I am not complaining about whether I am getting shots or not, but when the opportunities come up, I am trying to take advantage of them."

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