PHOENIX — For five consecutive games in US Airways Center, the Phoenix Suns looked like the 1985-86 Boston Celtics.

As the Western Conference hierarchy continued to take form Phoenix worked its way into the playoff picture and won games by way of crisp rotations, hard closeouts, solid interior defense, and relentless rebounding.

Over the course of their first five home contests following the All-Star break — all wins — the Suns allowed 89.2 points per game while holding opponents to 40.9 percent shooting from the field and 28.2 percent from three.

During that stretch they out-rebounded opponents 240 to 205, yielding an average differential of 7.0 caroms per game.

To put those numbers in perspective, Phoenix’s defensive field goal percentage, defensive 3-point field goal percentage, and rebounding differentials during those five games would all currently lead the NBA.

On Monday evening in US Airways Center, however, that Suns defense disappeared. Kevin Love and the Minnesota Timberwolves had their way with the Suns as they shot 56.2 percent from the field and made 14-of-22 triples en route to a 127-124 victory.

“We did a poor job defensively to say the least,” said Suns guard Jared Dudley, who led the Suns with 28 points and nine rebounds on 10-of-15 shooting. “We did a bad job of rebounding, pick and roll coverage we weren’t crisp at all and they made you pay.”

Kevin Love went for 30 points and five 3-pointers, Nikola Pekovic scored 24 points on 11-for-17 shooting and the Minnesota bench scored 52 points — 40 in the first half — to snap the Suns’ five-game home winning streak.

Despite the poor defense the Suns were able to hang around thanks to Dudley’s big night, 25 points, 10 assists and no turnovers from Steve Nash, and 18 points on 7-for-11 shooting from Channing Frye. Phoenix shot 51.7 percent from the field, 9-for-21 from the land of plenty, turned the ball over only seven times, got to the line 23 times and scored a season-high 124 points.

Phoenix even held a 120-119 lead with 2:20 remaining. But thanks to a Luke Ridnour runner and clutch free throws the Timberwolves surged ahead to lead 125-122. Dudley missed a wide open 3-pointer out of a timeout with 17 seconds left, Marcin Gortat misfired on two crucial free throws and the Wolves held off the Suns in crunch time.

“We played our best offensive game, if not one of our best offensive games this year and had chances, myself the three to tie it,” Dudley said. “We just couldn’t get it done.”

Added Nash: “They just made more plays than we did in the end.”

While the Suns didn’t come up with the big plays down the stretch, ultimately it was Phoenix’s non-existent defense that led to defeat. Gortat and the Suns’ front line allowed Pekovic to score 15 points on 7-for-9 shooting in the first quarter, setting the tone for what would be a dominant performance by the Minnesota frontcourt.

“Pekovic really kind of took control of the game early,” said Suns coach Alvin Gentry.

The Timberwolves’ big man dominated Gortat early and often, which led the Polish Hammer, who scored only eight points and grabbed four rebounds in 19 minutes while battling foul trouble, to admit, “I just wasn’t ready to play.”

Pekovic kickstarted Minnesota and the bench took it from there as the combination of Michael Beasley (15), Wayne Ellington (12), and Derrick Williams (12) combined to score 39 points in the first half to give the Wolves a 63-56 halftime lead.

Love, on the other hand, registered only seven points and four rebounds in the first half. But when the third quarter rolled around, the NBA’s top power forward caught fire. He scored 10 points in the third quarter and 13 in the fourth as he spread out the Suns defense and gave them no chance to recover.

“They have the best power forward in the league. I mean Kevin Love is just a tremendous player and we can’t let him do all of these things on the floor,” Gortat said. “We have to make adjustments when he starts hitting threes and starts scoring and we didn’t do that. That is one of the reasons why we lost the game.”

While Love shot 5-for-9 from distance, Ellington, Beasley and Williams also combined to shoot 8-for-10 from the land of plenty and the once-stellar Suns defense had no answers.

“It’s been a while since we’ve had a team shoot 56 percent. I don’t even know if it’s happened this year. We can’t do that,” Gentry said. “I just thought altogether we just weren’t quite there as far as rotations. We were half a step late or we missed a rotation altogether and these guys are very good offensively.”

With the loss the Suns move to 19-22 on the season and missed a golden opportunity to move into a tie with Portland for 10th place in the Western Conference. Phoenix would have also been only one game behind eighth-place Houston in the loss column and percentage points behind Minnesota.

Instead, the Phoenix defense couldn’t sustain its play and the Suns find themselves in a must-win situation against 10th place Utah on Wednesday in US Airways Center.

“They played well enough to beat us today and we have to go back to the drawing board, come back on Wednesday and beat Utah,” said Dudley, who added that his 3-point attempt was the best look he had all game.

And 1

• The Suns’ bench held up its end of the bargain on Monday, scoring 35 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. Although it took him 13 shots, Shannon Brown scored 11 points, grabbed five boards and dished out three assists. Markieff Morris also grabbed five rebounds in 20 minutes while Robin Lopez scored 10 points and hauled in three rebounds in 24 minutes. The most impressive of all was Sebastian Telfair, who scored 10 points in the fourth quarter, including a four-point play followed by a steal in the backcourt for a layup.
• The Suns lost for only the second time all season when Dudley leads the team in scoring. The team is now 6-2 in such situations. Monday was Dudley’s fifth 20-point game of the season and his sixth career scoring effort of 25 points or more.

PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns have discovered a winning formula to open the second half of the season: fall behind by double digits early but hold the opposition below 40 percent shooting and win the rebounding battle to prevail in the end.

For the third straight game the Suns did just that in their 96-88 victory over the Sacramento Kings, a win that buoyed them to a three-game winning streak four days into the second half after doing that just once the entire inconsistent first half.

“We’ve still got a huge mountain to climb, but it’s a good start for us,” said head coach Alvin Gentry. “I thought we played really good basketball. I thought we played tough-minded basketball. Defensively that’s been kind of the difference.”

The Suns are still a long way from being back in the playoff race as they sit 3 1/2 games out in 12th place in the West, but they are finally taking care of home games, coming from behind and winning with defense and rebounding.

In fact they have now won five of six home games and are a Golden State toe stub away from a six-game winning streak and real momentum heading into the rest of this daunting schedule after entering this stretch with an awful 5-8 home mark.

Although the offense these past three games has looked “rusty” early on, as Steve Nash put it, the defense has allowed Phoenix to weather those droughts.

Tonight that meant holding Isaiah Thomas to eight points on 3-for-13 shooting as well as limiting Kings stars DeMarcus Cousins (16 on 7-for-20) and Tyreke Evans (17 on 8-for-18).

Gentry lauded the work his assistants did on that end during the practices after the break, saying they have done a nice job “of putting us in a situation where our guys believe in what we’re doing.”

In addition, the Suns feel the biggest key to their defensive success of late has come down to securing a healthy portion of defensive rebounds after being so porous in this area to start the season.

The Suns outrebounded Sacramento, 53-49, in tonight’s game as Cousins pulled down his usual 14 boards but everyone else was held in check. On the flip side, Marcin Gortat (17) and Channing Frye (10) cleaned the glass for Phoenix.

“Our defense has been pretty solid for most of the year, we just haven’t been able to come up with a good percentage of rebounding at the defensive end,” Nash said. “I feel like the last three games we’ve done a much better job rebounding and closing out possessions, and it gives us a good chance to win.”

Rebounding is an interesting topic to explore because it often comes down to positioning and effort, not to mention sheer size.

The Suns have been an abysmal rebounding team the last two seasons largely due to their lack of size, so I asked Nash why he thinks they have strung together three straight solid boarding efforts in a row.

“I don’t think it’s natural for our personnel so we have to make an extra effort,” Two Time said. “ Some nights we’re just going to lose that battle, but we’ve done a great job of trying to fight for it these last three games, and hopefully we keep that up.”

The Suns also continued their second-half prowess tonight, as Phoenix has outscored its opponents by 11.2 points the past three second halves while limiting their opponents to 36.2 percent shooting. Tonight the Kings hit just one-third of their second-half attempts while Phoenix used a 15-3 spurt to open the fourth quarter to win going away.

The Suns have now overcome double-digit deficits in three straight games for the first time since November 2002 and they’ve held three consecutive opponents under 40 percent shooting for the first time since January 2008.

“It feels good and definitely we made a plan, we said that we want to get those three wins and now we have them, so we have to keep going,” Gortat said. “We’ve got a great rhythm right now.”

Now the question is whether the Suns have finally turned the corner or whether they were able to get by without their fastball on offense because they faced two tired squads in Minnesota and the Clippers as well as bad team in Sacramento.

We will find out soon as after a trip to conference-leading Oklahoma City, the Suns play six of their next seven in Phoenix, with all but one of those games coming against a Western Conference playoff contender.

If the Suns can win, say, five of those six home games just as they won five of these previous six then all of a sudden they’re right around .500 and can at least start peering over at the playoff teams from their spot in the standings.

This run is also happening just as the Suns will have to make their final decision on whether or not to trade Steve Nash. All along I’ve felt like this only could happen if Phoenix was firmly out of the playoff discussion, at which time the front office could approach him about the possibility of seriously considering offers.

If the Suns start to finally click and move up the standings, I don’t see how that necessary change of events will occur.

But that’s not what the players and coaches are thinking about after this one. Instead they are celebrating really the first time all season that Phoenix can legitimately say it’s gotten on a roll behind a productive defense, solid rebounding and an offense that’s turned it on (relatively speaking) in the second halves of games.

Now the question is whether the Suns are due for the letdown they have suffered after every previous mini-run.

“If we have any chance of getting back in the playoff picture we have to win these games and give ourselves a chance to get back in there and get to .500 and see what we can do from there,” Nash said. “Hopefully we can take care of the games we’re supposed to win and take care of home court and then try to steal a couple.”

And 1

• Nash said he “felt a lot better” tonight after struggling through Friday’s game. “I think just the inactivity,” he said. “Going from my body’s used to playing and contact, but after the seven days off that first game back was a shock to the system and the next day I really felt it. The seven days off really messed me up.”
• Gentry credited Shannon Brown for “giving us a little bit of separation” as he scored a bench-high 13 points, including seven during Phoenix’s late 15-3 run.
• Gortat joked that he only played 30 minutes because Gentry “kind of sniffed out that I was getting close to our 20 boards and he didn’t really want me to shoot the three, so that’s why he put me on the bench.” Gortat has said Gentry will let him shoot a trey if he pulls down 20 boards in a game.
• The Suns have now won three in a row when trailing at halftime and are 5-5 in their last 10 such games after dropping their first 12 when behind at the intermission. … The Suns have won their first three games after the break three times in Gentry’s four seasons, a feat only accomplished three times in the previous 18 years. …  After their power forwards combined to shoot 3-for-26 on Friday, Channing Frye and Markieff Morris made just 3-of-19 shots tonight, with Morris missing all seven of his attempts. … The Suns have won as many home games in their last six contests as they did in their first 13 home dates.

PHOENIX — Ever since training camp head coach Alvin Gentry has preached that the Suns must improve enough defensively to survive cold shooting nights.

The Suns are four games below .500 because that hasn’t happened often enough this season, but on Friday night their defense lifted Phoenix to an 81-78 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers despite an anemic offensive first half on a night that Steve Nash physically “didn’t have it,” as he put it.

“Grinded it out, we couldn’t make a shot early on,” Gentry said. “We played pretty good offense in the third quarter, but I just thought our defense is what rescued us.

“We just couldn’t get the ball in the basket but I thought we were doing everything we needed to do defensively to stay in the game.”

The Suns limited the NBA’s fifth-most efficient offense to a mere 78 points on 36.8 percent shooting. That includes an opponent season low of 14 points in the second quarter, a period won by the Suns even after scoring a mere five points in the first seven minutes.

That defensive effort allowed Phoenix to win a game in which the squad shot a stone cold 35.0 percent, the lowest field-goal percentage in a Suns win since they beat Cleveland on Nov. 1, 2002, on 33.3 percent marksmanship.

They have also now twice beaten a team when shooting below 37.0 percent this season after compiling no such wins during the past seven years (which, of course, is because the Suns rarely ever shot this poorly the rest of the Nash era).

Last season when the Suns battled the Clippers, Grant Hill found himself matched up against Blake Griffin, but tonight Gentry put him on Chris Paul — the kind of matchup switch few players in this league can handle.

Hill helped limit CP3 to 16 points and five assists on 6-for-15 shooting. Meanwhile, Channing Frye played perhaps the best game in NBA history in which the player in question clanked his way to a 2-for-18 shooting performance. That’s because Frye also tallied 14 rebounds and played tough enough defense to force Griffin into a 6-for-19 shooting night.

“I think Channing did a tremendous job today on Blake Griffin,” Marcin Gortat said. “We made him a jump shooter, so he wasn’t able to really do his dunks and drives to the basket. He did a really good job.”

Indeed Griffin, the NBA’s dunk leader, was held without a single smash tonight while his dunk brother DeAndre Jordan was limited to just one (they average more than five dunks a game combined).

As is the case with most teams, Dudley said the Suns’ game plan was to keep Griffin away from the rim, and surprisingly enough it worked.

“Channing was great,” Nash said. “He battled, he hustled, he took a lot of contact. He made it tough on him. It was key for us to try to make it difficult for him.”

That defensive effort allowed the Suns to beat a good team on a night when Nash wasn’t his usual All-Star self for physical reasons.

Two Time made just 1-of-4 shots for six points and racked up more turnovers (seven) than assists (six). Two late Nash turnovers keyed a 7-0 Clippers run that allowed Los Angeles to tie the game at 70 with four minutes remaining. Also, the former MVP has only once recorded fewer assists all season (way back on the second game of the year, when he also didn’t feel right).

“Today I felt like I was in a car wreck yesterday,” Nash said. “I just tried to have a great attitude and just be there for my team and hang in there and not get down.”

It’s no surprise that the Suns were pretty horrid offensively on a night when Nash wasn’t right considering what he means to that side of the ball.

It’s once again a testament to the defense that Phoenix could win a game without Nash directing the offense like the maestro he is, especially on a night when the power forwards combined to shoot 3-for-26 (the rest of the team by comparison wasn’t so bad at 48 percent).

Based on how lethargic the Clippers seemed to play, though, I don’t think we can count on Phoenix beating many good teams without Nash playing at his optimum level.

The Suns finally broke out of their doldrums during their 31-point third quarter outburst (at least for this game when the Suns scored 17, 15 and 18 in the other three quarters, this was an outburst).

Hill said the team was actually encouraged going into halftime because the players felt they shot horribly on good looks but that their luck was bound to change in the third quarter, as ended up being the case.

Gentry echoed that thought, saying the strong third quarter was just a case of the Suns making shots they missed in the first half.

“It’s just that simple really,” he said. “We had the same shots that we had in the first couple of quarters. We also picked up the pace of the game a little bit, too, and when we play with pace we seem to be able to catch the ball in rhythm a little bit more and shoot the basketball.”

After overcoming double-digit deficits in consecutive games against good teams, the Suns have now won four of five as they seek to make one last playoff push before the trade deadline.

The Suns surely are not good enough defensively to string together too many more wins in this fashion as if they were the Boston Celtics, but Gentry had no issue with winning one of the uglier NBA games you will see.

“It wasn’t a real pretty game, but I don’t really care,” he said. “We have to learn to grind out games and be able to win scoring 81 points.”

And 1

• Gentry opened his presser with this great quip: “My only reference to Jeremy Lin is this right here. I just told Channing Frye he is no Jeremy Lin, and by that I mean the last foul that he made. He is no Harvard grad on that one.” Frye fouled Griffin on a made basket in the final seconds with Phoenix leading by six at the time.
• Before the game, Gentry downplayed Phoenix’s victory on the boards over Minnesota, saying it’s just one game. He wanted to see what his squad could do against another excellent rebounding club in the Clippers. Mission accomplished as the Suns outboarded Los Angeles 52-46, led by Frye and Gortat both with 14. “I think we killed them on the glass,” Gortat said.
• The Suns improved to 68-1 in franchise history when holding opponents below 80 points. They have already done so four times this season, a mark they have not exceeded since 2002-03. … The Suns have won 12 of 13 against the Clippers, including nine in a row at home … Gentry is 10-1 as the Suns’ head coach against his former team. … One last Gentry joke: “We might bring Clipper Darrell in, we’ll bring him in on a 10-day and take a look.”

PHOENIX — Through two and a half quarters, the Phoenix Suns seemed to be cruising to an easy win on their third consecutive game night behind some torrid shooting and a zone they mixed in to throw off Atlanta’s offense.

The Suns’ zone worked well enough that the Hawks decided to give it a try as well, and immediately Phoenix’s top shooting night of the season was no more.

“I thought the turning point was we just couldn’t seem to get anything going against their zone,” said head coach Alvin Gentry. “We had shots available, couldn’t knock them down.”

Added Jared Dudley, “That’s what we did to them so kind of funny that they did that right back to us.”

But it wasn’t so funny for the Suns’ offense.

The Hawks switched to a zone midway through the third with the Suns leading by double digits and Phoenix’s hold on the game ended there. The Suns still led by five three minutes into the fourth but a 12-0 Hawks spurt during a four-minute Phoenix fourth-quarter drought led Atlanta to tonight’s 101-99 victory.

Steve Nash said the zone threw off the Suns’ rhythm as players received looks they weren’t accustomed to since the team has not faced much zone. In turn the offense looked a bit lost without the pick and roll to fall back on in crunch time.

The whole purpose of a zone is to see if a team can makes shots, as Gentry said. If a team makes a few shots in a row — as the Hawks did — you switch back to man, as the Suns did. But the Suns never could knock down those critical shots to force Atlanta back to man and thus they followed a scorching 59.1 percent shooting first quarter with 42.9 percent shooting in the fourth.

The turning point of the game revolved around the zone as well, but not the way you might think.

After Josh Smith scored a bucket and got fouled with 7:38 left, Nash noticed Kirk Hinrich calling double fists, which is the sign for Atlanta’s zone defense. He sauntered over to the sideline and mouthed that to Gentry before asking what zone offense to run.

Before Smith could step to the line for his foul shot, the whistle sounded and Nash was blindsided with a technical foul that he protested vociferously, later saying the official thought he said, “They’re horrible.”

“It’s just unfortunate that he misinterpreted what I said,” Nash said. “It was just a tough break that changed the momentum.”

The Hawks took the lead on the technical shot and Smith’s subsequent free toss and never gave it back, although they came awfully close to giving the Suns a chance to tie down two with 2.1 ticks remaining when Smith threw a length of the court pass that Willie Green ran down to prevent Phoenix from getting the ball under its own basket.

If that script sounds familiar then it should because it’s the same story that played out Monday in Oakland when the Suns blew a double-digit lead midway through the third and then trailed throughout the fourth, and it’s very similar to the Rockets game last Thursday when a late seven-point advantage quickly evaporated.

“It sounds like it’s Groundhog Day all over again,” Dudley said. “We had a lead, a double-digit lead, and they came back. It’s happened a little too often, we’re having these dry spells of scoring. It happened obviously today, it happened obviously in Denver, it happened in Golden State. We’ve got to find ways to score. I think the dry spells killed us. We let a team that talented hang around, they’re going to come back to bite us.”

The Suns still hit 53.6 percent of their shots overall, but that’s only because they were on pace for a season-best shooting night through three quarters. The offense bogged down when it counted and then they could not stop Smith at the other end, as the talented swingman filled the box score with 30 points, 17 rebounds, seven assists, four steals and three blocks on 12-for-23 shooting.

The decision to rest Nash and Hill sure seemed to pay off, as Two Time exploded for 22 points and 16 assists, making him the league’s only player with multiple 15-15 games this season.

Hill looked spry on the offensive end by scoring 18 points (one short of a season high) on 8-for-11 shooting, but his most impressive accomplishment must be holding Joe Johnson to six points on 2-for-10 shooting (and at least one of those shots wasn’t on Hill) after limiting Tyreke Evans and Monta Ellis to a combined 6-for-29 on the trip.

Nash said that although he wants to play every game, taking a breather every now and again is smart because usually injuries like Chauncey Billups’ torn Achilles come from “a cumulative effect of fatigue.”

With the loss the Suns once again were left to lament their home struggles, as they have now lost six of eight at home to fall to 5-8 in US Airways Center, the second-worst home mark in the West and the worst of any team with fewer than 22 losses (the Suns have 18).  By contrast, Phoenix is the West’s seventh-best road team.

“I think that’s the biggest thing for us,” Gentry said. “We’ve played good enough basketball on the road that if we were playing like we are supposed to at home then obviously our record would be so much different and we’d be right in the middle of the playoffs. But, you still got to play them and still got to win them at home. I don’t know why we just seem to struggle at home.”

It’s hard to say, but we know this latest home loss capped a devastating stretch of three losses in three days, a stretch Dudley laments since two of those games were so winnable.

Yet the Suns once came up empty at home after a fourth-quarter drought against Atlanta’s zone spoiled an overall solid performance.

“It’s one of those deals where we played good basketball for 35-38 minutes, but it’s a 48-minute game,” Gentry said.

And 1

• Dudley on the three games in a row stretch: “Definitely difficult mentally as well as physically.”
• Bret LaGree from Hoopinion in the Daily Dime: “That was … feast or famine: Great as Nash was with the ball in his hands, whenever one of his teammates put the ball on the floor, it was an adventure. Nash put up a shot, got fouled, earned an assist, or committed a turnover on 38 of Phoenix’s 96 possessions, leading to 56 points. Phoenix scored just 43 points on the other 58 possessions, turning the ball over 16 times.”
• The Hawks ended a five-game losing streak against the Suns and snapped a four-year run of losses in the Valley. Such streaks seem to be ending quite often this season.
• Shannon Brown and Hakim Warrick went back to not playing after getting some burn last night in Denver.

Jared Dudley's double-double helped the Suns knock off the red-hot Kings. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

The Sacramento Kings came into Saturday night’s game against the Phoenix Suns as one of the NBA’s hottest teams.

Winners of four of their last five with victories over the Thunder, Trail Blazers, Warriors and Hornets, the Kings’ offense was rolling, averaging 99.8 points per game during that stretch — good for fourth in the NBA.

The trio of Tyreke Evans, Marcus Thornton and DeMarcus Cousins accounted for 56.0 of those points and the NBA’s youngest team already began talking playoffs.

But it was the Suns who looked like the playoff team on Saturday as they stifled the Kings’ offense en route to a 98-84 victory, their fourth win in five games.

“It was a great win for us,” Suns head coach Alvin Gentry told Suns.com. “This team (Sacramento) has been playing great basketball for a while now. Keith (Smart) has been doing a great job with these young guys. For us to play from start to finish like that was great for us.”

Phoenix limited Sacramento to 35.1 percent shooting while collecting 11 blocks and eight steals, resulting in 16 Kings turnovers. While Cousins and Thornton ended up getting their numbers with 26 and 21, respectively, Grant Hill took Evans completely out of the game. The 6-foot-6 athletic point guard was a non-factor in Power Balance Pavilion as he shot 1-of-9 from the field for only four points and four turnovers in 30 minutes.

“We were going up against a team that was pretty solid and highly trained to guard,” Smart said. “I thought that Grant Hill did a great job of trying to create space and keep us out of the paint.”

Evans came into Saturday’s game averaging 19.4 points, 5.4 assists and 4.4 rebounds in his last five games, but none of that mattered to Hill, who kept the 22-year-old on the perimeter where he’s far less dangerous. Hill doing a number on Evans is nothing new. The 39-year-old put the clamps on Evans last year as well when he limited the Memphis product to 14.0 points and 3.5 turnovers on 35.1 percent shooting.

It wasn’t only Evans who the Suns locked down, however. No player aside from Cousins and Thornton scored more than eight points and the Suns’ defensive rotations were crisp while the interior defense refused to give ground as well — Marcin Gortat finished with four blocks and Markieff Morris racked up three.

The Suns capped those stellar defensive possessions with solid work on the glass. One game after getting outboarded 44-31 by the Rockets, Phoenix held the NBA’s third-best rebounding team to a 42-38 advantage that proved just enough for the Suns to seal the deal.

Phoenix jumped out to a 31-24 lead at the end of the first quarter and didn’t look back from there as the Suns never trailed in the game and led by as much as 17. While it was the defense that clamped down against a high-powered offensive squad, the Suns’ offense more than held up its end of the bargain.

They drilled 50.0 percent of their field goals, scored over 20 points in every quarter for the first time in five games, received 35 points from a bench that was missing in action against Houston, and dished out 27 assists on 39 buckets, 15 of which came from Steve Nash.

Nine different players scored for Phoenix and four finished in double figures, but no one was bigger than Jared Dudley. The crafty swingman was everywhere in 37 minutes of play as he scored 20 points, grabbed 10 boards, drilled three triples, and collected two steals and two blocks, all while shooting 8-of-13 from the field.

Channing Frye also continued his hot streak as he scored eight first-quarter points and eventually finished with 17 on 6-of-12 shooting in only 27 minutes. Frye is now averaging 15.4 points and 5.6 rebounds on 47.0 percent from the field and 40.0 percent form distance in his last five games.

Gortat was rock solid once again with 15 points, seven boards and four blocks in 36 minutes while missing only three shots from the field. The usual suspects contributed and although a lot of it came with the game in hand, Morris went for a career-high 18 points, six boards and three blocks in 26 minutes of play.

From offense to defense to consistency, this was one of the Suns’ best 48-minute performances of the season. The Kings have given the Suns major problems in the past, but thanks to Hill’s perimeter defense, Phoenix’s interior presence, Dudley’s first double-double of the year, Nash’s vision and Frye’s shooting the Suns picked up a much-needed win and are gaining steam as they prepare to round out their road trip in Golden State and Denver next week.

“I definitely think this was a top three performance for us this season,” Gentry said.

And 1

• Nash received four stitches on his lip after receiving an inadvertent backhand to the face from rookie point guard Isaiah Thomas late in the first quarter. Nash sat the entire second quarter but went on to play 29 minutes and finish in double-digit assists for the firth straight game.
• Former Suns great and current Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson sat courtside at the game sporting a neutral purple shirt.
• Ronnie Price found his way off the pine to play 13 minutes and score six points on 3-of-3 shooting. Prior to Saturday Price hadn’t made a field goal in five games.
• Hakim Warrick and Shannon Brown remained out of the rotation. Warrick has missed the last five games while Brown hasn’t played in the last four.

The Suns held Amare Stoudemire to 7-of-22 shooting on Wednesday night. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

It’s no surprise to see Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony have inefficient shooting nights.

Even Spike Lee would admit that STAT (40.8 FG%) and Melo (41.1 FG%) are high-volume chuckers with awful shot selection.

But it was somewhat shocking to see a Phoenix Suns team that just allowed 118 points to the Derrick Rose-less Chicago Bulls hold Amare and Carmelo to a combined 35 points on 12-of-44 shooting and seven turnovers in Wednesday night’s win.

Yes, the Suns team that let Carlos Boozer and C.J. Watson combine for 54 points on 22-of-33 shooting on Tuesday essentially shut down Carmelo and STAT, on the tail end of a back-to-back nonetheless.

And Anthony and Stoudemire are the type of players who usually give the Suns problems.

Amare averaged 32.0 points in two games against the Suns last season, while Carmelo posted 16.7 points and 11.7 boards in three contests. They would take advantage of Phoenix’s lack of an interior presence and minimal perimeter defenders. But not this time around.

So how were the Suns able to stonewall Amare and Melo and regain the defensive form they had earlier in the season? Here’s an in-depth look at how the Suns handled each player:

Amare Stoudemire

Marcin Gortat and the Suns’ weak-side defense made Stoudemire look like a shell of the player who barreled down the lane for highlight dunks in US Airways Center for eight seasons.

Gortat, Robin Lopez and Channing Frye combined to block four of Amare’s shot attempts as they anchored the paint and turned STAT into a jump shooter. The Suns’ bigs held Amare to 2-of-5 shooting at the rim, where he shoots 64.1 percent on the season, and 2-of-8 shooting from 3-to-9 feet.

Phoenix turned away both of Amare’s dunk attempts and forced him to shoot seven shots between 16 and 23 feet, where he made only two. The Suns took Amare completely out of the game in crunch time as the explosive power forward didn’t attempt a shot in the final 4:48. Here’s a look at Gortat and the Suns’ defensive performance against STAT:

The Suns forced Stoudemire into six turnovers, mostly because of help defense and Gortat’s ability to stay in front. Here Markieff Morris is on Amare but gets caught in the pick and roll. Gortat rotates over to pick up STAT, giving Morris time to recover and trap.

With Nash dropping down to take Chandler, a new wrinkle in the Suns’ defense with Elston Turner, Stoudemire has to drive baseline where Gortat holds his ground and forces STAT to step out of bounds.

Although the play above isn’t out of the pick and roll, Gortat does the same thing here as he keeps Stoudemire from turning the corner along the baseline. STAT gets caught in mid-air and turns it over. Great individual effort by Gortat.

After proving he can stay in front of Amare, Stoudemire opted to run through Gortat on the two plays above. But Gortat does a great job stepping in to take the charge, one play in help position and one playing on-the-ball defense.

More great help defense here as Gortat sends away STAT’s layup attempt. Frye does a poor job recovering to Stoudemire out of the pick and roll, which gives Amare an open lane to attack. But Gortat steps over and meets STAT on the other side of the rim to pick up the block.

Chalk this up to stellar man-to-man post defense by Gortat. He doesn’t bite on the spin, stays with Stoudemire and contests Amare’s airball. Gortat’s footwork and physicality allowed him to best Amare in one-on-one situations.

Here Amare tries to take Gortat at the end of the first half. Gortat keeps Amare in front until Frye does a great job stepping over to double STAT as he gets his shot blocked to close out the half.

This is where the Suns have been lacking in the past. Usually, Amare would blow by Hakim Warrick — as he does above — and throw it down along the baseline. But Lopez is in perfect position to slide over and meet Amare at the rim. The Suns have been hurting for weak-side defense and shot-blocking, but they flaunted exactly that against the Knicks.

This was Stoudemire’s last shot of the game, a runner to his left that didn’t draw iron as Gortat and Frye were in his face. STAT took a few questionable shots on Wednesday night, but to hold him to 0.68 PPP after Boozer torched the Suns gives Phoenix and its interior defense hope moving forward.

Carmelo Anthony

Locking Stoudemire down was impressive, but the number Hill and company did on Anthony was even more admirable. The 39-year-old forced Melo into 12 points on 5-of-22 shooting, his worst clip of the young season.

Hill contested every one of Carmelo’s patented mid-range jumpers and often pushed him off of his spot, forcing him to operate from unfamiliar areas. The Suns also did a great job swarming Anthony on the block or out of the pick and roll.

Anthony made only 3-of-8 shots at the rim, his second-worst percentage all season as he shoots at a 67.2 percent clip at the hoop. Melo also missed all four of his attempts from 3-to-9 feet, forcing him into a jump shooter. But with Hill in his grill, Anthony shot a porous 1-of-7 between 16 and 23 feet and made one of his two triples. Here’s a look at Hill and the Suns’ defense on Melo:

The Suns did a great job forcing Melo out of rhythm, which they did here as Gortat and Hill trap Anthony out of the pick and roll, moving him near halfcourt before he can go into his offense. He beats Hill off off the dribble but Gortat steps over and helps as Anthony’s shot isn’t close. Driving floaters definitely aren’t Carmelo’s bread and butter, so that’s a win for the Suns.

This time Hill forces Melo out of position by himself. Anthony tries to post up at the left elbow and go to work against the 39-year-old. But Hill fronts Carmelo and eventually pushes him off of his spot, forcing Anthony to operate just inside the three-point line. Melo jacks up a contested jumper with Hill right in his face and misses short.

Hill battles Carmelo in the post again above. Gortat shadows Anthony as Hill gives up no ground, forcing Melo into a bad shot that misses short. Another great individual effort by Hill.

On this play Melo has good post position against Hill. But Frye realizes that and comes down to help. With Frye on the high side Hill cuts off the baseline, giving Anthony nowhere to go but down. He falls and the Suns take over possession.

Carmelo finally gets into the lane here out of the pick and roll. But Frye, who’s laying back in help position as he plays both Melo and Chandler, blocks Anthony’s shot at the rim. Anthony is able to grab the ball and put it home eventually, but this play shows how nothing came easily for Anthony and the Suns swarmed him early and often.

The Suns’ offense and defense have stalled late in games so often this season, but not against the Knicks. With New York needing a bucket down five, Hill again gives Melo no daylight as he has to double-pump on his jump shot that misses well short.

It’s one thing to take away STAT’s post game, but to also limit Melo to 0.5 PPP is a testament to Hill and the Suns’ defensive potential when they’re right. The Suns may never be the Celtics or Heat on the defensive end, but to shut down both Carmelo and Amare is encouraging moving forward.

Steve Nash, Grant Hill, and Shannon Brown celebrate Brown's late 3-pointer. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Steve Nash outdueled ex-teammate Amare Stoudemire and the Phoenix Suns got a hard-fought victory Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, 91-88. Nash scored 26 points, dished out 11 assists, and hit six free throws down the stretch to seal the game, which was tight all the way to the final buzzer.

After taking the night off defensively against Chicago, the Suns team defense came roaring back in New York. Carmelo Anthony was held to just five points through the first three quarters and ended with just 12 for the game. All the credit for Anthony’s struggles from the field goes to Grant Hill who spent all of his team-high 38 minutes attached to Carmelo’s hip.

Hill said on the Suns’ postgame show about his defense on Carmelo, “I just tried to make him work…We really just defensively tried to make it difficult for him.”

“We won ugly,” Hill added. “That’s not normal for the Phoenix Suns historically. The main thing is we got the win.”

The Suns double-teamed Carmelo several times with Gortat. Their defensive rotation looked great as there was always a defender near the otherwise open Tyson Chandler. The Knicks were not able to skip or swing the ball for perimeter jumpers effectively, shooting only 4-for-15 from beyond the arc.

Stoudemire also struggled from the field due in large part to the Suns extremely physical play inside. Stoudemire was held to 7-for-22 from the floor, but did convert 9-of-10 from the free throw line.

At times, the Suns’ interior defense looked like the Knicks teams of old with Anthony Mason and Patrick Ewing bludgeoning anyone who came into the lane. The tone was set early by Channing Frye who took Tyson Chandler to the floor with a hard foul eight minutes into the first quarter. The 7-footer trio of Frye, Gortat, and Robin Lopez handed out 10 personal fouls and had all eight of the Suns’ blocks. No surprise, New York had 14 more free throw attempts than Phoenix.

Marcin Gortat played well on the offensive end of the floor as well, recording his 6th straight double-double with 11 points and 12 boards on 5-for-13 shooting. Nash and the Suns looked for Gortat early and often with mixed results. Gortat had five turnovers in the game and at least two of Nash’s three turnovers were the result of a pass intended for the big man from Poland.

Gortat’s scoring confidence is still building as the season progresses. Thus far in the year, two things are clear. First, his jump shot is much better from the center of the floor than it is from the baseline. Second, he needs to learn to attack away from double teams or attack quickly before the double can arrive if he wants to be an efficient low-post scorer. Because head coach Alvin Gentry has shown so much confidence in the center, it is likely he will be able to make these adjustments and continue to improve.

One of the reasons the Suns were able to find Gortat open so much was because of the Knicks’ defense on screens. On both pick-and-rolls and off-the-ball screens, the Knicks switched, allowing the Suns to attack mismatches. The Suns were able to convert many of these chances into points, although Knicks’ rookie point guard Iman Shumpert did have four steals, most of them stripping Phoenix big men he had switched on to because of a screen.

Shumpert had a great night offensively as well, scoring 20 points in the game and 12 in the fourth quarter alone including a pair of threes late that kept the Knicks close. Shumpert showed his speed early in the game, so Nash played well off of him, allowing Iman to shoot over the outstretched arms of the Suns’ point guard.

Shumpert’s backcourt partner, Landry Fields, also had a great night. He scored 17 points, including nine in the third quarter. Fields was able to use his size to and speed to score pretty much at will against the not-so-great defense of Shannon Brown and Ronnie Price. Price got the start at shooting guard in place of Jared Dudley.

Markieff Morris also got his first start as a pro in place of Channing Frye. Coach Gentry told Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic about the lineup moves, “It’s not really a demotion. We went back and looked and right now we’re No. 27 in the NBA in second-quarter points. We’ve got to get that unit to the point where we’re at least playing even and not playing from behind.”

Morris logged only five minutes in the game. He picked up two early fouls guarding Amare and did not return because of illness. Frye was the power forward on the floor to start the second half.

Frye’s shooting stroke looked great as he connected on 3-of-4 from beyond the arc.

The Suns were able to keep pace in the tightly-contested fourth quarter thanks in large part to Shannon Brown scoring nine of his 14 points in the fourth quarter. Brown got an incredible shooter’s bounce on a corner three which put the Suns up 85-80 with 35 seconds left. From there Nash’s free throws sealed the win despite long threes by Anthony and Shumpert on the other end.

Hill contributed offensively for the Suns in addition to his stout defense. After struggling mightily in the first half with his shot, Hill ended the game with 14 points on 6-for-15 shooting.

The final score seems quite odd when you consider that both teams were among the league leaders in offensive efficiency last season. Former Suns coach Mike D’Antoni certainly has some work to do as the Knicks have lost four straight games. The Suns, on the other hand, snapped a five-game losing streak and got a much-needed win on this incredibly taxing five-game road trip against five of last season’s playoff teams.

If the Suns can bring this level of physicality and defense to Boston on Friday, they could easily pull out another win. If not, it won’t matter if Steve Nash goes for 20-plus points for the fourth game in a row, the Suns will still come up wanting.

And 1

•  Carmelo Anthony started the game just six points away from 15,000 for his career. He didn’t eclipse that plateau until the 1:47 mark of the fourth quarter.

• Michael Redd did not see any action in the game. It was his first DNP-CD since his season debut against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Marcin Gortat could not have been pleased with the Suns' defensive effort. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

The Phoenix Suns shot better than 50 percent, stayed close on the boards and received a superstar offensive performance from Steve Nash yet the Chicago Bulls still found a way to wallop them even with their All-Star point guard in street clothes.

The Suns managed to score 30 more points than the Bulls were allowing on their home floor, yet the defense broke down in their 118-97 loss, Phoenix’s fifth consecutive defeat.

Even without Derrick Rose, the Bulls throttled the Suns’ defense to the tune of a 126.9 efficiency and that’s counting a fourth quarter of garbage time. For the season previously with Rose missing just two games the Bulls scored 101.8 per 100.

During their five-game losing streak, the Suns’ defense has suddenly reverted to old form, yielding offensive ratings of 120.9, 111.2, 108.6 and 104.1 before this horrific 126.9. By comparison, Orlando’s league-leading offense entered the day with an efficiency of 107.1.

The Phoenix defense’s stay in the top 10 was all too short, as it entered the day ranked tied for 21st before continuing to free fall Tuesday night in the United Center.

“The big difference was we just didn’t slow them down,” said Suns head coach Alvin Gentry. “We are not the Phoenix Suns of old. We need to slow down and guard them more closely. We just need to play closer to players like Boozer. We just can’t go out and say on their jump shots ‘make them and beat us.’ We need to defend better, we need to be more physical especially on our rebounding. We also need to communicate better on our defensive rotations.”

Carlos Boozer was the main perpetrator on this night as he got hot from the perimeter and torched the Suns for a season-high 31 points on 14-for-21 shooting, including 26 in the first half alone. C.J. Watson was superb in relief of Rose by contributing 23 on 8-of-12 shooting and all the Chicago starters scored in double digits.

On the bright side the Suns’ offense was actually quite good as well in the early going, scoring 31 points in the first quarter alone, which is about half of what the Bulls had been given up during home games all game … yet they still found themselves trailing by eight due to the porous defensive effort.

Their offense slowed a bit in the second quarter but the Bulls kept right on clicking and the Suns were buried from there.

“We just played catch up all night,” said Gentry, whose team still managed to score 23 more points than any other United Center visitor despite 19 turnovers. “That is really tough to do against a good team like this. They just had control of the game from halftime on.”

Nash played about as good an offensive game as a point guard can, exploding for 25 points on 10-for-13 shooting while dishing nine assists in 30 minutes of play before sitting out the fourth. However, he did turn the ball over five times and somehow left with a team-worst -26.

Aside from Nash, the Suns received superlative performances from their centers, and that’s about it. Marcin Gortat and Robin Lopez split the center spot’s 48 minutes and produced 30 points and 21 rebounds, including all but 17 of Phoenix’s total rebounds (no other player grabbed more than four), with Gortat going for 14 and 15 and Lopez 16 and six on 6-for-7 shooting in 17 active minutes.

Nash and Gortat playing excellent ball without getting much help has become the story of the losing streak, but Lopez scored more than five points for the first time since the season’s opening week in his best game of the season since the opener.

Ronnie Price fed him an early layup, and from there his activity level was off the charts. During one fourth quarter sequence he blocked a Taj Gibson shot and then ran down to nail an open jumper of his own as the trail guy, and another time he darted through the lane to tip in a teammate’s miss as he so seldom did last season. Lopez was a true difference maker during both of his stints on the floor tonight.

Usually a Suns loss in Chicago would be chalked up to nothing other than the Bulls’ elite status, but a confluence of circumstances seemed to give Phoenix a chance.

Most importantly, the Bulls ran without the reigning MVP of the league, and they were playing on consecutive days after getting routed by Memphis the day before without Rose while the Suns enjoyed a day off in Chicago. Yet the Bulls played like the well-rested team.

“For a team missing their best player and a team that played yesterday they sure came out with a lot of energy,” Grant Hill said. “They played harder than us. They played like the team in the Eastern Conference with the best record. We didn’t come out with that same intensity level. If you’re not going to play that hard, you’re going to get embarrassed like we did tonight.”

If Elston Turner cannot fix what’s ailed the Suns’ defense during their now five-game losing streak, there could be many more embarrassing nights ahead of them.

And 1

• Steve Nash earned votes in a wide variety of categories in the annual NBA GM survey that came out today. He was voted the player with the best basketball IQ and also ranked second for best passer behind Chris Paul and for best international player behind Dirk Nowitzki (although the German won in a landslide). He ranked third for does the most with the least (Jared Dudley also got votes) and tied for third for best leader. Nash and Hill tied for fourth for active player that will make the best head coach as well. Markieff Morris was the only other Sun to receive a vote, ranking fifth for Rookie of the Year.
• Former Sun Zabian Dowdell failed his medical tests and thus his contract to play for Turkish powerhouse Anadolu Efes Istanbul has been voided, according to Sportando. This is just another piece of misfortune for Dowdell, the Suns’ former backup point guard, who has experienced more than his share of tough luck in his professional basketball career.

The Suns' defense limited the Hornets to 28.9 percent shooting. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

It came against a New Orleans Hornets squad missing its leading scorer that won’t remind anybody of the Seven Seconds or Less Suns even at full strength following the Chris Paul trade.

But for the Phoenix Suns – the Phoenix Suns – to hold an NBA opponent to 28.9 percent shooting for an entire game is quite the accomplishment, and that’s exactly how the Suns won their first game of the season, 93-78 over the Hornets.

It’s a bit early to start crowning Elston Turner as a defensive savant, but it’s impressive nonetheless that the Suns’ defense recorded its second-lowest defensive field goal percentage since 1985-86 and the best in the NBA since the start of the 2010-11 season. The Hornets made just 26-of-90 shots, including 3-of-14 from long distance, as the Suns posted a defensive efficiency of 86.7, 10 points per 100 possessions better than what the Bulls’ NBA-leading defense averaged last season.

“More than anything, I liked the defensive part of it,” head coach Alvin Gentry told reporters. “I think we did a great job of challenging everything at the rim, and we did a good job for the most part controlling dribble penetration. The only thing that we have to get better in is that we can’t give up 24 offensive rebounds, but we’re not a great rebounding team and we’re not a team with great size. I thought we fought for some of them (rebounds) but we just didn’t come up with them. To hold a team to under 30 percent shooting is something that’s really good for us. It wasn’t our offense, it was our defense that won the game.”

The Suns weren’t fantastic offensively on this night, shooting just 42.3 percent from the floor, but they weren’t bad either, scoring a season-high 103.3 points per 100 possessions. They pushed the tempo just enough to run out to 17 fast-break points and played with more rhythm than they did in their previous pair of losses.

Perhaps this game signals a shift in how Phoenix must win games. If the offense does not return to its formerly elite levels, the Suns may need their defense to be better than the mediocre unit they required in previous years to be a playoff team. On this night it was exactly that.

Last year one of the Suns defense’s biggest weaknesses was securing offensive rebounds, and that was the case tonight as well as Phoenix yielded 24 offensive boards, more than the Hornets pulled down in any game last season. Of course, there were many missed shots to rebound, but on most nights such a high offensive rebound total would likely thwart Phoenix’s chances of victory.

The Suns received a huge shot in the arm off the bench from both Hakim Warrick and Shannon Brown. Warrick, the team’s leading scorer entering the night, scored a game-high 18 points and pulled down seven boards in 25 minutes of play, eight minutes more than any other reserve. Brown gave the team a burst of energy with 11 points in 16 minutes, providing an electric scoring presence off the pine for the first time this season.

It’s interesting that Warrick went from a DNP-CD to 57 minutes the last two games during which time he has averaged 16.0 ppg, more than five points better than the next closest Sun. With Phoenix struggling to score so badly his ability to put the ball in the basket is a big boon to the bench.

Meanwhile, Markieff Morris picked up two fouls in one minute in the first half and never returned and Josh Childress played only 11 minutes. Considering how well Morris played in the opener against the Hornets, I would have liked to have seen him out there longer, and I only wonder if Childress will ever leave the bench once Michael Redd arrives. As I wrote last night, I don’t envy Alvin Gentry one bit for the rotational issues on his hands.

Channing Frye also played an interesting game as he was an absolute bear on the boards with a whopping 16 but continue to struggle badly with his shot on a 4-for-15 performance that includes 2-for-9 shooting on threes. He wasn’t bashful at all, taking any good look that came his way and some that weren’t great looks, and thus it was clear to me the coaching staff directed him to shoot and shoot with confidence at any decent look. Eventually the shot will come and that will open up the Suns’ offense quite a bit, so at this point I guess all Channing can do is try to shoot his way out of the slump.

“I think we’ll just continue to shoot and it’s going to come,” Frye said. “I think the biggest thing I need to do for this team is get on the glass and just continue to play. I cannot be a single-faceted player. Shots come and go, and this team has done a great job in just continuing to believe in me.”

Perhaps it will one day seem common for the Suns to win games with defense, but it’s still awful strange  to see the Suns complement a superb defensive effort with an improved offensive performance that saw the Suns get into the open court for more easy buckets than they did in their first two losses.

The Suns believe with time that offensive execution will come, but for now they are happy just to escape New Orleans with their first victory of the season to help erase some of the memories of their ugly opening homestand.

And 1

The Suns’ starters were fantastic tonight in terms of +/-. Every starter had a positive double-digit rating, led by Gortat and Frye, both plus 18. … Nash still struggled with his shot on a 2-for-8 night but dished 12 assists. … The 76ers scored 25 points per 100 possessions more on Wednesday than the Hornets did tonight. … Lopez and Trevor Ariza exchanged words during an early fourth quarter exchange to earn themselves double technicals. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen Robin that mad, which I take as a positive sign because it was good to see that kind of fire out of him. … Gortat recorded at least three charges by my count, as he was a help defense menace.

In fact, there weren’t any schools at all.

The Friendswood, Texas native graduated high school at 5-foot-7, 140 pounds soaking wet. Coaches didn’t like his prospects at the next level, leaving Price with a basketball future full of uncertainty.

Fast forward 10 years and Price’s body of work has disproved the naysayers who doubted the undersized 18-year-old.

“They’ve all motivated me to be the type of competitor that I am,” Price said.

That motivation has shined through in his accomplishments. At Utah Valley University, where he transferred after walking on at Nicholls State, Price won Division I Independent Player of the Year and earned a spot in the UVU Hall of Fame.

At the NBA level he’s played for two of the league’s most accomplished coaches in Rick Adelman and Jerry Sloan, while developing a reputation as a relentless competitor along the way.

And now, a decade after being told he had no future, Price has the opportunity to play in a wide-open system for a head coach that enhances his player’s strengths. He’ll no longer be limited by the flex offense that Sloan — and now Tyrone Corbin — employed in Utah as he fights to back up one of the top floor generals in recent history.

“I look at this opportunity as a blessing in many ways,” Price said. “Coming into this offense, it’s allowing me to sharpen up on some of the skills that I maybe missed out on in the past four years, being able to get up and down the floor, do some of the things I’ve done in the past and have fun playing the game again.”

If his track record of overcoming obstacles is any indication, Price will do everything in his power to make the most of his opportunity as he battles Sebastian Telfair for Phoenix’s backup point guard spot — a competition Price leads, according to Paul Coro.

“He’s always hungry,” said Suns assistant Elston Turner, who coached Price in Sacramento. “He plays like he’s hungry. He was a good pickup for us. “

Ever since his days as a walk-on at Nicholls State, or his emergence into a star at UVU, Price was never given a free pass. As he put it, “Everything wasn’t handed to me and I’ve always had to prove myself and compete for a job.”

It’s those experiences that have shaped Price into the player is today. The physicality, the never-back-down mentality is deeply engrained in the play of the 28-year-old guard. Whether he’s dunking over Carlos Boozer or meeting James Harden at the rim in transition, Price’s character  – and athleticism — is evident on the court.

“He’s a pitbull. He’ll run through a wall for you,” Turner said. “He doesn’t have any quit. He plays tough basketball, he’s smart, he listens, and he’s coachable.”

By Turner’s evaluation, Price sounds like the NBA’s perfect player. So what’s missing? Offense.

Price was one of the league’s worst offensive guards last season. As John Hollinger pointed out in his Phoenix Suns profiles, Price finished last season with a -2.48 pure point guard rating that Hollinger called “unspeakably awful.” Price also finished second-to-last among point guards in assist rate, and fourth-to-last in turnover rate.

He also turned in the worst field goal percentage among point guards, as he shot 35.2 percent from the field. To put it lightly, offense isn’t Price’s strong suit. But if there’s one team where pure athletes can thrive, it’s Phoenix.

Price also brings a defensive mentality the Suns have lacked at the point guard position since Nash arrived. He knows Turner’s system, giving him a leg up on Telair in their positional battle.

“I understand his principles and what he wants defensively, so hopefully I can be an example the best way I can,” Price said. “I take a lot of pride in playing defense.”

Price most likely won’t become the heir to Nash’s throne. He may not even beat out Telfair for the backup point guard spot. But given his character and determination to succeed, Price won’t go down without a fight. He’ll bring intensity, defense, and professionalism to Phoenix, and for a basketball journeyman with limited talent, that’s all you can ask for.

“I take this game very serious. I love to compete and I’m very loyal,” Price said. “I look at this as my family. This is my new family now. You’d do anything for your family, so I’d do anything for these guys as if they were my own family. That’s the way I’ve always approached it and I’ll never, ever change that mentality.”

And 1

• Price on his relationship with Turner: “You never know how many times your paths will cross with different people in the NBA. The NBA is just a tight knit group of people. I started smiling when I found out he was on the staff and get a chance to mess around with him a little bit. … I remember his son was in high school, now he’s playing on national TV in college. It’s just crazy how fast time passes by. Now I’m considered a veteran, I guess. It’s just weird, it really is. I still feel like a rookie in my heart and still get excited about the game of basketball.”
• Price on the toughest player he’s had to guard: “I would say Allen Iverson when I first got in the league because he would attack you every possession and you couldn’t touch him. He was so good at drawing fouls. Then Baron Davis when I first got into the league because he was so strong and explosive. Chauncey Billups was very tough.”
• Price on playing for Adleman and Sloan: “Coach Adelman my rookie year, being around Mike Bibby and those guys and watching that corner offense that they ran. Of course coach Sloan. Wow. I’ve had a chance to play for Adelman and coach Sloan, who are two Hall of Fame coaches who have  a long history of success. Sloan taught you about the principles of life and how you bring the principles of life into the game of basketball. I’ve been fortunate.”