Channing Frye and the Suns celebrated a critical victory in Indiana after a wild final minute. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Following two losses in the state of Florida that put a halt to the Phoenix Suns’ momentum, Alvin Gentry’s crew needed a wild last minute to hang on with a 113-111 victory against the Indiana Pacers in Banker’s Life Fieldhouse.

And in the end, Friday’s Phoenix win gave us what Michael Schwartz anticipated in his preview; a wild, back-and-forth of a game. At some point in the game, each team had leads of as many as seven points, and it included 13 lead changes and 10 ties.

“We had a tough stretch in Florida against two very good teams, and Indiana is a very good team,” Grant Hill told FSAZ’s Tom Leander after the game. “We got back to just playing good basketball. We didn’t defend as well as we would’ve liked, but we executed, the second unit was wonderful.

“We made and missed some free throws down the stretch, but we ultimately did what we needed to do to get the win.”

Quickly, the first three quarters spanned these amounts of real time:

1st – 27 minutes

2nd – 34 minutes

3rd – 23 minutes

The fourth? 45 minutes long, many of which were devoted to the final minute of play.

Before we get to the final minute, let’s play catch-up.

Surviving 28 Danny Granger points by the end of the night, the first quarter back-and-forth between centers Roy Hibbert and Marcin Gortat gave a firm example of how things were about to develop.

Breaking out of a mini-slump, Gortat scored 12 of his eventual 23 in the opening 12 minutes thanks to constant feeding from Steve Nash. The Suns’ point guard finished with 12 points and 17 assists, and Phoenix also got 22 points from Grant Hill as six players hit double figures.

Meanwhile in the first, Hibbert scored 10 points with jump hooks galore en route to his 19 on the evening.

The Suns entered the fourth after building their biggest lead of 86-79, but Tyler Hansbrough and former Sun Leandro Barbosa led the scoring charge with the first 11 points of the period to reel in Phoenix and bring the Pacers within two just more than two minutes into the quarter.

Phoenix’s starters built the lead back to seven with four minutes left, but things thereafter got sketchy as Nash picked up two turnovers in a row with under two minutes remaining.

The first 47 minutes also included an emphatic dunk by Jared Dudley, apparent tornadoes in the Indianapolis area, and the tossing of Pacers head coach Frank Vogel, yet it was the final minute that made the game.

After the second of the two Nash turnovers, a Hibbert free throw made it a 104-103 contest with 1:09 remaining.

Super Steve came to the rescue, throwing a bounce pass under the long arms of Hibbert to a cutting Gortat for a reverse layup, then finding Channing Frye for a three-pointer on the next possession. With 28 seconds left and a 109-103 lead, it looked like Phoenix had the victory locked up.

Granger scored on a layup the next time down, and Nash hit two free throws as the Pacers stopped the clock by fouling him. But with Gentry putting a smaller, faster lineup on the floor to defend the three-point line, Sebastian Telfair ended up contesting being too short to defend a Granger three-pointer after Telfair and Grant Hill made a switch on the inbounds.

All that resulted was a swish and a three-point game.

Compounding matters, Frye missed two free throws after a quick Pacers foul, and all of a sudden it was a 111-110 game with 11 seconds left following two Granger free throws.

Nash hit two more foul shots himself, Barbosa missed a three-point attempt, and the ball was batted out of bounds to the Pacers, the Suns leading by three with seconds remaining.

Enter one of the more volatile basketball debates: To foul or not to foul?

Dudley did, and with 1.7 seconds left, Paul George was out to hit one free throw and miss the second in hopes of getting a tip-in to tie it at 113.

He hit the first, and with a sideways attempt at the rim on his second attempt, a tipped basketball on the right side of the hoop floated in the air as George chased down his own miss. As he fell out of bounds, a two-handed shove toward the hoop couldn’t twist the ball over the rim.

The Suns escaped with a two-point victory.

And a very long, tense minute.

Suns

Pacers

The Phoenix Suns used a valiant effort to fight their way back into the playoff race last homestand. Now they must make sure they don’t give back too much of that ground on this road trip.

Toward that goal the Suns visit the Indiana Pacers tonight in a crucial game after collapsing late in Miami on Tuesday and getting obliterated defensively the next night in Orlando.

But these aren’t your big brother’s Pacers, as this matchup will be Phoenix’s third in four games against one of the top four teams in the Eastern Conference.

After sneaking into the playoffs eight games below .500 last season, the Pacers have established themselves as one of the better teams in basketball, particularly at home where they are 14-6.

Indiana’s greatest virtue is its depth, as eight players average over 9.5 points per game yet only leading scorer Danny Granger is over 13 ppg.

The Pacers have utilized the same starting lineup in all but two games this season (when Granger missed a pair of games due to a sprained ankle and food poisoning), and they added to their bench at the trade deadline when they acquired former Sun Leandro Barbosa to join a reserve corps that also includes a familiar face in Lou Amundson.

As always seems to be the case in this wacky NBA season one way or another, the scheduling gods may have given the Suns a favor in this one. The Pacers roared back from a 22-point deficit last night to take down the Wizards in Washington and then had to fly all the way back to Indiana for this one.

The Suns should also be smarting after having been blown out for the first time since starting their 11-3 run Wednesday night in Orlando.

Their defense looked a step slow against the Magic after that draining game in Miami, but the Suns have no such excuse as the rested squad in this one.

It seems to be an annual tradition for the Suns to get swept on the Miami-Orlando back-to-back, but I’m interested to see how they respond in this one. Will they get right back on a roll by beating a solid Pacers squad or did they just take advantage of one of the longer home stretches any team will see?

I am also interested to see how Marcin Gortat responds to arguably his worst game since emerging with Phoenix. Gortat managed just four points on 1-for-7 shooting against his old nemesis Dwight Howard last time out. It almost seemed like he was trying too hard to the extent that he fumbled away many Steve Nash passes. The Suns need Gortat to put that performance behind him and resume his stellar season.

If tonight’s game is anything like Phoenix’s last two visits to the Fieldhouse, we are all in for quite a treat.

Last season Channing Frye tore out the Pacers’ hearts by drilling a game-winning jumper at the overtime buzzer, and the season before Phoenix blew a 24-point lead during a stretch in which they made blowing double-digit leads seem easy.

With a winnable game in Cleveland looming Sunday afternoon, the Suns can still come home with the split that would represent a successful road trip.

It won’t be easy, but it is what the Suns need to do to stay in the playoff race with Houston now back to 2 1/2 games ahead of Phoenix for the final playoff spot in the West.

Editor’s Note: If you as a Suns fan are squeamish or are prone to hysterics at the thought of Steve Nash leaving the desert, the following trades may prove too much for you, so you may want to save yourself the mental pain and anguish and just look away.

On Tuesday, John Hollinger wrote in his PER Diem about a Nash-to-Portland deal. Here’s the link to the deal on ESPN’s NBA Trade Machine. The crux of the trade is Phoenix receiving Ray Felton, two young prospects, and a pick in exchange for Steve Nash. Hollinger puts this trade forth despite the fact that based on the involved players’ current PER numbers, this trade would drop Phoenix’s projected wins by 10 games. This is partly due to the fact that neither Nolan Smith nor Elliot Williams have played enough to have PER data.

There is no reason to think that a deal such as this one wouldn’t happen outside of both Nash and the Suns front office’s vehement denials of the possibility of a trade. For the purposes of the column, we’ll ignore that. As the Suns sink deeper and deeper into irrelevancy and mediocrity, it’s entirely possible both sides might relax their view on a trade.

The deal makes sense for Portland as Felton’s contract is expiring just like Nash’s. So in essence, the Blazers would be renting with the possibility of re-signing Steve Nash for the price of two prospects and a pick. For the Suns, the prospects will inject some youth into an aging roster. The pick, which will likely be in the 18-24 range, will still be a valuable asset in a draft this deep. In the offseason, the Suns could stand pat with their two picks and two prospects to start a serious youth movement or package some combination of them to move up into the top five or trade for a solid veteran.

In his NBA Season Review: 20 Questions, Bill Simmons also mentioned the possibility of a Nash-to-Portland deal. His version, however, had the Suns receiving Nic Batum in place of the guard prospects. Batum, a favorite of VotS overlord Michael Schwartz, was not extended by the Trail Blazers before the deadline, possibly indicating that Portland is willing to part with him for the right price.

By Hollinger’s prediction this version of the trade would only cost the Suns one predicted win, and thus seems far more beneficial to the franchise (especially when you consider that Felton and Batum’s PER numbers undoubtedly go up in Phoenix as each would play a bigger role than they currently do in Portland.)  In Felton, the Suns would get a point guard who isn’t awful and was extremely productive under Mike D’Antoni last year in New York. In Batum, the Suns get a player who is young, energetic, and efficient, three things Phoenix sorely needs right now. Batum is also a restricted free agent, so acquiring him now would put the Suns in prime position to sign him to a longer deal as Phoenix could match any offer made for him in the offseason.

Whether or not Portland would do this deal depends on the likelihood of Nash re-signing with the Trail Blazers in the offseason. Because he was extended two years ago, Nash’s current contract isn’t eligible to be extended again as outlined in this piece by Mark Stein. Thus Portland would have to hope that another trip to playoffs is enough to entice Nash to give the Blazers his remaining years.

Simmons also proposed a possible deal with Indiana. The deal, outlined here, would swap Nash for Darren Collison and a 2012 No. 1 pick. This pick would probably be slightly worse than Portland’s as Indiana’s schedule is Eastern Conference heavy, but again in a deep draft any pick can help.

For Phoenix, this trade would give them a young, still-developing point guard to replace Nash. Collison is considered to be one of the fastest players in the NBA and has shown flashes of brilliance in his short career, particularly in place of an injured Chris Paul when both were still in New Orleans. Nash is definitely the superior point guard, but Collison with his speed could mature into a strong distributor and team leader under the right tutelage .

Whether or not Indiana would pull the trigger on this deal would again depend on its ability to re-sign Nash in the offseason. Also, the Pacers’ willingness to trade for Nash would definitely depend on how close they believe they are to title contention. It makes little sense for Indiana to trade a young asset who should continue to improve if the Pacers’ ceiling is anything less than a Finals appearance with the addition of Steve Nash.

Bill Simmons posed the question, “Why hasn’t #freestevenash evolved into a social media campaign along the lines of #occupywallstreet?” The answer, as always, is Nash’s fierce loyalty to his teammates and the Suns’ franchise.

“… I just feel that I owe it to my teammates to stay committed to them. I feel that I owe it to the fans and the organization to fight,” Nash said in an interview with ESPN’s Marc Stein. Fight as he may, what happens if the Suns continue to toil in no-man’s land? Could the situation arise where the best thing for the fans and the organization is to move Nash and get some pieces to build around in return? Will Nash and the Suns’ management see the writing on the wall before the March 15 deadline? There is no way to know. For now the “Phoenix Revolution” will remain untelevised.

But it will be on Twitter. #FreeSteveNash

Channing Frye's game-winning shot in overtime set off a Suns celebration. (Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images)

In today’s NBA world a last-second shot often calls for an isolation for that team’s best player, a lower-percentage play than actually running an offense and getting off the kind of shot a team usually looks for.

I’m always surprised that a team will settle for a bad fadeaway that would not be tolerated in the middle of the second quarter during the most crucial moments of the games, and that’s why teams often score less efficiently in crunch time than during the rest of the game.

But on Sunday afternoon when the Suns needed one shot to knock off the Pacers instead of calling an iso for a red-hot Grant Hill or something of that ilk, they ran a play for Channing Frye, and the Arizona product splashed home a jumper as the clock expired to set off a Phoenix celebration as the Suns raced off the court with a 110-108 overtime victory.

The Suns had possession with just under 24 seconds left and after Steve Nash took the clock down to about five seconds, he dished it off to Hill, who was instructed to either find an open Frye or call timeout if it was well-defended. Frye could not shake Josh McRoberts around double screens from Jared Dudley and Marcin Gortat so he called the timeout with 3.5 left so the Suns could set things up again.

Alvin Gentry chose to go to Frye once again. This time Dudley set a screen on McRoberts but his man Brandon Rush switched out onto Frye. The Suns big man is often chided for not shooting well when he doesn’t catch the ball in rhythm, but this time he pump faked and lofted a perfect swish to end the game.

“There was enough room to get it off and it went in,” Frye told reporters. “I was tired. I was like, ‘You know God if you can just let me make this shot,’ I’ve never asked for anything like that before and what do you know, he gives me a game winner.”

Added Hill, “He’s a guy that once he sees the ball go in the basket he can get rolling. He got the ball and had to make a great play, a pump fake with the guy running at him, knocked it in.”

My favorite part about this sequence is that it was an actual play (and that it didn’t lead to a shot clock violation as a potential game-winning situation in regulation did when the Suns held the ball too long before initiating the offense). They ran actual offense to get a hot player a look (Frye had knocked down a pair of shots earlier in overtime), and they used all of the 23 seconds left in the game to make sure this was a walk-off job.

Then I really loved what happened next. The entire team mobbed Frye, starting with Nash and Dudley (they were closest to him) and then Mickael Pietrus mobbing and hugging him before putting an arm around Frye as they walked off the court. Sure, every team will be excited to celebrate a game-winner, but you could see that camaraderie starting to come together after the kind of win that breeds chemistry.

“We’re in a good place,” Hill said. “We’re starting to get a real sense of chemistry on and off the court. We’re really as a unit starting to be together as one. We didn’t quit, we kind of grinded it out, we’re having fun and learning each other.”

The Suns once again jumped out to an early lead in this one thanks to a season-best game from Grant Hill. The small forward scored 20 points in the first half alone for the first time since 2005 and finished with 34 on 14-for-26 shooting to go with nine boards and four assists.

Hill said he has been focusing on his defense more than anything lately but after a talk with his dad he decided he wanted to come out more aggressive offensively in this one. With 14 first-quarter points he did exactly that, providing the kind of scoring punch he used to exhibit all the time during his prime. He also hit the biggest shot of the game before Frye’s dagger, drilling a game-tying three in the corner with 44 seconds left to send the game into overtime.

The Suns controlled this game for the better part of three quarters, taking a 15-point lead with three minutes left in the third before the Pacers came roaring back. They finished the period with five unanswered and then the Suns’ reserves failed to hold a lead once again.

The Pacers reeled off a 9-2 run early in the period and when A.J. Price hit a three to cut the lead to three with eight minutes left Gentry brought back Nash, Hill and Frye a bit early with the bench unable to be trusted once again.

That’s the area of the ballgame the Suns acquired Aaron Brooks for after Goran Dragic led the bench to so many losing quarters. Brooks missed a shot and committed a turnover during the fourth quarter and overall finished his lackluster Suns debut with three points, a rebound and an assist on 1-for-2 shooting in 10 minutes off the bench.

That means Nash played 43 minutes as the game eventually went to overtime, as Brooks played just the six minutes Nash sat in the first half before being ineffective to cause Nash to come back early in the fourth.

Brooks wasn’t the gunner he has been his whole career, perhaps because he was just trying to fit in with his new teammates. He moved the ball around capably and had a couple assists blown when teammates missed shots, but he failed to prevent the Suns early fourth-quarter malaise that has plagued the bench so much this season and he needs more minutes to make the kind of impact the Suns traded for him to make.

But with Hill turning back the clock, Gortat going for 17 and 11 (giving him the single season double-double record for a Suns reserve in a matter of months), and Frye knocking down the dagger the Suns still won their third in a row to move three games over .500 for the first time all season.

And 1

The Suns have won three in a row on three separate occasions in the last month after winning five in a row just before that.

Suns

Pacers

Rise and shine, Phoenix.

Fresh off an easy 110-92 victory over Toronto to start off the East Coast swing, the Suns get back to action bright and early Sunday morning against the Pacers.

Newly acquired point guard Aaron Brooks is scheduled to make his Suns debut shortly after the game tips off at noon local time.

In recent Phoenix trades, new players have taken quite a few games to get adapted to the system, so it will be interesting to see how quickly Brooks meshes with his new teammates.

Brooks brings a scoring edge to the team, a key component absent from Goran Dragic’s game in the months leading up to the deal.

The Pacers are a young, quick team with an electric point guard themselves in Darren Collison.

Getting off to a fast start Sunday will be crucial for both teams.

It would be useful for the Suns to get up early so Alvin Gentry can use part of the game to rest Steve Nash and give Brooks some extended looks.

The Suns still have four more road games before heading back to Phoenix so any way to keep legs fresh will only help moving forward.

The Pacers are coming off a 95-84 loss to Utah, which could have helped the Suns if Indiana had won.

The Pacers came after the new-look Jazz with a balanced scoring effort but came up short down the stretch.

Collison had 16, Roy Hibbert had 14 and Danny Granger, who has a history with Channing Frye, had 17.

Somehow Indiana is still holding onto the eighth and final playoff spot in the East despite having a record well below .500.

In the Suns’ 13th straight win over the Raptors, Phoenix did exactly what they should be aiming to do Sunday.

After the first quarter, the Suns held a 35-14 lead that was never really tested beyond a few mini-runs by Toronto.

Zabian Dowdell got 18 minutes of action in clean-up minutes that should be transferred over to Brooks once he arrives Sunday.

Who Gentry plays Brooks with will also be something to look out for.

Once that is established, the rotation for the Suns should be pretty well set in stone, which is something the team hasn’t been able to say all year.

Games against low-level teams like the Pacers have given Phoenix fits all season.

The Suns can’t afford to give up games to teams they should beat anymore.

As of Sunday morning, the team is still stuck in 10th place in the West but they are tied in the loss column for eighth with Memphis.

If teams like Utah and Denver start to fade because of trading away their star players, the Suns should be able to take advantage and sneak in the playoffs.

The last time Phoenix met Indiana was Dec. 3 at U.S. Airways Arena. The Suns won 105-97 with the help of 29 points from Frye.

The last time Phoenix made the trip to Indiana, the team got tripped up and lost 122-114.

PHOENIX — As he departed for the arena Friday afternoon, Channing Frye told his wife that the Suns had to win tonight’s tilt against the Indiana Pacers.

Then with his mother and college head coach in the stands, Frye went out and drilled five long balls (and had his toe on the line for perhaps three more) on his way to a Suns career high 29 points as the Suns dropped the Pacers, 105-97.

Frye was the guy we saw so often last season in US Airways Center, confidently releasing treys that more often than not find the bottom of the net as they did tonight when he hit 11-of-16 shots and 5-of-8 from three.

Ever reluctant to receive praise even from a standout performance like this, Frye credited his teammates and the way the Suns play for his big night.

“It’s kind of tough,” Frye said of defending Phoenix. “You’ve just kind of pick your poison. I think we have the right spacing, it allows everybody to just do what they do. Guys just come in and give us great minutes and I just kind of do what my job is, and that’s space the floor, make some shots, do some stuff and block some things.”

In the “block some things” department Frye tallied three swats, but none came close to his denial of Mike Dunleavy when Channing channeled his inner Dwight Howard and rose up for what’s got to be one of the most ferocious rejections of his NBA career.

The stuff led to an open Jason Richardson three-pointer on the other end that gave the Suns their biggest lead of the game up to that point of six points, and the Pacers never got within one possession from there.

“Dude, I don’t know where that came from, I really don’t,” Frye said. “I was like, ‘OK, let me make this look good.’ I thought it was just going to go, and I blocked it.”

As for his offensive game, Frye enjoyed his biggest scoring output since Dec. 20, 2006, back when he was a New York Knick, which must have seemed like a lifetime ago for Frye. This also marked the 11th straight game Frye has reached double figures, the longest such streak of his career.

“When we can space the floor and Channing shoots the ball like that it brings their big guys out from the basket and even when they try to put a smaller guy on him Channing did a great job, he shot the ball well and he did a good job defensively,” head coach Alvin Gentry said. “When he plays like that it creates avenues driving and the spacing just becomes much better.”

Perhaps it helped that Earl Barron started the game next to Frye, and while Barron’s box score (2-for-9 field goals, 2-for-6 free throws) doesn’t look pretty, his activity made a huge difference for the Suns.

Tangibly he got Roy Hibbert into foul trouble (three in the first 5:27) and rendered a 7-foot-2 guy averaging 16 and 9 a non-factor with eight points and just one board. Barron said he purposely tried to get Hibbert into further foul trouble after he drew the first couple.

Barron also added four steals fronting the post and made a difference by being an active seven-footer.

“Pretty much energy,” he said of his contribution. “I’m just trying to be an active presence on the defensive end, a good help defender, put a lot of pressure on the post guys, keep guys off the glass and crash the glass.”

After a porous first half that included the Pacers drilling 8-of-12 from long range and 53.7 percent of their shots overall on their way to a seven-point halftime lead, the Suns stiffened up in the second half, holding the Pacers to 3-of-14 shooting from distance (21.4 percent) and 39.5 percent shooting overall in the half.

In all the Suns held Indiana below the century mark — they are undefeated (4-0) on the rare occasions that happens — after forcing 24 Pacers turnovers thanks to 14 steals.

The Suns bottled up Danny Granger, a stud who usually goes off against Phoenix, by holding him to just eight points on 2-for-13 shooting, which Gentry said is “the best that you can ever hope for with him.”

Grant Hill and Jared Dudley shared the responsibilities on Granger as part of Gentry’s latest stab at figuring out a rotation he’s comfortable with.

Frye’s 40 minutes (which included all but 38 seconds of the second half) were by far the most on the team, as only J-Rich’s 32:21 even cracked the 30-minute barrier otherwise. Surprisingly Dudley was next with 29:54, seven more than his previous season high and more than double the 14 minutes he played last night in Oakland.

Dudley finished both halves and scored 12 points on an efficient 5-for-7 shooting performance while dishing a pair of crucial assists in crunch time to help the Suns maintain their lead.

Barron got his 19 minutes and the rest of the starters received their normal time. Hedo Turkoglu and Goran Dragic played just 18, and the bottom dropped out from there with Josh Childress (8:27) and Hakim Warrick (7:11) going scoreless in minimal time.

Meanwhile, the Suns went 11 deep with Earl Clark logging 8:37. He made some dumb plays by taking a few quick jumpers and fouling Granger in the backcourt But later he drew the defense and whipped a sweet pass to Frye for the hoop and the harm and later threw down a dunk off a Turkoglu pass.

“I know I sound like a broken record a little bit, but we’re still just trying to figure out how we can have some consistency with that team so we keep trying to stick guys in there,” Gentry said. “Earl Clark has played great in practice. He deserved a chance to play, that’s why we stuck him in there tonight, not so much anything negative against the other guys I just thought that he had had so much energy in practice and done a good job that I thought he deserved a chance to get in and see what he can do.”

If anything, this game only muddled Gentry’s potential rotation plans as Dudley played the way he did last year when he was finishing games and playing 30 minutes, and the Earls flashed the ability to make both positive and negative contributions. On other nights, the skills of Warrick and Childress will come in handy as well.

Ultimately Channing Frye’s hot night and a stiffer second-half defense made this combination a winning one against an opponent that has previously won in Los Angeles and Miami.

“It was a great win considering that we got in at about 3:30 in the morning and very little sleep,” Gentry said. “I thought everyone stepped up and played great.”

And 1

The Suns came back from double digits for the third time this season, all three of which have come at home. … After pouring in 21, J-Rich has gone for at least 20 points in six straight games, his best such streak as a Sun. … Goran Dragic of all people led the Suns in rebounding with six. Thanks to Steve Nash’s five rebounds, the Suns’ point guards led all Phoenix positions in rebounding, and two guard Jason Richardson chipped in with another five. … The Suns have won five of six at home but they snapped a four-game losing streak to the Eastern Conference with the victory. … Phoenix is now 2-3 on the second game of a back-to-back and 2-1 at home. … Gentry was shocked that Josh McRoberts found the range to drill four three-pointers and score a season-high 16 points. … Frye on the ASU-UA football game: “I don’t remember what happened. I passed out due to ridiculousness.”

Pacers

Suns

The last time Indiana traveled to Phoenix, things got a little feisty.

In early March of last season, Channing Frye and Earl Watson got into an on-court skirmish that led to Frye and Danny Granger being suspended for a game apiece when Granger came in with a push.

The fight started when Watson shoved Frye in the middle of a play. When the Suns’ center retaliated by mushing, as he put it back then, Granger stepped in and things escalated from there.

When the dust settled, five players were either suspended or fined for their involvement.

Granger, however, was not ejected from the game and the crowd in US Airways Center booed him every time he touched the ball.

It will be interesting to see if the fans at tonight’s game remember the incident and continue anti-Granger cheers.

But I digress.

Since the 2006-07 season, the Indiana Pacers have failed to win over 36 games in a year.

That’s probably going to change in 2010-11.

The incredibly young Pacers are a solid basketball team.

Labeled up-and-coming by many, the Pacers ran off back-to-back wins over the Lakers and Kings before running out of gas Wednesday in Utah, losing 110-88.

Now the school bus will drive into Phoenix for a matchup of teams that have hovered around .500 throughout the early part of the season.

The Suns are coming off an impressive rebounding performance and win last night over Golden State.

Yes, Phoenix will be playing the second half of a back-to-back tonight, but for Indiana, this will be its fourth game this week, all of which being played on the West Coast.

The Pacers are led by the All-Star forward Granger, who is scoring over 22 points per game this season.

But where Indiana has improved the most in, is its offensive balance.

Five Pacers average in the double digits, with many others contributing off the bench.

Second year player out of Georgetown Roy Hibbert has also come on strong in his sophomore season.

The center is averaging close to a double-double per outing and it will be a tall task for Phoenix to control him on the boards.

The Suns, after a brutal stretch to start their season, are now poised to get a break in the schedule over the next few weeks.

It will be important for the team to accumulate wins before the schedule heats back up again in the back end of December.

Last night while providing the offensive fireworks for Phoenix against his former team, Jason Richardson also put in an improved defensive effort.

“He has been solid for us and shooting the ball great,” Suns coach Alvin Genty told Suns.com.  ”He has really worked hard on defense and as I said last year, he had his best year as a pro. He was great in the playoffs, but his defense has improved dramatically. Plus, he plays well when he comes back [to Golden State], which is nice.”

The guard is now averaging over 21 points per game this year.

Phoenix has won eight of the last 10 meetings between the the two teams but in each of the last two years, they split the season series.

Bucks: Brew Hoop | NBAMate | SBNation Recap

Bulls: Blog-A-Bull | SBNation Recap

Cavs: Fear The Sword | WaitingForNextYear

Pacers: Indy Cornrows

Pistons: DetroitBadBoys | Need4Sheed.com | SB Nation Detroit |

Recaps: All Previews

The Indiana Pacers’ Danny Granger and the Phoenix Suns’ Channing Frye have each been suspended one game without pay for their participation in an altercation on March 6. Frye was suspended for throwing a punch at Granger, and Granger was suspended for fighting with Frye.

In addition to the suspensions, Indiana’s Roy Hibbert and Earl Watson, along with Phoenix’s Jason Richardson received fines. Watson was fined $30,000 for “instigating and adding to the escalation of an on-court incident,” while Hibbert and Richardson will each be fined $25,000 for “adding to the escalation of an on-court incident.”

The league decided that Frye’s left-handed “mushing” as he called it was in fact a punch, although Frye didn’t see it that way. He told ValleyofheSuns after the Pacers game:

I feel like if you look at my past history — which they probably won’t — I’m not really that type of guy to be in fights or in brawls, to be that instigator. It wasn’t the right play, and whatever they [decide] is going to be just, but hopefully they ask my opinion, and it wasn’t a punch.

The NBA obviously didn’t see things Frye’s way, and the big man will now miss the all-important Friday game against the Lakers. This is obviously a big loss for the Suns, and it really couldn’t come at a worse time with LA coming into town. Frye’s shooting touch from the outside will be sorely missed, but his biggest loss will be on the defensive end and in the rebounding department.

Although those clearly aren’t his strong suit, you need big bodies to try to contain the Lakers’ massive front line of Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom. The Suns are now thin up front, with the only real big men being Robin Lopez and Amare Stoudemire. Lopez needs to have a big game and stay out of foul trouble if the Suns hope to hold the Lakers’ bigs in check and win that rebounding battle that’s so important to the Suns’ success.

Amare doesn’t match up well with Bynum or Gasol, and Lou Amundson is too undersized to hold the seven-footers in check. Expect a Jarron Collins sighting at some point, along with a touch of Earl Clark here and there. The Suns now need a big game from Lopez and an inspired defensive effort from Amare and some bench guys in order to get an important home win against the conference leaders.

Channing Frye does not deserve to be suspended, although a suspension appears likely. (AP Photo/Matt York)

PHOENIX — The last time Planet Orange waited to hear if one of their own would be suspended for a Lakers game, it was pretty obvious what the outcome would be. After all, that was when Raja Bell viciously horse collared Kobe Bryant in Game 5 of their first-round series in 2006.

This time it’s not so clear whether Channing Frye will be suspended for shoving Earl Watson in retaliation for a few hard slaps in Saturday’s win over the Pacers.

“It could happen, and that would be disappointing because it’s against the Lakers,” Frye said.

Paul Coro provides a nice play-by-play of the incident that basically boils down to Watson taking issue with an apparent Frye elbow on a previous play, Watson pushing Frye’s hands away with force twice, Frye taking issue and “mushing” Watson (Frye’s word) and teammates backing up teammates with lots of shoving but no punches connecting and nobody leaving the bench (Amare sure learned that lesson!).

By New York Knick-Miami Heat standards, this was an embarrassment to fracas’ everywhere. It was just two players with no history on two teams with no history sticking up for themselves when they felt their opponent was getting too physical.

“No, I wasn’t going to punch him,” Frye said. “It wasn’t about me punching him. It wasn’t the right play, but it was me letting him know that I didn’t think that was acceptable. It’s not the right thing, it’s definitely not a reflection on me. Everybody would tell you I’m one of the easy-going guys. I’ll go down and bang with you, throw elbows, that’s fine, it’s part of the game, but at that point I thought it was a little bit more than that and emotions took over.”

It’s almost funny that it was Channing Frye who was at the center of this. Frye is as easy going as it gets in this league. He’s a 6-foot-11 performer who spends most of his time on the offensive end behind the three-point line. We’re not exactly talking about the second coming of Bill Laimbeer here.

What’s next, will Grant Hill be getting into fights?

“I feel like if you look at my past history — which they probably won’t — I’m not really that type of guy to be in fights or in brawls, to be that instigator,” Frye said. “It wasn’t the right play, and whatever they [decide] is going to be just, but hopefully they ask my opinion, and it wasn’t a punch.”

Added Jason Richardson, who was right in the middle of things and picked up a technical, “Nobody threw a punch. It happens sometimes. Nobody should get suspended for either team because it didn’t escalate to that.”

Frye even stood back by the refs after the initial thrust to prevent an escalation, but the way things go for the Suns, Steve Nash said he wouldn’t even be surprised if he were suspended a game like he was for not doing much in a fracas with the Rockets last season. I want to say he was joking, but he looked dead serious when he said it.

It’s a shame that any suspensions would come Friday against a Lakers squad that’s struggling a bit in a game that’s a monster referendum on the Suns’ hot play of late.

If I had to predict, I would say the league will suspend Frye, but I don’t think that’s the right call, especially since it was in retaliation for Watson slapping his hands down twice with force. There was some sticking up for teammates going on, but nothing escalated to a serious degree and Frye never threw a punch, he was just “mushing,” and I’ve never heard of a player being suspended for that.

For now, all the Suns and Frye can do is wait.

It’s just frustrating,” Frye said. “Hopefully when they look at the film they’ll make the right decision.”