Maybe it’s because while it feels like the Phoenix Suns guard has been in the NBA for a decade, he’s only finishing up his fifth year in the league. As one of the better — if not the best — quotes in the locker room, it’s hard to believe he’s only 26 years old.

It’s also hard to conceptualize how the 22nd pick by the Charlotte Bobcats in 2007 was a throw-in when the Suns acquired Jason Richardson. The man was starting as Richardson’s replacement this past season, and while one could argue that represents a fault of Phoenix’s management, there’s nothing bad about someone taking advantage of an opportunity.

“I thought this year for me, I took a step in the right direction starting and improving my game from last year,” Dudley said in April. “I want to continue improving.”

At 12.7 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game, Dudley’s not blowing anyone away, but his career trajectory hasn’t yet peaked. Instead, it’s slowly but surely creeping upwards in relevance, and for a Suns team that missed out on the playoffs by a few games, that relevance can be marked by the small forward’s PER of 15.48, which was third on the team behind Steve Nash and Marcin Gortat.

[RELATED: The careful calculation of Jared Dudley]

Along with Grant Hill, a slimmed down Dudley pulled much of the weight in the Suns’ perimeter defense. His minutes shot up to 31.1 per game, yet he still was smart enough and had the legs to shoot at a career-best 48.5 percent on the year.

Simply put, Dudley is one of the few guys that we know will be around next season, and there’s little doubt his role will diminish.

So why was Dudley so important to the Suns this season, and why will he continue to be a key cog in Phoenix’s future plans?

Spreading the floor

Like Channing Frye, Dudley’s importance as a long-range shooter is paramount in Phoenix’s system. While his percentage from beyond the three-point line dipped to 38.3 percent in the 2011-12 season, Dudley’s catch-and-shoot ability — Dudley was assisted on 98.8 percent of his three-pointers, according to HoopData.com  – will be even more important next season.

Asked what the Suns need the most next season, Dudley’s hopes purposely or inadvertently shed light on what will help him as a individual player the most.

“We definitely need someone to be able to score, to demand a double in the post,” Dudley said. “Teams like the Spurs want to switch all big screen-and-rolls … we had trouble with (Utah Jazz center Al) Jefferson where we didn’t want to double, he scored, we finally doubled and they put you in rotation.”

With a post scoring threat, Dudley will thrive. Even without one this season, he still remained pretty efficient.

In a worst-case scenario where the Suns don’t sign such a player and fail to re-sign Nash, Dudley hanging out around the perimeter will still be helpful to Gortat, who will be working on his individual post game this offseason.

But if opponents are running Dudley off the line, that’s not the worst thing because of …

The improved mid-range game

From the 2010-11 season to the 2011-12 season, Dudley did transition from the bench leader to a starter, and his minutes increased from 26 minutes to 31 minutes per game. Remember, that difference of five minutes is likely higher considering the Jason Richardson trade happened midseason, but we’ll stick to the stats by season for simplicities’ sake.

Dudley attempted an average of 2.2 more field goals in those five minutes, and the biggest bump in his shot attempts came from 16-23 feet, where he averaged 1.0 more shots in that range between the 2010-11 season and this past year. And from the past year, his average of 49 percent in that range was a 3 percent improvement.

That makes Dudley the 23rd best NBA player from that range, according to HoopData.com — most of the best players in this range are pure shooters like Nash, Stephen Curry and Steve Novak, or set-shooting power forwards like Dirk Nowitzki, Nick Collison and Zaza Pachulia.

But considering only nine of those players ahead of Dudley in accuracy are guys I’d consider regular rotation players and only seven played more than 40 games this past year, can we say Jared Dudley is one of the best mid-range shooters in the game today?

The Suns’ glove

Grant Hill was the primary perimeter defender when it came down to locking down the NBA’s most deadly scorers, but his return to Phoenix is in question as much as his return to an NBA court.

If Hill’s no longer in a Suns uniform, it’s on Dudley to cover the Kevin Durants and Kobe Bryants of the league.

Dudley said he’ll be improving his defensive skills from a basketball IQ and a physical standpoint this offseason. He’ll spend much of his time at home in San Diego.

“Defensively taking that next stride … I don’t know if G-Hill will be here, if he is here, just feeding off him,” Dudley said. “If he’s not here, just taking that role of being one of the perimeter defenders, and that’s something I need to improve on in watching film and working on my body and lateral quickness.”

There’s little doubt Dudley will continue inching along in his improvements. And with so many questions this offseason, his presence next year — no matter how his role changes — surely will be one that head coach Alvin Gentry can count upon.

PHOENIX — With memories of home losses to the Nets, Cavs, Raptors, Warriors and of course these very same New Orleans Hornets fresh in their minds, the Suns knew they absolutely have to take care of business tonight against the lowly, beat-up Hornets.

Against many teams the Suns would not be able to get away with sloppy play leading to 19 turnovers and 20 percent shooting from distance, but those things did not matter because Phoenix’s defense suffocated the Hornets once again on their fourth game in five days, as the Suns earned the 92-75 victory.

“I thought we got off to a good start and we did a good job,” said head coach Alvin Gentry. “It was a game that we really needed to win. We played with a sense of purpose and a lot of energy.

“We should have won, and we won,” added Marcin Gortat.

Gortat essentially summed up the night in seven words, as even without Grant Hill the rested Suns had no business losing to a weary team at home that is so depleted that Lance Thomas started at power forward as if this were a Duke game.

New Orleans made a run on Phoenix’s bench to take a brief one-point lead midway through the second, but it was all Suns from there.

After the Hornets cut the lead to seven early in the third quarter, the Suns exploded on a 14-2 run to essentially put the game away with a quarter and a half to play as New Orleans never got closer than 12. Shannon Brown and Jared Dudley each scored six points during the decisive run and combined for 37 for the game.

“We always know the first five minutes of the second half are the most important, and we just wanted to come out, we wanted to hop on them,” Brown said. “We knew they were on the road trip and they played, this was like their fourth game in five days or something like that, so we knew they were a little bit tired; we just wanted to come out, jump on them and keep them down.”

Added Dudley, “We didn’t want to give them any hope and we did what we were supposed to in the third.”

The Suns did that with defense, as in the second half they limited the Hornets to 37.1 percent shooting and just 17 points in each of the third and fourth quarters.

Of course New Orleans is not exactly the SSOL Suns as they ranked third to last in offensive efficiency entering the night and were held to an offensive rating of 86.7 in a 93-78 loss to Phoenix earlier this season, but the Suns’ defensive performance was even better tonight as they limited the Hornets to just 83.3 per 100, their second-best defensive outing of the season behind only the Portland shutdown.

Phoenix has now held 17 opponents under 90 points after doing so eight times all of last season, and the team has won all but one of those games this year. The Suns also improved to 69-1 all-time when limiting an opponent to 80 points or fewer, the fifth such time they have pulled that trick this season and the most for any Suns team since 2002-03.

Balance ruled the day off offensively as five players scored in double digits, and a sixth dished 14 assists (Nash, of course, who only scored four points).

Dudley led all scorers with 21 points, taking command in the second half with 15 points in the final 24 minutes.

“I don’t think I’ve been as aggressive as I was today, but also it’s just the shots, it depends on the defense,” Dudley said. “San Antonio didn’t want to leave me, and this team helped on the roller. I have to be aggressive, especially with Grant gone.”

With Hill out, Josh Childress rejoined the rotation by making only his second appearance since Feb. 17, the night Phoenix dropped to 12-19. Chilly scored five points (including a wild buzzer-beating trey at the end of the third quarter) and collected six rebounds in just over 19 minutes.

Andres Alvarez from the Wages of Wins Journal has been screaming for Childress to get more playing time, and tonight we see why as Childress accumulated a crazy 0.595 WP48 for his efforts tonight.

The birthday boy Robin Lopez (now 24) also put in a solid night of work with 10 points, all in the second quarter to keep Phoenix ahead despite an otherwise weak quarter from the Suns. Lopez needed just two field goal attempts to score in double digits as he got to the line six times, causing Hornets head coach Monty Williams to say he had “a huge effect on the game.”

The Suns have much tougher games ahead, but after spending so much time fighting back to .500 to make up for their early-season toe stubs, Phoenix could not afford another one tonight.

They reached that .500 mark once again with the win and gained a game on Houston, who lost to the Pacers, to pull 1 1/2 games behind the Rockets for the final playoff spot in the West.

“It was a must win,” Dudley said. “This is a team that’s been struggling all year. We had to come out here and get the win. … Obviously it’s going to come down to the road games, so home games have to be a must win, it doesn’t matter who comes here.”

Now the Suns will embark on the road for seven of their next eight games, with the lone home date coming against the mighty Lakers. During this stretch they will face the four teams directly ahead of them in the standings, so by the end of it we will know whether their final homestand will have serious playoff implications or if that will be time to start counting lottery balls.

By winning tonight, the Suns kept themselves right in the thick of the hunt.

“We know that we are going to have to play well and we are going to have games that we have to win and a lot of those games are going to be on the road,” Gentry said. “For us, this is our first playoff game and we get on a plane and fly to Sacramento and that will be our next playoff game. I think that’s the way we have to approach it.”

And 1

• You know that debate about whether Kentucky could beat the Wizards? I don’t think they would have a chance against Washington, but who is to say they could not defeat the starting five of Jack-Belinelli-Aminu-Thomas-Smith? At full strength the Hornets would obliterate them, but I am not so sure in this depleted state on the road in their fourth game in five days.
• Nash accumulated double-digit assists and single-digit points for the sixth time in nine games. The Suns have gone 4-2 in those contests in which Two Time is averaging 13.2 assists and 4.2 shot attempts per game. … Brown has scored 16 or more in three of his past four starts.
• Today the Suns held their fourth annual Bounce with the Suns contest in which the fan who dribbles a basketball the longest will win a road trip with the team. As I write this, they are 16 hours into the contest (last year’s winner dribbled for almost 44 hours) and Mr. ORNG just dropped out. Here is some video from the minute I stopped by:

Jared Dudley (Photo by Layne Murdoch/NBAE via Getty Images)

Basketball players have skill sets defined as refined or lacking. They’re given these by physical attributes, but also by mentalities that, when combined, create what we loosely refer to as their “game.”

The best basketball players — Kobe, Michael, LeBron — have a lot of really great physical attributes but, of course, they have mentalities that define them as well. Often times, an oblivious nature comes with elite athleticism and even an elite basketball player’s mentality, and that makes sense in a sport that’s played with more reaction than calculation.

Reading this account from Rosicky Jones of Paul Shirley’s FlipCollective.com, the similarities of one J.R. Smith and one Ricky Rubio make this a little more clear.

“Smith plays like he grew up in a video game; he is a ridiculously gifted player who is completely unaware of the concept of repercussions. He does exactly what I do when I’m playing NBA Live; I play like a dick; I don’t pass, I shoot way too many threes, my defense defines lax, I cherry pick all game and I always attempt dunks that are a touch out of my avatar’s range. Rubio plays like a guy who grew up with 4 older brothers, who were also way too skilled for him to compete. So, he learned to complement those brothers, and, while adjusting his game to accentuate theirs, he developed a refined and desired skill-set. Rubio made himself far too integral to the fabric of a team to remain an afterthought and Smith made himself too integral to the fabric of himself to remain an afterthought.”

Both Smith and Rubio have little consciousness of who they are, both physically and mentally, but they each play their “game” to a purity that can only be defined as who they are — a gun-slinging, reckless scorer and a selfless, artistic brand of a passer.

Being so ignorant to thinking about or wanting to redefine their “game” helps both J.R. Smith and Ricky Rubio.

But the Phoenix Suns’ Jared Dudley falls into the opposite end of this basketball player spectrum, and he’s probably included in a small minority of the non-oblivious.

An impressive snippet of evidence came in the Suns’ 99-95 loss against the Miami Heat that opened their most recent road trip. Matched up against LeBron James for the majority of his court time, you didn’t know how Dudley would have the size or speed to handle James if he decided to attack.

Dudley does have skills. He’s a pure set jump shooter who takes advantage of playing with Steve Nash. His slashing ability has improved this season, though it’s hardly helped by his lack of athleticism. In that, however, we see why it’s so impressive that Dudley has turned himself from a benchwarmer, to a stellar sixth-man candidate, and now into a legitimate starting NBA shooting guard.

Suns fans know all too well that Dudley won’t hesitate to count on one hand the number of dunks he’s had this season, and that’s a perfect example of why he’s successful.

He’s not oblivious.

So when Dudley faced LeBron James last Tuesday, he knew he was at a disadvantage, yet he attacked James in a calculated and quiet manner that few players might.

This wasn’t about showing James how tough he was, nor was it to show he could beat James with a hounding, overly-physical brand of defense that might end up in LeBron blowing by him for a ferocious slam.

This was about outsmarting the King.

Reviewing the MySynergySports log and tossing out the transition opportunities in which James had the outright advantage, Dudley held James to 2-of-5 shooting. No, that’s not a large sample size, but hear me out.

The first made bucket came at the buzzer of the first quarter, when James simply faded away from 15 feet as Dudley contested the shot; not really much fault on Dudley’s part. The other make came when Dudley was caught by a double-screen late in the fourth quarter, when the Heat made their run to dissolve a 10-point Phoenix lead. Again, not a whole lot Dudley could’ve done.

But the three misses?

Throughout the game, Dudley hardly pressed James — he rarely touched him, even. He stayed an arms-length away as to disallow open jump shots yet was in a decent position if James went all speeding-freight-train trying to get to the basket.

Inadvertently or not, his strategy baited James into bad shots. Three times, James went into post-up mode and all three times he missed the attempt.

Aside from the clutch-factor of LeBron, it’s James’ post game that receives the most criticism in the basketball-minded circles. I’m sure James himself knows this too, and it’s a testament to Dudley’s baiting defense that James decided to take him into the post at all.

It was just an example of a player whose smarts outweigh — and are partially because of — the outrageously-chronicled fact that he can hardly jump over a phone book.

Unlike J.R. Smith, Ricky Rubio, and LeBron James, who are defined by their “game,” Dudley’s “game” should be defined not by what naturally makes it, but how he makes it — consciously.

A look at Minnesota without Rubio 

On Saturday the Timberwolves found out they lost their rookie phenom and floor general Ricky Rubio to a torn ACL. While the absence of Rubio’s offensive ability and passing prowess hurts Minnesota, Gentry said the Timberwolves will miss his defense as much as anything.

“That’s probably the thing that’s most underrated about him. He’s got great hands and he’s got great size,” Gentry said. “You’re talking about a 6-4 guy with a good wingspan, really, really quick hands. He’s done a lot for them. They will probably miss that as much as anything.”

Minnesota will also miss Rubio’s court vision, but Gentry said it makes the Timberwolves bigger and doesn’t change their offensive approach. Rick Adelman’s teams run their offense through the high post, and that won’t change without Rubio.

“They’re still going to play the same way,” Gentry said. “They run a lot of their high post with their bigs. Rick always does it that way. He did it with Vlade and Chris Webber and now with Kevin, Michael Beasley and Williams. What it does is take one point guard off the floor.”

Minnesota’s third point guard J.J. Barea, who’s been nursing an ankle injury, will suit up and play, according to Adelman. Barea will be limited, however.

Dudley’s improved play

Jared Dudley is averaging 18.0 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.2 blocks while shooting 52.9 percent from the field and 38.1 percent from three over his last five games. But Gentry didn’t point to Dudley’s offensive play as his only contribution as of late.

“He’s made some shots and that always helps but he’s been pretty good defensively coming up with plays, that’s what I like about the way he’s playing right now,” Gentry said. “He always gets us a few extra possessions.”

Lopez better emotionally

Although to a lesser degree than Dudley, Robin Lopez is also one of the reasons the Suns are surging after the All-Star break. After a disappointing first half to the season Lopez is averaging 5.8 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.0 blocks in 12.8 minutes over the course of his last five games. Gentry attributed Lopez’s improved play to a more emotionally stable mentality.

“I think he’s playing with confidence. I think he’s much more under control,” Gentry said. “Emotionally he’s been really good in games when things haven’t gone exactly right for him. Because of that I think he’s been able to make some plays.”

Gentry on his NCAA Tournament favorite: “If I were to fill mine out I still think that Kentucky is by far the best team. I don’t think that they’ll win but I still think they’re by far the best team. I would never count Michigan State out with Izzo.”

Gentry on Peyton Manning to the Cardinals talk: “I watched his jump shot when I was in New Orleans and after that I don’t really care. I watched he and Eli shoot baskets and I don’t think either one of them is going to help us so, I think it’s great but they can’t help us. His crossover is much to be desired, too.”

PHOENIX — Close your eyes and you could almost imagine being transported back to 2010, a better time for this franchise when a home game against the Lakers meant a battle between powerhouses.

For one of the first times this season, a special electricity ran through US Airways Center with a flock of Lakers fans in attendance bringing out the best in the Suns fans in the stands and the Suns on the floor as well.

“It was motivating seeing all the Lakers fans out on our home court,” Channing Frye said. “I felt like our fans came out tonight, and we wanted to really take it to their fans and make sure we got back that loss.”

After the Lakers looked like men amongst boys Friday night against this Suns squad in Staples Center, as Mike Schmitz put it, the Suns blitzkrieged the Lakers by playing with the rhythm and effectiveness of Nash’s best teams during a near perfect first quarter before hanging on for a 102-90 victory that snapped a four-game losing streak.

That quarter perhaps represents the peak for this Suns team as they did nearly everything right. That entailed shooting 56 percent, committing just two turnovers, limiting the Lakers to one offensive board, running to eight fast break point and having Nash dissect Los Angeles for seven assists and Marcin Gortat dominate for nine points and nine boards (as many as the Lakers as a team) while setting a season high in first quarter points.

There was already a definitive feel in the air that this was a big game, something often experienced during the Suns’ heyday, and the vintage first quarter only continued the party.

“I thought our ball movement in the first quarter was great and the execution was really good,” said head coach Alvin Gentry. “I thought the defensive execution was even better. It just was a really good win.”

The Lakers, of course, made a run after the Suns led by as many as 27 early in the second half and then 26 with 5:16 remaining in the third, getting it all the way down to 10 with 4:21 remaining on a couple Kobe free throws as many in the Suns section of the crowd likely began to wonder if this would be the Suns’ worst collapse yet. But despite 20 second-half points and four assists from Bryant, Los Angeles never reduced the lead to single digits.

As always when these teams lace them up, the Suns’ defensive game plan centered around Bryant. After watching the man who hates them pick them apart for 48 and 36 points in their first two matchups, the Suns sent hard doubles from different angles to “limit” him to 32 points to go with his seven boards and five assists. Yet there was an ugly “10” in the turnover line, one fewer than the Suns as a team.

“He gets pretty determined to score and we decided to be just as determined to make it difficult for him,” Nash said. “We tried to make him shoot over two guys and pass the ball. I thought guys were really aggressive. Grant does a great job, he’s really solid. You can never stop Kobe, but he does a good job of just being there every time and if he makes shots, he makes shots, but it’s tough when you’ve got Grant right in your face every play.”

Added Hill, “He still scored above his average. One of these days I’ll try to keep him under his average.”

That’s OK when he needs 24 shots to get his 32 points and when they are coupled with the double-figure turnover numbers.

It’s also fine when Bynum (16 and 10) and Gasol (17 and 12) are held in check and the Lakers get seldom any production from anyone else. Their other starters combined for a mere two points and their bench contributed just 23, led by Troy Murphy’s eight. When it’s the Kobe Show and he’s barely above his league-leading average, you’re probably going to win the game.

Meanwhile, Marcin Gortat continued his dominance of the Lakers with his second straight 20-15 game against them his weekend (he finished with 21 and 15). The Polish Hammer is now averaging 19.3 points and 14.3 boards against Los Angeles’ vaunted front line, and only Dwight Howard, Kevin Love and DeMarcus Cousins own more 20-15 games than Gortat’s three for the season.

In all five Suns scored in double figures, but Nash wasn’t one of them, as he tallied just eight to go with his 14 assists to raise his assist average above 11.0 for the first time this year.

Dudley led that crew with 25 on 9-for-15 shooting, with perhaps his biggest bucket coming after the Lakers cut the lead to 10 with 4:39 left when he nailed a jumper in Gasol’s face off a switch. It was just his third isolation bucket of the season, per mySynergySports, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

“For this team to be successful we’ve got to have four or five guys in double figures, it can’t just be two or three guys,” said Dudley, noting Nash and Gortat always get theirs but they need help. “Early on I had it going. I think we all just fed off each other.”

In all the Suns played like a playoff team tonight in front of a playoff crowd, particularly during the first quarter that for my money was their best 12 minutes of the season. If they could bottle that performance there’s no telling the kind of damage they could do with tonight starting a stretch of 12 of 14 home games.

Gentry was asked if he ever watches a quarter like that and says to himself, “Why can’t we do that all the time?”

His response: “Every single night. Me and 29 other coaches.”

Yet more often Gentry is resigned to discussing blown leads or defensive rebounding or turnovers or miserable bench play or any of the myriad topics he has often discussed in postgame interviews this season with Phoenix still six games under .500 after this win.

“I think we’ve shown we can be good, we just have to kind of remind ourselves of the formula,” Hill said. “It’s coming out with energy, playing hard and competing. When we do that — we did it tonight — we’re really good, and when we don’t we’re really bad.”

The Suns have been really bad far more often than they’ve been really good, but at least for one night they followed Hill’s formula to earn the kind of win that must have reminded Phoenix’s faithful of better times.

And 1

• Gentry credited Rita Garvin, wife of vice chairman Sam Garvin, for pointing out that the Suns play well whenever he wears his glasses, as he did Sunday night. “I will never have a game where I will not wear my glasses anymore,” Gentry said. “I’m going to keep them on.”
• Hill on Kobe: “He just seems to get up for the Suns. I don’t know what the Suns did years back in the playoffs, but I wasn’t here then.”
• Gentry tightened up Phoenix’s rotation with Gortat playing 41:50, Nash 36:30, Hill 35:31 and Dudley 34:25. Markieff Morris was the only reserve to play over 14 minutes, Robin Lopez played just five and Josh Childress, Ronnie Price and Hakim Warrick all earned DNP-CDs. You think he wanted to win this game?
• Many Suns players pointed to the fact that the team committed just 11 turnovers after coughing it up 15 times in the first half alone on Friday night as the difference between the two games. … The Suns had lost four straight games to the Lakers, including three in a row at home in the regular season. … With eight games of at least 14 assists, Nash has twice the number of any other player. … Phoenix recorded a season-high-tying 21 fast-break points.

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.

Bobcats

Suns

Typically, this preview would focus on the statistical differentials between the teams in various advanced metrics — offensive rebound rate, effective field goal percentage and the other Four Factors — but this isn’t a typical game. This is a clash between a Suns team that can’t seem to find any traction in a desperate attempt to avoid being sucked to the bottom of the Western Conference by a maelstrom powered by a lack of depth, chemistry issues and overall ineffectiveness in rebounding and a Bobcats team that already lies at the bottom of the ocean floor, already victim to basketball’s Charybdis.

For the “too long; didn’t read” crowd, these teams are really bad. Charlotte is worse; they’re the worst team in the league, really, both by winning percentage and ability to lose to the Wizards multiple times. The Suns aren’t a whole lot better, though, and that’s a depressing statement. How do you make a game between these two teams interesting, other than Steve Nash to Marcin Gortat pick and rolls for 30-plus minutes?

Put Bismack Biyombo into the starting lineup for the Bobcats, that’s how!

Due to what scientists refer to as a “truckload” of injuries recently, Charlotte will start Kemba Walker, Reggie Williams, Tyrus Thomas, former Sun Boris Diaw and Biyombo. That’s two lottery picks, a player who’s gifted at appreciating French cuisine, an ex-Sun who’s really good at making passes from in and around the post* and Tyrus Thomas, whom I’m legitimately afraid might try to block a shot that Biyombo already blocked.

*You assumed I meant Boris when I mentioned an appreciation for French cuisine, didn’t you? I know, it was a trick statement (yes, that’s a thing). Reggie Williams played basketball in France.

One of two things is bound to happen with that starting lineup. Either all 18 tires on the truck will blow out, the vehicle will flip over and Paul Silas will be forced to switch to a backup truck driven by Byron Mullens and Cory Higgins, or all of that will happen in spectacular fashion — with flames everywhere, Biyombo rejecting the Gorilla’s dunks during timeouts as well as every shot attempted by Channing Frye and DaSagana Diop sneaking into the freezer at the Cold Stone Creamery inside US Airways Center.

After all, while Biyombo is foul-prone (to put it lightly), he’s also shown glimpses of being a defensive force simply due to his length. His knowledge on the defensive end is growing with every game; if he can avoid picking up early fouls, he’ll be a disruptive force against a Suns offense that needs all the help from the opposition it can get. Little went well for Phoenix on offense against the Rockets once the starters sat for the first time last night. The only positive, really, was the rest that the starters received.

Charlotte is an awful team, and things tonight will likely go very poorly for them, but the Suns are having struggles of their own. They have two losses on their record that, with a little hindsight, are pretty awful — at home to both the Hornets (now 4-19) and Nets (8-16). Phoenix is perfectly capable of laying an egg against a team like Charlotte, sadly. Starting the rookies might increase those odds for the Bobcats, especially if they come out with energy and catch the Suns off guard. In that unlikely event, something as small as forcing Biyombo (and the other starters) to the bench might have a significant impact on the game.

If there’s anyone capable of getting Biyombo into foul trouble, it’s Marcin Gortat. Gortat, as noted by Paul Coro, has become a beast since the splint came off his broken thumb. His total rebounding percentage has returned to nearly the same rate as last season (18.0% of available rebounds last year, 17.9% so far this season), and he’s scoring a career-best 17.3 points per 36 minutes, even as Phoenix’s pace plummets to lows unseen in the Nash era. His chemistry with both Nash and Ronnie Price is notable, but the combination of Gortat and Nash has few contemporary parallels in the pick and roll.

However, the Suns don’t have much to offer behind those two this season. Perhaps the Bobcats will provide the remedy for Phoenix as a whole and some of the individual players, as well. Grant Hill (41.3% effective field goal percentage, which takes into account the added value of three-pointers) and Channing Frye (41.9 eFG%) are having career-worst shooting seasons, and Markieff Morris has cooled off substantially since his hot start. In his last 10 games, Morris is 19-for-64 from the field and 4-for-12 from three. That’s a 32.8 eFG%; for context, the most minutes played by anyone shooting that poorly this season is 269, by Marquis Daniels.

Morris’s percentage will improve; he’s neither as good as his early season start made him seem nor as bad as this recent stretch appears. The Bobcats, who allow the third highest opponent eFG%, might be the perfect team against which to start that regression back to the mean, for Morris and the rest of the team.

As long as the Suns don’t go off the rails themselves, that is.

UPDATE: Dudley to miss first game since 2009 with thigh bruise, Redd to start

Jared Dudley will sit out tonight’s game after suffering a thigh bruise Wednesday in New Orleans. He played through it last night in Houston, although head coach Alvin Gentry said he probably should have missed that one as well since his thigh is “really swollen.”

Michael Redd will get his first Phoenix start in Dudley’s place. Redd has averaged 3.7 points in 9.9 minutes per game in nine contests this season.

This will be the first game Dudley misses since March 6, 2009.

And 1

• The jury’s still out on how the second night of a back-to-back is affecting the Suns. They’re 2-3 in those games, but the combined record of the teams they played in those losses is slightly higher (48.6% winning percentage) than the teams they beat (43.5%). However, the first number is buoyed by a loss to the Thunder — the other two losses were the aforementioned Nets loss and a loss to Toronto. The wins came against the Knicks and Grizzlies.
• Gentry pregame on playing the worst team in basketball: “There’s no easy games, there’s no games you can just put a checkmark by. They have trouble finishing games like we do. We’ll have to play extremely well and play with a great effort to beat them. That’s the way it’s going to be for us in a lot of situations.”

PHOENIX — Every time the Suns’ season seems to be careening toward a “wait til next year” cliff, they pull off a resounding victory over a likely playoff team.

After an uninspiring 2-4 start they whacked the Blazers. Then after five losses in a row they upset the Knicks and Celtics on the road. Now they followed up last night’s “horrendous” effort in Portland and a three-game losing streak by slipping past the Memphis Grizzlies, 86-84.

This win won’t remind anybody of the Seven Seconds or Less era, however, as the Suns managed to win just their second game in the last four seasons when shooting under 40 percent in their 36.4 percent shooting effort.

They did so by limiting the Grizzlies to 16 points in each of the first two quarters to build a 16-point halftime lead before narrowly hanging on when Jared Dudley knocked down four clutch free throws.

“We had to gut it out at the end, but I thought after last night’s embarrassment, we came out and played with a lot of heart and found a way,” said Suns guard Steve Nash. “They are a really good team and they have a lot of talent, a lot of depth, a lot of weapons, so we did a good job defensively and we just hung on offensively.”

When Dante Cunningham tied the game with a layup at the 1:24 mark this seemed to be shaping up as a game in which the Suns’ lack of a go-to player could spell doom. It turns out all the Suns needed was for Dudley to find some contact.

After a Marcin Gortat miss, the Suns’ defense forced a Cunningham 18-footer and Marc Gasol was called for a loose ball foul during the scramble for the rebound on a play Dudley thought would go down as a no-call.

Rudy Gay answered those two foul shots with a nifty bank shot, which gave the Suns the ball with the shot clock turned off and an opportunity to make one final play. After killing the clock, Memphis’ defense on a Nash-Gortat pick-and-roll forced the ball to be rotated to Dudley, who got tripped with 3.3 seconds left.

“I have cat feet,” Dudley said to defend the debatable call. “I usually land on my feet, so you know if I don’t land on my feet it is a foul.”

Those free throws proved to be the winning margin after Mike Conley’s 30-footer fell well short. Afterward JMZ joked that he hasn’t shot free throws that big since his Boston College days when he was beating Hakim Warrick’s Orangemen.

I’ve always been fascinated with the mental aspect of clutch free throws (I once wrote an entire paper on the subject for a creative writing class back in college).  Players often lie in postgame interview and say shots like that are just another free throw, but Dudley did in fact admit those shots were “definitely different.”

“This is game time,” said Dudley, the game’s star with 20 points, six boards, four assists and three steals. “Now you guys are interviewing me. If I didn’t make it you might be interviewing Steve right now.”

Nash was his usual spectacular self in his 700th game with the franchise, racking up 21 points on 8-for-14 shooting to go with six assists and five rebounds. Marcin Gortat hit just 6-of-17 in his showdown against potential All-Star center Marc Gasol (18-13) but still collected another double-double with a 13-12 game.

Meanwhile, Channing Frye’s shot continued to be off in tonight’s two-point, 1-for-9 performance. Frye has averaged 3.6 points on 21.3 percent shooting in his last seven games.

Thus Alvin Gentry’s decision to return to the starting lineup that he began the season with had a much bigger impact on Dudley than Frye. Markieff Morris continued to produce off the bench (10 points, nine rebounds) while Ronnie Price played just 6:32 as Sebastian Telfair continued as the primary backup point guard even with Price joining him on the pine.

It was a different rotation all around as Shannon Brown and Robin Lopez did not play by coach’s decision, and Josh Childress pulled down three boards (two offensive) in eight rotation minutes. Also, Telfair subbed in for Nash seven minutes into each half to allow him to return earlier than usual.

“I played the guys tonight that I thought were going to help us win,” Gentry said.

After last night’s embarrassment Gentry seems to be searching for new combinations that could be a fit. It’s obviously not an ideal situation to be in a month into the season, but at the same time since the Suns have so many potential rotation players and only two clear-cut starters it’s what needs to be done.

Dudley said he just wants to know what his role will be, whether it’s as a sixth or seventh man or a starter, although he did admit to feeling “comfortable” as a starter since he “envisioned starting this year and playing that role.”

Ideally, the Suns will eventually develop the kind of well-defined roles that catapulted the 2009-10 team to such spectacular heights, but that team was able to feature such specialization because players naturally filled particular spots on the team.

However, this season after Nash and Gortat there is so much parity between players 3-13 that Gentry may be relegated to mixing and matching and playing the hot hand or the best matchup all season long.

“It’s hard to pick the rotations,” Nash said. “It’s hard to say whether the rotation is the reason we won, you know, I don’t know. So, we’ve just got to keep working and believe in each other and hope no matter who is called upon, they’re going to go out there and play hard and try to play for each other.”

And 1

• Nash suffered “another” thigh bruise on the final play of the game when he got tangled up with Gasol setting a screen for Conley’s final heave. He previously injured his other (right) thigh against Cleveland on Jan. 12, which caused him to miss a game, but Nash is “optimistic” he will be able to play Monday against Dallas. “It’s just frustrating,” he said. “Hopefully it will settle down for Monday.”
• Morris’ locker was adorned with an Iowa State logo and the words “all we do” after the Cyclones knocked off the rookie’s No. 5-ranked Kansas Jayhawks today.
• The Suns are now 4-1 when Dudley scores 15 or more. … Nash dished six assists to put him seven shy of Kevin Johnson’s franchise record. … Gortat is now averaging double-digit boards for the first time in his career. The last Suns to do so was Matrix in 2005-06.

Nash, Dudley leading Tweeter of the Year race

@SteveNash and @JaredDudley619 are leading the way in the voting for HoopsHype’s Tweeter of the Year award for 2011.

As of this writing, Nash leads with 4,676 total points; JD is just behind in second at 4,127. Dudley leads all players with 140 first-place votes whereas Two Time has 45. Fans can vote for them here at HoopsHype.

Nash won HoopsHype’s inaugural Tweeter of the Year award last season, and Dudley was recognized by the site as the league’s most valuable tweeter in December 2009.

Jared Dudley felt his squad had many chances to build a lead in the first half if the Suns would have hit their shots. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

PHOENIX — Timing is everything in basketball. Cut or screen too soon or too late, and the offensive play crumbles.

The Phoenix Suns, like every other NBA team, haven’t had much practice time — not even casual pick-up games — to construct well-timed execution, and that had a great deal of impact in their season opening loss.

Bad timing led to a poorly executed final play in the Suns’ loss to the New Orleans Hornets. It also might have thrown off the usually solid shooting percentage of Phoenix as the Suns connected on only 39.5 percent of their attempts.

“Our offense was just non-existent,” head coach Alvin Gentry said. “We just never got into any rhythm or flow, although in the first half we had a lot of really good looks that could have put us up 10 or 12 points.”

Instead,  it was the Suns’ defense that put them in position to start off the season with a victory. Even the game-winning jumper by Hornets guard Eric Gordon was a well-defended, contested shot, Gentry said.

However, Jared Dudley remained skeptical when reviewing the defensive statistics.

He believed the low-scoring affair was partially a symptom of the Hornets playing with a new roster. They dished out just 10 total assists, and much of that was due to starting point guard Jarrett Jack out due to suspension.

“Obviously we played well statistically,” Dudley said. “We played against a team that didn’t have a point guard. Jarrett Jack was suspended, they just threw trades in. I think we both were just really bad offensively.”

So as much as they’re working on a new defense, the Suns are still about offense — after all, this is a Steve Nash-led team.

Dudley agreed that there were numerous opportunities to build upon a big lead in the first half, but he and his teammates missed open jumpers. Gentry estimated that Dudley, forward Grant Hill and struggling big man Channing Frye missed at least three open looks each.

That too had to do with off-kilter rhythm and timing, though Gentry wasn’t too concerned and believes the offense will come with time and (surprise) a more frenetic pace.

“Early on we had great looks, you’ve got to knock them in,” Dudley said. “Sometimes we have to get to the basket. We want to get out more in transition.”

And Phoenix struggled to do that against the Hornets.

Last season, the Suns posted scoring outputs in the 80s just seven times and had the league’s seventh-best Pace Factor of 94.4 possessions per 48 minutes, according to Basketball-Reference.com. Against the Hornets, Phoenix posted a middle-of-the-road Pace Factor of 89, and Gentry and company think the Suns must take advantage of transition opportunities, especially when they’re having a poor shooting night.

“As I said, it doesn’t matter how they play offensively as far as stringing out possessions,” Gentry said, “we still got to be able to get out and run. If they only had 12 offensive rebounds, we had a lot of opportunities to run.”

Taking the open shot

We hear it often — sometimes coaches for the Suns have to urge players to let it fly.

Even for self-proclaimed scorers like guard Shannon Brown, it’s easier said than done. Brown, who went 1-for-8 in his Phoenix debut against New Orleans, appeared to be pressing on Monday.

Gentry said he needs to play more instinctual basketball.

“It’s just like, ‘shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot,’” Brown said of the Suns’ offensive philosophies.

“I don’t think I was trying too hard,” Brown added. “I think it’s just getting in to the rhythm of everything.”

Gentry, however, believes Brown is still in the process of shedding his old habits with the Lakers. Trying too hard or not, it appeared Brown was forcing the issue at times on Monday, going one-on-one instead of taking the open jumpers on catches off the ball.

“We don’t expect him to be an iso guy,” Gentry said. “We’ll put him in a flow and in a rhythm. It’s tough. He’s played in an offense the last few years where everything is predicated on the next move and the next move.

“He was passing up some shot opportunities, you know, that we swing the ball to him where he’s kind of in the middle of (thinking) ‘is this a good shot or is it not?’”

Rookie forward Markieff Morris was another player still getting used to the shoot now, shoot later mentality. He went 2-for-5 from the field an 1-for-3 from beyond the arc in his first NBA game.

Morris was the last player to leave Tuesday’s practice, and ended his session by working on catch-and-shoot three-pointers while on the move.

“I missed about eight in a row but that ninth one I made,” Morris said of his post-practice drill. “Coach has his faith in me to keep shooting and when I’m open I have to take the shot. He jokes about (Kansas) coach (Bill) Self telling me not to shoot.

“It’s different now.”

And 1

• Morris on the last play of the game and his pass: “To be my first game and Coach had faith in me to have me in that time was big. Made a bad pass at the end, but you live to play another game and it’s the first of 66. It definitely happened fast. I just was trying to get the ball to Steve. It was a bad pass, they played great ‘D’ on him.”

• Brown on how much we can take from the first game: “If ya’ll are basing (the team) off what happened yesterday, I say you’ve got to look at both preseason games and the scrimmages or whatever. Yesterday, we were a little out of sync. I don’t even know the last time the Suns scored 85 (actually 84) points.”

• Brown on keeping up with the Los Angeles Lakers: “It’s kind of hard to put it behind me. Every time I talk to somebody it’s all they talk about. Every time I’m out, it’s like, ‘Lakers, why’d you leave the Lakers? Lakers, Lakers, Lakers.’ I think there are more Lakers fans in Phoenix than Suns fans. We’ve got to convert them.”