PHOENIX — Much has changed about the Phoenix Suns since Steve Nash signed as a free agent before the 2004-05 season yet one constant had remained: the Suns always beat the Toronto Raptors.

Not anymore.

The Suns’ longest active winning streak over a single opponent was snapped Tuesday night in Toronto’s 99-96 victory after the Suns had beaten the Raptors 14 consecutive times. In so doing Toronto (5-13) also waived goodbye to a current eight-game losing streak.

Phoenix losing to a bad team at home has now become more the rule than the exception as the Suns have dropped games to 5-13 New Jersey and 6-10 Cleveland as well as a New Orleans team that has lost 14 of 16 since winning in the Valley on opening night.

“Disappointing, very disappointing,” Suns head coach Alvin Gentry said to open his postgame remarks.

It’s never OK to lose to a struggling team on a long road trip, but it’s understandable that the Suns were just tuckered out from their own five-game road trip that concluded last night in Dallas and saw them arrive in Phoenix in the middle of the night.

The Suns actually got off to a great start, opening the game by hitting 13-of-24 while limiting Toronto to 9-of-24 to spurt out to a 35-21 lead three minutes into the second quarter.

But the Suns shot just 44.8 percent the rest of the way and were outscored 62-44 in the middle two quarters before a late run fell short.

Gentry applauded the Suns’ energy in the first quarter but said the Suns didn’t play with the same defensive intensity in the second.

“We almost got into a situation where we were trading baskets, which is not a good thing,” Gentry said. “Then we struggled to score.”

Andrea Bargnani did not, however. Bargnani, who missed the previous six Toronto losses with a calf injury, exploded for 27 of his game-high 36 points in the second half and nearly outscored the Suns in the third quarter alone, losing it 19-18.

The Italian sharpshooter drilled 4-of-5 threes during his second half onslaught, which opened up driving lanes for him. Once he started scoring like that, the Raptors transformed into a different team.

“We gave him a little too much spacing,” Gentry said of the player largely defended by Markieff Morris. “We didn’t get in on the screen and rolls and show hard enough and get out quite quick enough. The guy is a hell of a player.”

Added Nash, “He was just too much for us.”

The Suns still had their chances on a couple of different occasions late in the fourth. They cut the lead to four with 5:13 left, but a Grant Hill missed layup and a Marcin Gortat missed seven-footer prevented the Suns from getting any closer at that point.

After the lead ballooned to nine, the Suns sliced it down to two on a Jared Dudley steal and dunk, his first of the season. But after Bargnani drilled a pair of free throws, Nash missed a driving layup that would have continued the foul game and thus their fate was sealed.

Statistically it was more of the same for Phoenix. Nash (17 points, 14 assists, seven boards but six turnovers) and Gortat (21 points, 12 boards) once again put up gaudy numbers, and this time they were joined by Hakim Warrick (17 points on 6-for-9).  On the flip side, Channing Frye and Dudley combined to shoot 3-for-14 off the pine.

Gentry refused to feel defeated after yet another bad home less, instead offering up this proclamation.

“We’ve got to continue to work, we’ve got to continue to be united, and we’ve got to continue to try to get better,” he said. “That’s the only thing as a coach that I know how to do. There’s nobody that’s going to quit, we’re not going to let anybody quit, and we’ll continue to try to figure it out, and we’ll continue to try to turn our season around.

“No one’s going to throw in the towel, I know that. I’m not going to allow that from a player standpoint or coaching standpoint. We’re going to continue to try to get better and execute a little bit better.”

In a clearly frustrated Suns locker room, Nash was the only player to speak to reporters and he succinctly summed up Phoenix’s next step.

“We just don’t have the talent to go out there and win games,” Two Time said. “We’ve got to find a little bit something extra, we’ve got to find a little magic in our chemistry and our cohesion, and we haven’t found it yet. It’s tough, we aren’t practicing so we’ve got to really concentrate on games and in film sessions to try to find that little extra.”

Thus far the whole is adding up to the sum of its parts and nothing more for a Suns team that lost despite holding the lowly Raptors to 41.5 percent shooting from the field and yielding only 11 offensive boards.

It’s the kind of gut punch loss that could portend a season that gets ugly in a hurry with Phoenix facing three straight West playoff teams before hitting the road for seven of nine, yet that’s not the way Nash chooses to see it.

“You’ve got a choice to be optimistic or pessimistic every day, and I’m going to try to be as optimistic as I can,” he said.

Games like this are not making it easy for Nash to maintain that point of view.

Suns won’t extend Lopez

Lon Babby confirmed to former ValleyoftheSuns reporter Tyler Lockman that Robin Lopez will not receive a contract extension by Wednesday’s deadline, thus making him a free agent at the end of the year.

The Suns will be able to extend Lopez a $4,001,917 qualifying offer after the season that would make him a restricted free agent.

“I wouldn’t read anymore into it than there’s a deadline and the deadline’s going to pass,” Babby told Lockman. “And we’ve agreed to put this off to another day.”

Lopez was not exactly playing for a contract on Tuesday night as he was ejected just 3:46 into his evening after making contact with an official. Lopez was incensed about a no-call at the offensive end and then ran down and committed a bad open court foul at the other end before earning the ejection.

“I don’t know, and I don’t really give a s–t to tell you the truth,” Gentry said when asked about the ejection. “You’d have to talk to him about that.”

And 1

The Polish Hammer produced his ninth straight double-double, extending the league’s longest active streak and the longest by a Sun since Shawn Marion during the 2005-06 campaign. Gortat has also boarded 12 or more caroms in six straight, the longest streak since Marion that same season. Not surprisingly, Gortat has led the Suns in rebounding for the ninth straight game which is — say it together — the longest Suns streak since Marion did so 16 consecutive times in 2006. … Nash recorded his NBA-leading third game with 14 or more dimes. His 17-14-7 line has only been done twice this year (Rose and Rondo).

Raptors

Suns

Against the Phoenix Suns, the Toronto Raptors should apparently be concerned that they’re averaging 19.3 points in the first quarter through 17 games this season.

That’s funny.

Why is it funny if the Raptors (4-13) are 29th in the league in scoring and winless in the last 15 games against the Suns? That all looks bad for Toronto, who visits Phoenix (6-10) tonight at 7 p.m. in US Airways Center as Alvin Gentry’s squad returns home after a five game road trip.

But that worry about scoring 19.3 in the first? Not a worry at all.

The Suns have scored 19 or less points in 18 of 64 quarters played this season. My calculator says that’s more than a quarter of Phoenix’s quarters (28.125 percent to be exact), which means that the Suns usually score less than 19.3 points in one quarter every game. In fact, they’ve only played three games of 16 while scoring 20 or more in every quarter.

On a the second game of a back-to-back and coming off a season-worst 37.3 percent shooting against the Dallas Mavericks, the Suns should have every reason to worry about losing to the struggling Raptors.

Andrea Bargnani is making his All-Star push by averaging 22.3 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.

DeMar DeRozan, while lugging along a 9.8 PER, has the talent to go off. And again Raptor’s point guard Jose Calderon quietly sits amongst the point guard elite by averaging 10.8 points and 8.7 assists per game.

But after the Suns got carved up by one of their former figureheads in Shawn Marion on Monday, there should be a fear of more bittersweet performances from players with any sort of ties to the city of Phoenix.

Those fears could begin with former Sixth Man of the Year Leandro Barbosa, who has been on a tear of late. Toronto head coach Dwane Casey has begun to give Barbosa the green light, and he’s scored in double figures in eight of his last nine games.

Phoenix’s fear of an opponent’s personal motivation could end with former St. Mary’s High School product Jerryd Bayless. Bayless returned on Sunday against the Clippers from an ankle injury that forced him out of the past 13 games, and he scored seven points and dished out five assists.

19.3 is the magic number per period the Suns should look to eclipse — they can’t afford to have any anemic quarters. While I don’t expect they’ll look like the Suns of old, all they need is a complete game to pull this one off. That’s not something they’ve been good at this year, and on a two-game home losing streak against two less-than-stellar opponents, the pressure is on.

Said Marcin Gortat to Paul Coro: “”We’ve got to win this game at home,” Gortat said. “We can’t trip any more at home. Games at home count double for us now.”

Three keys for Phoenix

1. Put ball in basket

This is how you play basketball. The Suns looked abysmal against the Mavericks on Monday, and it wasn’t like they weren’t getting decent looks against Dallas. Sure, the length hurt Phoenix to the point that the bench looked pretty awful, but turnovers and plain bad shooting put Phoenix in a hole it couldn’t overcome. Back at US Airways Center, perhaps Phoenix can find a confidence and a rhythm to its offense.

2. Keep on the boards

The Suns somehow won the rebounding numbers against a Dallas team that had more length, size and capability. Against Toronto’s rebounding attack, the Suns can’t allow Bargnani, Amir Johnson and Ed Davis to hit the offensive glass. The Raptors shoot 42 percent from the field on the season, and Phoenix must limit their opportunities for second-chance points.

3. Jump on them early

Losing eight games in a row, it’s likely Toronto doesn’t have the utmost confidence coming into this one. Most of those games have been double-digit losses, and the Suns could use a boost from the home crowd to stomp out any smoldering fire of life.

PHOENIX — In Mathletics, former Mavericks stats guru Wayne Winston found that playing on the second game of a back-to-back makes an NBA team play two points worse than average.

If only Winston could come up with a formula that would determine how much worse a team would be expected to play when its best players log 57, 53 and 49 minutes the night before in a crushing triple overtime loss to their rivals and then their two best perimeter defenders can’t make it through the first half. Then we would know what the Suns were up against Wednesday against the Toronto Raptors.

In a game the Suns absolutely had to win to keep pace with the Memphis Grizzlies, who won in Boston to stay three games up for the final playoff spot, Phoenix required a total team effort to earn what Alvin Gentry called the squad’s best win of the season, 114-106 over the Toronto Raptors.

On the surface it may be a surprise for Gentry to say that about a game Phoenix didn’t play all that well in against a team that’s now 31 games below .500.

But he made the statement because the Suns used all 12 active players while the game was still in doubt and everybody from Aaron Brooks to Zabian Dowdell to Josh Childress made a contribution when called upon.

“Everybody always says it’s a team effort, but today it really was,” Jared Dudley said. “It was a team effort, and we did enough to win basically.”

Added Gentry, “That was a total team effort right there. I thought everybody that came in did a little something to help the team and that’s what was really good about it. After last night and the emotional drain, then coming away with nothing really tangible to show for the effort that we gave, I just thought it was great to come back and put in that kind of effort and be able to win the game.”

Nothing about this game was quite typical, starting with Nash’s exit midway through the first quarter that resulted in Two Time sitting for the rest of the half. Hill took a rest then as well and was later sent home he was so exhausted, and two minutes into his stint Pietrus sprained his knee and walked off the court onto the baseline while an open Raptor scored a layup. He did not return.

Midway through the second half Gentry teamed Nash with Brooks in the backcourt, as the Suns went to a matchup zone to hide their lack of size at the guard spots. Brooks (team-high plus 21 in 34 minutes) remained in for the rest of the game as Vince Carter (-11 in 20 minutes) sat and the Suns went with a Brooks-Dowdell backcourt for almost nine crucial minutes of a second half the team had to win.

The Suns trailed 84-71 with 3:21 left in the third, but they reeled off a 15-2 run to end the period capped by a Brooks layup at the buzzer to head into the fourth quarter tied.

Things seemed lost once again when the Suns trailed by six with 4:25 remaining, but Phoenix raced out to a 17-3 advantage the rest of the way, hitting 6-of-8 shots while holding Toronto to 1-of-9 shooting.

Brooks was the catalyst, scoring 25 points on 9-for-16 shooting while dishing eight assists. He created plays, he attacked for his own offense, and he spotted up for threes when playing with Nash, including a dagger of a trey to put the Suns up five with 54.9 left.

“Obviously that was his best game as a Sun,” Gentry said of Brooks. “I thought he was just so aggressive and really feeling a lot more comfortable with what we’re doing.”

Gentry told Brooks to attack more and that he would likely play a bigger role in this one after Nash played 49 minutes the night before, but Brooks didn’t expect to enter so early in a game Nash played just 21:30 of.

This game typified why the Suns swapped backup point guards. On nights Nash can’t carry the load throughout a ballgame, Brooks is in the bullpen waiting to do some damage.

“This was a must-win game. We knew the importance of this game,” Brooks said. “We came in and we did our job. [The starters] carried the torch in the Lakers game for an hour, and it was our turn to come in there and do our jobs. We knew we had to keep it close for the end of the game, get Nash back in there to close it out, so that’s what we did.”

Gentry joked that Frye and Gortat are about to kill him after Frye played nearly 100 minutes on consecutive days (40 tonight) and Gortat added 33 minutes to his 53 a night before.

Dudley was the ironman of the night with 42 minutes of action for a Suns team that suddenly needed all that depth at the wing spot when Hill and Pietrus left early.

It was an unenviable task both physically and certainly mentally to move past a game in which so much emotional energy was invested to grind out a win against a bad team they just had to beat, and while it wasn’t always easy that’s exactly what the Suns did.

“Man, let me tell you, it was no joke,” Frye said. “Grant leaving, now our rotation got even shorter. I felt that Coach did a good job of just making sure guys were getting rotated in. For us it just shows guys are ready to play and they want to win.

“I guess that’s why you run all them lines in training camp, and I think this was one of our better wins. It’s just a good win for us, guys stepped up.”

A Sweet 16 wager

Hill likes to say he doesn’t pay attention to Duke basketball until April, but apparently he’s taking notice a week earlier this year.

Hill and the former Wildcat Frye will take in Thursday’s Sweet 16 showdown from the residence of owner Robert Sarver, another Wildcat alum, along with the rest of the team.

Frye and Hill have a friendly wager on the game that involves the player from the losing school having to wear gear from the winning school.

Frye made the same bet with Josh Childress before the UA-Stanford football this season and found himself in a Cardinal Snuggie when all was said and done.

A St. Mary’s love tap

Jerryd Bayless received a flagrant foul for shoving Frye and both received technicals for the mini-altercation. Frye and Bayless know each other well since both players went to the same high school (Phoenix St. Mary’s) and college (Arizona), and Frye actually played high school ball with Bayless’ older brother.

Frye set some vicious screens on Bayless in the playoffs last season when Jerryd was a Blazer, so there’s certainly a bit of a rivalry between these two Knights/Wildcats.

Frye did not want to comment after the game.

And 1

This contest marked the return of Leandro Barbosa to the desert. LB went for 14 on 6-for-11 shooting in 22 minutes of action. … The Suns have won 14 in a row against Toronto, the club’s longest active winning streak. They have thus swept the series seven years running, ever since Nash returned to town. … The Suns are 6-2 after overtime games this season. Phoenix has won four games in a row that have followed triple overtime contests. They became the first squad since the Heat and Jazz on March 15, 2009, to win after playing in triple OT. … The Suns’ 12 threes are their most on the second game of a back-to-back this season. … Phoenix scored 114.2 points per 100 possessions Tuesday against the Lakers, far and away Los Angeles’ worst defensive performance since the break. Only their Miami loss (110.6) was particularly close to that mark.

Raptors

Suns

It’s hard to imagine any team coming back full strength less than 24 hours after what the Phoenix Suns went through on Tuesday night.

In what was, without a doubt, one of the most thrilling games of the 2010-2011 NBA season, the Suns fell in triple overtime to the Los Angeles Lakers.

The outcome ultimately buried a career-high 32 points from forward Channing Frye and Grant Hill’s All-NBA defense, instead highlighting Vince Carter’s atrocious night, one in which he shot 7-for-23 for 17 points. Perhaps making Carter’s performance look even worse were the particular shots he missed — a potential game-winner and the shot that could have forced a fourth overtime.

The defeat was likely the Suns’ most taxing of the season and the question becomes whether or not the Suns will have anything left in the tank as they play the second game of the back-to-back at home against the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday.

The good news is it’s the Raptors, a team the Suns have beaten in 13 consecutive meetings and 26 of 33 games overall. The bad news is that the Suns’ crucial players all logged significant minutes Tuesday. Take a look:

Steve Nash: 49 minutes

Vince Carter: 40 minutes (You’re probably wishing that was less)

Grant Hill: 44 minutes

Channing Frye: 57 minutes (Most by any NBA player this season)

Marcin Gortat: 53 minutes

That leaves few fresh legs for the Suns, but don’t look for anyone to ask for rest. This team knows how important every game is right now. They especially knew how important the Lakers game was, and they may have won it had Hill not fouled out (questionably).

“We felt like we needed to win every game anyway,” Frye told Suns.com Tuesday night. “I think you saw that regardless, we were going to come out here and play. Even if some people think we’re mathematically done, we’re still going to come out here and play.”

The Suns are now three games out of the final Western Conference playoff spot. Of their 13 remaining games, eight come against playoff teams. Seven of the 13 come at home, essentially making the home/road advantage a moot point.

The biggest concern coming off Tuesday’s marathon game could be the health of Nash. Having dealt with a painful groin injury lately, it was surprising Nash played as long as he did. Taking the floor again the next night (and you know Nash won’t rest with this team fighting for the playoffs) will be all the more draining for the new NBA assists per game leader.

“We just have to be professional,” Nash said. “You go out tomorrow and do the best you can.”

At risk of beating the point to death, it is very fortunate for the Suns that they get the Raptors on Wednesday. It’s not that the Raptors are incapable of beating the Suns (they nearly did last season, when the Suns were better); it’s simply that the Suns certainly need a game that doesn’t require them to expend every ounce of energy they’ve got.

The rest of March will be pretty much a grind, with matchups against New Orleans, Dallas and Oklahoma City before the Suns embark on a brutal April schedule. Getting a win Wednesday will be one small way of making that challenge easier.

Vince Carter was Half Man, Half Amazing in this one, but why can't he be that guy more often? (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darren Calabrese)

Vince Carter’s performance in the Suns’ 110-92 victory over the Raptors Friday night is the reason Toronto fans still shower him with boos every time he returns for a visit.

Carter looked like the Raptors version of himself, particularly in his stellar 11-point, four-rebound, four-steal first quarter that buoyed the Suns to a 35-14 opening period advantage that the Raptors never recovered from.

For the game he went for 17 points on 7-for-12 shooting to go with seven boards, six steals and a game-high plus 23. On a night in which Steve Nash shot a very rare 2-for-12 (has he ever done that?), Carter ensured the Suns didn’t miss a beat.

His most spectacular dunk gave the Suns their first score of the game as Nash lofted a pass beyond halfcourt that Carter caught for a stunning reverse alley-oop, showcasing the kind of hops that earned him the Half Man, Half Amazing nickname.

What’s almost as incredible as the dunk itself is the fact that Carter started the play behind the Raptors’ free-throw line when Robin Lopez grabbed the ball to inbound yet he was somehow already at the tin when Nash approached half court. Carter also made a variety of other athletic moves, floating through the lane for buckets like the Vinsanity of old.

Obviously Carter wanted to impress the Air Canada Centre crowd, and he even spoke on the postgame show about wanting to “give them a show.” I just don’t get how a guy who had recorded seven steals in the month of February could all of a sudden explode for a six, and a guy who had looked a few steps slow could all of a sudden throw down one of the better Suns dunks of the season.

All of that should be a positive, and for this game it was. Carter was the game MVP and he played a superb basketball game.

I just don’t get how he can look so lethargic to the point you even forget that Vince Carter is out on the floor and then out of nowhere toss up a Vinsanity game like this in front of his old fans. I have a feeling those Toronto fans might have an answer for that question.

This isn’t meant to pile on the hate on Vince after one of his best games as a Sun, I just would rather see more consistency instead of outbursts like this sandwiched between lots of lackluster play.

Carter helped the Suns pull of a rarity in today’s NBA world and that is win a game in the first quarter. The Raptors cut the lead to 12 early in the third but it was back up to 26 later in the period as Toronto never seriously threatened.

Their 21-point lead after one was such a surprise because Nash finished the quarter scoreless on 0-for-4 shooting and the team shot “only” 48 percent, very solid but not what you would expect in a 35-point period. They built up the lead because Nash did everything else with seven assists and five rebounds and the Suns won the battle of the boards 15-8 while holding Toronto to 30 percent shooting.

“Obviously we got off to a good start,” Alvin Gentry said. “It wasn’t so much the offence as it was I thought we did a great job defensively of kind of limiting easy baskets. … When we score 35 and they score 14, then they are playing catch up the rest of the way.”

Added Raptors head coach Jay Triano, “When you’re a step slow and we get off to the start that we did, we played them even after the first quarter, but at that point our confidence was shot as well, for a lot of guys.”

Carter got some help from his former Orlando Magic teammates as Marcin Gortat recorded his league-best 10th double-double off the bench (all since the middle of January) with 17 points and 11 boards off the pine on 7-for-9 shooting, and Mickael Pietrus chipped in with 14 of his own.

The blowout allowed the Suns to rest their starters, which is always nice with five games yet to go on this East Coast swing, and it’s exactly what the Suns should do against a team that’s struggled as much as Toronto this season.

Perhaps it would be unfair to expect these kinds of games from Carter every night as he’s not exactly the youngster who once delighted this Toronto crowd so.

That I understand, as even the great Grant Hill is just a completely different than he was in his prime, morphing from a superstar who does everything very well to a role player/defensive stopper who does everything pretty well.

If Carter could play with the kind of explosion and focus he displayed tonight on a more regular basis than he would never have to worry about sitting fourth quarters and the Suns could sustain more periods of excellence like their first quarter tonight.

And 1

The Suns have won 13 in a row against Toronto. … Nash passed the 9,000-assist plateau in his career.

Suns

Raptors

PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns have a fantastic opportunity in front of them, but only if they seize it.

With so much trade turmoil directly above them in the standing and a deal for Aaron Brooks that if nothing else should ensure their bench packs some punch the rest of the season, a playoff spot has never looked so near for the Suns.

But the Suns don’t yet need to scoreboard watch, they just need to take care of their own business and that starts tonight in Toronto as they open a six-game road trip that could either cement their status as playoff contenders or make things look pretty grim.

“This road trip will tell us a lot about where we’re going to be at,” Jared Dudley said.

The six-game trip includes four winnable games and two very losable games in Boston and Oklahoma City. They must beat at least three of the four teams they should to ensure a split, and they should make 4-2 their goal for this crucial trip.

The Suns seemed to be on their way to a season-changing road trip last time they went back East, but after winning their first three to extend their winning streak to five, the Suns stumbled during their last two to make the trip look rather mediocre at 3-2.

The Suns have a chance to start out strong on the road once again with games at Toronto, Indiana and New Jersey to start the trip.

“This is going to be a very important trip for us,” Steve Nash said. “We’re going out on the road where we have very little room for error. We’ve got to come out on the road and play really well, so this trip’s going to be defining.”

The Suns must continue their strong play on the defensive end of late that has made them one of the better defensive field-goal percentage teams in the NBA after starting out the year as the worst. But in the opening leg of this trip they may be able to flat-out outscore the Raptors.

Only that D-League team in Cleveland possesses a worse defense than Toronto with the Raps yielding 109.4 points per 100 possessions. That’s a huge problem when they boast just the 21st-best offense in the league in terms of efficiency. With those kind of efficiency number it’s no surprise that this team lost 13 in a row last month to drop into a tie with Washington for the worst team in the East outside of Cleveland. The Raptors then lost five of six before inexplicably beating the Bulls on Wednesday.

Steve Nash always tears up the team from his native land, and the Suns realize how important it is to start their road trip off right in what should be the easiest game of their six-game journey.

“We know if we want to get to the playoffs we’ve got to come out and have a great road trip,” Dudley said.

The Phoenix Suns lost the battle of the boards by 19 Sunday and fell to the Raptors by 21. (Photo by Ron Turenne/NBAE via Getty Images)

Nobody said preseason basketball was important, but it continually becomes harder and harder to pull positives from the Phoenix Suns’ performances.

It is a learning process for the new-look Suns, but a lot of their weaknesses were exposed Sunday morning in a 121-100 loss to the Raptors in Toronto.

The Suns were murdered on the glass, 57-38, and allowed over 100 points for the fifth time in six games to move to 1-5 in preseason play.

The undersized Suns allowed 24 offensive rebounds and yielded 52 points in the paint. They did, however, have a nice rhythm and pace going in the first half.

Phoenix jumped out to a 33-22 lead after one, leading by as 13 and meshing better than it had through five games (I was able to find a stream and catch some of the game).

Steve Nash had a masterful game with 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists in front of the Nash-crazy Toronto crowd.

The starters looked good with Nash running the offense, but Goran Dragic and the bench seem to lack cohesion, playing like five individuals rather than a team.

Hakim Warrick and Josh Childress did score 14 and 12, respectively, but a lot of that came with Nash at the helm. Despite the lack of continuity, the Suns still led 55-53 heading into halftime.

But watching the Raptors turn that deficit into a five-point lead in a matter of minutes proved how much this Suns team still has to improve. Toronto scored at will, pasting 39 points on the Suns in the quarter.

And the most alarming part was that it was against regular rotation players, with the exception of Matt Janning, who played six minutes in the quarter.

Garret Siler did see some time in the second quarter, but only because Channing Frye picked up his fourth foul. So other than Siler and Janning, Gentry went with pretty much regular rotations for the better part of three quarters.

But the Suns couldn’t keep the Raptors out of the paint and off the glass, and showed how hard it is to stay consistent without interior defense and rebounding. Remember all of those huge leads the Suns gave away last season? This year could be even worse.

The Suns gave up 57 rebounds to a team with one legitimate rebounder in Reggie Evans and a power forward that lives on the perimeter in Andrea Bargnani. Just imagine what’s going to happen when this team faces off against the Lakers.

The fourth quarter was a throw-away as it was headlined by Janning, Zabian Dowdell, Gani Lawal and compnay. But there were still some alarming things that came from the game, including another forgettable game by Hedo Turkoglu.

Turkoglu, who was greeted with boos every time he touched the ball, didn’t force any shots and collected five rebounds and two blocks. But don’t read too much into that.

He proved to be nothing more than a stand-still shooter when Nash was on the floor, which is a far cry from the facilitating playmaker Alvin Gentry raved about.

The Suns need to find a better way to use Turkoglu so that his skills aren’t put to waste and it isn’t the Toronto version of Hedo all over again.

All in all, the Suns starters played pretty well offensively pushing the pace and finding open shots. But they once again struggled from three (6-for-22) and couldn’t grab a board or get a stop to save their lives. Phoenix has a lot of improving to do before the regular season tips off in Portland on Oct. 26.

Up next

The Suns will take on the Golen State Warriors at home on Tuesday night at 7. This is Phoenix’s second to last chance to tighten the screws before the regular season begins.

It was a down night for all Suns involved, especially Hill, who was ejected after 18 minutes on the floor. Copyright 2010 NBAE (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/NBAE via Getty Images)

Yes, preseason games mean absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things, but wow. No matter the stakes, any 51-point blowout makes you raise your eyebrows a little bit.

In their second game against an NBA opponent this season, the new-look Phoenix Suns forgot to show up in Vancouver and were embarrassed, 129-78.

In what was supposed to be Steve Nash’s homecoming, the Suns turned the ball over 32 times, shot 37.8 percent from the field, 16.7 percent from three (3-for-18) and missed 14 of their 33 free throws.

And for the icing on the cake, last season’s NBA Sportsmanship Award winner Grant Hill was ejected after getting into a spanking battle with Reggie Evans. Robin Lopez also fouled out after 16 minutes and Jason Richardson left the game in the middle of the first quarter with a shoulder injury.

Needless to say, it wasn’t Phoenix’s night.

Jared Dudley tweeted after the game: “I know it’s pre season but we got our a$ kick tonight.. I don’t care if they don’t count, still embarrassing.. We will cont to get better.”

The Suns fell behind from the get-go, trailing 24-18 after the first quarter and ultimately 55-39 at half. They couldn’t stop the bleeding in the second half, as the Raptors blew it open, outscoring the Suns 74-39 in the final 24 minutes.

This is expected to be one of the most explosive offenses in the league this season, but the Nash-led Suns couldn’t get into a groove offensively thanks to atrocious shooting and their inability to take care of the ball — 16 turnovers in each half.

The talk was that if you have good guys off the court, chemistry will come. But it seems that on-the-court chemistry is going to take a little longer to develop than expected.

Only one Suns player scored in double-digits — Jared Dudley with 10 points — and they allowed 129 points to a Raptors team that may not reach that mark all season.

The Suns are expected to be bad defensively, but 129 points to this team is flat-out ugly. Not to mention that the Raptors shot 55 free throws on the night, further proving Phoenix’s awful defense.

Raptors forward Linas Kleiza scored a game-high 20 points, while DeMar DeRozan tallied 16 and grabbed 10 boards. Former Sun Leandro Barbosa (now wearing No. 20) also scored six points in 17 minutes.

The Suns were without Channing Frye for the second straight game as he’s in Phoenix for the birth of first child, and Hakim Warrick didn’t play either (coach’s decision). Although it is a preseason game, definitely not a good way to start off for the Suns.

In a 51-point loss there is only one way to categorize performances: good, bad and ugly.

The good

Dudley led the Suns with 10. Nash, who received never-ending cheers from the crowd, had nine points and seven assists in 22 minutes. Josh Childress and Earl Clark both scored nine points, grabbing three and four boards, respectively. Combo guard Zabian Dowdell also played a nice game with nine points.

The bad

Hedo Turkoglu, who was booed every time he touched the ball, shot 3-for-10 from the field a night after going 0-for-5 — not a good sign for the Suns. He did however add eight boards and three steals. Lopez was 1-for-4 with two boards and five turnovers before fouling out. Matt Janning was 2-for-8.

The ugly

In addition to Lopez, Gani Lawal and Garret Siler both fouled out, with Siler needing only 10 minutes to do so. Lawal also went 1-for-6 from the field and 5-for-12 from the line. Goran Dragic made only one of his six attempts.

GM survey deems Nash best passer, leader

NBA GMs were surveyed on a number of questions and this is how the Suns fared:

• Nash named best passe,r winning 75 percent of the vote
• Nash also earned best leader award with 46.3 percent of the vote with Kobe Bryant coming in second
• Nash tied Chauncey Billups for second in which player will become the best head coach
• The Suns came second in most fun team to watch, behind the OKC Thunder

Check Paul Coro’s blog for more on the results.

Up next

After falling to the Kings last night, the Suns are now 0-2 in the preseason. They have a chance to bounce back when they take on the Mavericks outdoors in Indian Wells, Calif., Saturday night at 6:30 MST in a game televised by TNT.

For help with that I’ve joined up with 75 bloggers (it only seems like half of them are Celtics bloggers) in the fifth annual NBA Blog Previews organized by Jeff Clark from CelticsBlog. Thursday the SB Nation boys and I will be publishing our previews on the Suns, but for now I give you the Atlantic Division:

Celtics: CelticsBlog | Celtics 24/7 | Celtics Central | Celtics Hub | CelticsLife | Gino’s Jungle | RedsArmy.com | SBNation Boston | SBN Recap

Knicks: Posting and Toasting | Bandwagon Knick | KnickerBlogger.Net | SBN Recap

Nets: NetsDaily | NetsAreScorching | Fanway | SBN Recap

Raptors: Raptors HQ | Hoops Addict | Hip Hoop Junkies | SBN Recap

Sixers: Liberty Ballers

After a forgettable season in Toronto, Hedo Turkoglu has a fresh start with the Phoenix Suns. (Photo by Mike Schmitz/ValleyoftheSuns)

PHOENIX — New city, new fans, new organization, new coach, new teammates and even a new jersey number.

After a more-than-forgettable season in Toronto, Hedo Turkoglu is finally able to put the Hedo-hate from Raptors fans behind him and turn the page to a new chapter of his career with the Phoenix Suns.

“It’s a new start for me,” Turkoglu said when he was introduced as a member of the Suns on Wednesday. “Like I say, I put [last] year away and it’s a new start for me, a new beginning, so I’m looking forward to it.”

The 6-foot-10, 31-year-old forward was reluctant talk about his 2009-10 season in Toronto, during which he averaged only 11.3 points per game — his lowest since the 2003-04 season.

Turkoglu quickly fell out of favor with the fans and organization, but wouldn’t get into much detail as to why the fit went awry so quickly.

“I really don’t like to talk about the past, I’m always for the future,” he said. “The chemistry wasn’t there on both sides. I guess I wasn’t really used correctly.”

Some say he was out of shape and unmotivated, others say he wasn’t given a chance to showcase his skills. But regardless of the reason for the fallout in Toronto, Turkoglu and the Suns organization alike couldn’t be happier that he’s in Phoenix and expect him to play at the level he did with the Orlando Magic.

“We’re extremely happy to have him here. I think he’s one of those players that can keep us playing at the level that we were at last year,” head coach Alvin Gentry said of Turkoglu. “I think you’ll see a player that will more than likely come back and play at the level he did when he had Orlando on the brink of a championship.”

Turkoglu broke out as a bonafide star in the 2007-08 season when he averaged 19.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.0 assists in his fourth year with the Magic, capturing the NBA’s Most Improved Player award along the way.

He then went on to lead the Magic to the NBA Finals during the 2008-09 season, solidifying himself as a Mr. Fourth Quarter of sorts, drilling big shot after big shot.

“He’s not afraid to take big shots, that’s the first step right there and obviously he’s been very successful making big shots,” Gentry said. “What it does is that it gives us another guy that at the end of games can take the pressure off of Steve Nash.”

Turkoglu’s been a player that the Suns have coveted since 2004 when they almost brought him to Phoenix. He figures to play multiple positions in the Suns’ offense, serve as an alternative ball handler and playmaker next to Nash and drill big shots when they matter most.

But this is a team that is built around chemistry and cohesion. So how will Turkoglu fit with the tight-knit Phoenix Suns?

“We’ve done a lot of homework in that area right there and I think he’ll be fine,” Gentry said when asked that exact question. “He’s a guy that really wants to win. He’s been a winner wherever he’s gone. I think he’s a guy that will fit in well here.”

“I think that I can be a great fit here as a player and a person,” Turkoglu added.

He sounded very willing to make sacrifices to win, whether it be via playing time or shot attempts, and seemed to understand how important chemistry is to this Suns team. He explained that the Magic teams that he was so successful leading were also built around chemistry, and that he wanted to enjoy a strong relationship with the fans and his teammates.

“There’s a good chemistry to build around (Nash) and I can see it. Just diving to the balls, picking up the guys — its all that good chemistry, that’s how you are successful in this league,” Turkoglu explained. “If you look at all of the good teams, besides being just good players they’re good teammates, too. They’re unselfish, they like to play off each other and they like to have fun on the court.

“That’s what we did in Orlando, we were having fun on and off the court. That’s how you really become a good team. Like interacting [with] the fans, having fun on the court. Now that’s what I’m trying to do.”

Turkoglu no longer has to fight off the boos ringing through the Air Canada Centre, or worry about being benched and mistreated by management. He is finally able to rid himself of the Toronto demons and look forward to regaining his reputation as one of the most versatile and clutch players in the NBA.

“Last year — it was last year,” Turkoglu said. “I put that behind me. Now is a new place for me, new beginning, new stuff. … I’m looking forward to having another great year like I had in the past.”