(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)

Amare Stoudemire was his overpowering-self inside, and Steve Nash was his controlling MVP-self outside, inside, and all points in between, but the game ball for this one goes to Goran Dragic.

Not just for his career-high 18 points on 7 of 9 shooting, including 4 of 5 threes, although in the end that might well have been the difference as the Suns stretched their home record to 9-0 and extended their streak to 17 straight wins over a two-season span.

The thing that really bodes well for the Suns is how far the 23-year-old shooter in a point guard’s body has come since his rookie season in terms of confidence and court presence. [Read more...]

(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)

Steve Nash’s MVP-3 campaign picked up a few more votes here last night.

Amare Stoudemire scored 28 points and clinched the win by converting a monstrous rebound, and Jared Dudley’s season-high 18 points included a clutch three, but like so many other victories, this one really came down to Nash’s superb orchestration.

You wouldn’t see better conducting than this at Carnegie Hall. His numbers were impressive enough, 20 points and 18 assists, but as always with any true artist, numbers can’t really begin to capture the magnificence of his performance. [Read more...]

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Um, gee, guys, I appreciate the engagement gifts (Yeah, I popped the question last week) of the two horrible losses to the Knicks and the Cavaliers, but really, you didn’t have to.

No, really. You didn’t have to.

Suddenly, the chinks we suspected were in the armor all along during the surprising start now look like giant cracks in a dam, and from what I’m reading online, confidence seems to be leaking out in a giant rush, if not from the team itself, then from NBA-watchers. Anyone who was starting to believe in the Runnin’ Suns is now asking serious questions.

I’m not, at least not so much, because I had a feeling the hot launch to the season was a bit of a happy illusion. Yes, there were a lot of road games, but the schedule was largely soft, and wins over quality opponents like Boston and Houston made me wonder if the Suns were going to be better than I expected (I’ve predicted fifty wins). But I suspect bad losses to contenders like the Lakers and Cavaliers, along with horrible losses to barely-there teams like the Knicks and a CP3-less Hornets squad, reveal something closer to what these Suns are really about – a team that doesn’t yet have quite enough to really match up with the league’s elite, and a team that, if their outside shots aren’t falling, can lose to anyone. And the Knicks qualify as pretty much “anyone.” [Read more...]