When Phoenix visited Denver on Thursday night, the Suns jumped out to a big lead in the 1st quarter – following the pattern they have set in teh past few games.  But also following the same pattern, they gave up that big lead in the 2nd quarter and finally let Denver take the lead.

However, the Suns kept fighting back despite many setbacks – Shaq not playing, Amare getting his 5th foul in the third quarter, Matt Barnes fouling out with three minutes to go in the game.  Every time Denver looked like they were showing some life, a Suns player would figure out a way to push the Nuggets back down. [Read more...]

(Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty Images)

The good news:  The Suns were able to scrape by the Clippers on Sunday afternoon to tally their 21st win of the season.  The bad news:  The Suns had to scrape by the lowly Clippers to get the win.

Los Angeles had lost their previous 10 games and have not yet beat a team in their division.  Yet Phoenix declined to let their fans have a lazy Sunday afternoon watching a blowout.  Instead, they acquired several double-digit leads only to give those same leads up every time.

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(Joe Murphy/NBAE/Getty Images)

The Suns decided to make their game against the Memphis Grizzlies a little more interesting on Tuesday by sitting out Steve Nash because of back spasms and leaving Goran Dragic at home with flu-like symptoms.  Amar’e Stoudemire followed that up by getting ejected from the game with two quick technical fouls in the second quarter.  That left Phoenix with only nine players to go against OJ Mayo, Marc Gasol, Rudy Gay and the rest of the Memphis team. [Read more...]

(Layne Murdoch/NBAE/Getty Images)

If someone had only watched the first six minutes of the Suns vs Thunder game on Monday night and then was asked which team had only three wins to their name this season, it would be a toss-up on which team they would choose.  But by the end of the quarter, the Suns had gathered themselves enough tie Oklahoma City at 32 apiece. [Read more...]

  

(Sam Forencich/NBAE/Getty Images)

The honeymoon from the Jason Richardson trade had to end sometime.  I had just hoped it would last a few more games to carry the Phoenix Suns into the Christmas Day game against the San Antonio Spurs.

Phoenix played a great game on Thursday night and had several chances to finish the Trailblazers off.  But they could never turn the corner and shut the door completely and the Blazers took full advantage of it.  When Greg Oden received his fifth foul on an exaggerated Shaq stumble and with the Suns up by 12, I thought they had pretty much sealed the deal on this game.  It’s possible the Phoenix players did as well and maybe let their guard down a bit too much.  The Blazers started making every shot and Brandon Roy, who had scored 21 in the first half, decided to take the game over and just wouldn’t miss – scoring 52 for the game. [Read more...]

(Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty Images)

I had planned to write about the trends for the Phoenix Suns’ wins and losses during the first 23 games of the season after the game tonight.  But the trade of Raja Bell, Boris Diaw and Sean Singletary for Jason Richardson and Jared Dudley on Wednesday afternoon changed not only the topic of my blog but also may have made the numbers from the first 25% of the season insignificant when looking for trends. [Read more...]

(Glenn James/NBAE/Getty Images)

I’m looking at the box score of the Phoenix Suns vs Dallas Mavericks game from Thursday night and most things actually look pretty good.  There are only a few categories that concern me. [Read more...]

(Chris Graythen/NBAE/Getty Images)

The Phoenix Suns were without starters Steve Nash (flu symptoms) and Shaquille O’Neal (rest) when they faced the New Orleans Hornets on Wednesday night.  And after the first quarter, it appeared Phoenix would go quietly and accept a loss without comment or fight.

However, something happened in the second quarter and the players started showing more intensity and fight – on both offense and defense.  It brought the team to within one at halftime.  Unfortunately, the third quarter did the team in and they didn’t have enough energy while being short-handed to pull out a win. [Read more...]

(David Sherman/NBAE/Getty Images)

The Suns’ performance tonight is what I expected on Tuesday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder.  Even though it was a night later, I’m still glad to see the team have more energy and, for the most part, keep their opponent down by double-digits. [Read more...]

Out of any team in National Basketball League, the Suns probably thought the Thunder would be one where they could rest many of their starters in a blowout win.  But it ended up not happening that way. [Read more...]