FArting
Lopes Up!
The city of Phoenix spent the weekend celebrating the NBA's best players, as one of the city's own shared All-Star game MVP honors in the Western Conference's win.
The situation isn't quite so positive for Phoenix's own crumbling team.
Monday's firing of coach Terry Porter is only one of the distractions facing the Suns, who are also dealing with the suspension of one of their starters and the intensifying trade rumors surrounding their leading scorer as they begin the second half of the season Tuesday night in the opener of a home-and-home set against the visiting Los Angeles Clippers.
Veteran center Shaquille O'Neal had 17 points on 8-of-9 shooting in just 11 minutes of Sunday night's All-Star game, sharing MVP honors with former teammate Kobe Bryant as the West cruised to a 146-119 win.
But things haven't gone well for the Suns since Porter replaced popular coach Mike D'Antoni before this season in hopes shoring up the team's defense.
The Suns (28-23) often struggled at that end during an inconsistent first half, and with the team outside of playoff position, Porter was fired Monday and replaced on an interim basis by assistant Alvin Gentry.
"I hired Terry because I believed he would be able to provide the balance our team needed in order to perform at a very high level," general manager Steve Kerr said. "Unfortunately the transition from last season to this one proved to be very difficult, and we have not played to our potential."
Gentry hopes to get the Suns playing at the fast tempo they used under D'Antoni.
"We are who we are and I think we have to go back to trying to establish a breakneck pace like we've had in the past," Gentry said.With an aging roster that includes O'Neal, Steve Nash and Grant Hill, Kerr already began to break up his team by trading Boris Diaw, Raja Bell and Sean Singletary to Charlotte for Jason Richardson and Jared Dudley earlier this season.
Richardson has had problems since joining the Suns, getting arrested and charged with reckless driving, excessive speeding and failure to use a child seat on Sunday. Phoenix announced Monday that Richardson would miss Tuesday's game "for conduct detrimental to the team."Meanwhile, another trade could be looming, with rumors flying that top scorer Amare Stoudemire could be on the way out before Thursday's trade deadline.
Amidst it all, the Suns are trying to avoid a third straight loss. They closed a three-game road trip before the break with 17-point losses at Philadelphia and Cleveland, and they've dropped 10 of their last 16."The rumors I can deal with," said Stoudemire, whose 21.0 points per game are four fewer than his average last season. "That's part of the game. Losing is not. I'm definitely not used to it. This is something new to me."Losing is nothing new to the Clippers (13-40), but Los Angeles showed reason for optimism by winning three of four going into the break.
The Clippers had dropped 21 of their previous 23 games, but they're getting healthier after Zach Randolph, Baron Davis and Marcus Camby all missed time with injuries. Randolph has averaged 25.5 points and 11.0 rebounds in four games since rejoining the starting lineup."We definitely needed to find some momentum before the All-Star break," said rookie guard Eric Gordon, who had 30 points in the Clippers' 128-124 overtime win over New York on Wednesday. "We got our guys back together and we're starting to get the chemistry back."Los Angeles was without Randolph and Davis for both of its January losses to the Suns, including a 106-98 defeat at Phoenix on Jan. 2.
The teams conclude their season series Wednesday at Staples Center.
http://espn.go.com/nba/preview?gameId=290217021
