Nets-Suns Preview

By MATT BECKER
Posted Jan 13 2012 2:00AM

The New Jersey Nets' offense finally came to life, but it still wasn't enough to get a win. While the offensive outburst was encouraging, it couldn't overshadow their sudden defensive shortcomings.

The scuffling Nets try to avoid losing a fourth straight game and earn a rare win in Phoenix on Friday night against the Suns.

New Jersey (2-9) arrives in the desert after opening a four-game road trip with a 123-115 loss to Denver on Wednesday.

The Nets finally found their shooting touch, connecting on 51.8 percent of their shots - the first time they shot better than 47 percent. They made a season-high 20 3-pointers on 35 attempts, with Jordan Farmar going 6 for 8 from behind the arc to finish with a season-best 26 points.

"Things don't always go the way we plan," said Farmar, who averaged 5.6 points in his first eight games. "But you just have to keep working, and when it comes to fruition on the court, it feels good."

Deron Williams, who averages a team-best 16.9 points, had 16 points and 13 assists while shooting 6 of 14. He was shooting 31.4 percent from the floor in his previous three games.

Despite the loss, it seemed to be a step in the right direction for the Nets, who came in with the NBA's third-worst average (87.0 points).

"Pretty good offense for our team. Any time we score 115 points, you would think it was going to be a win," coach Avery Johnson said. "We just couldn't get any stops defensively."

That is suddenly becoming somewhat of a concern for New Jersey.

After allowing an average of 96.1 points on 46.8 percent shooting in the first eight games, the Nets are allowing an average of 110.0 points on 54.4 percent shooting during their skid. Two of their last three losses, however, came to the two highest-scoring teams in the league, Miami and Denver.

Phoenix (4-6) is no longer considered a similar offensive threat.

The Suns have been held to 90 or fewer points five times already after doing so eight times all of last season. They're coming off Thursday's 101-90 loss to Cleveland, their second straight defeat.

Steve Nash had 15 assists and led six Phoenix players in double figures with 16 points, becoming the 15th active player to reach 16,000. Marcin Gortat, who averages a team-best 12.8 points, scored 14 and Michael Redd, playing his first game for Phoenix, had 12 points in 19 minutes.

"(I was) a little rusty, which is to be expected," said Redd, who played in only 10 games last season and 28 in the last two years combined because of various knee injuries. "Just got to find my game legs and game rhythm and just try to figure out the system on offense."

Before embarking on a five-game road trip, the Suns hope facing the Nets at US Airways Center can help them bounce back. They've won 16 of the last 17 over New Jersey in Phoenix, and nine of the last 10 meetings overall.

The Suns swept the series from the Nets for the second straight season in 2010-11, but both games went to overtime.

A big reason New Jersey came close twice was the play of Brook Lopez, who averaged 22.0 points and 9.0 rebounds. Lopez, whose twin brother Robin is a backup center for the Suns, has yet to play this season because of a stress fracture in his right foot.

Williams, Nets beat short-handed Suns 110-103

By BOB BAUM
Posted Jan 14 2012 1:34AM

PHOENIX (AP) The Phoenix Suns were missing their star point guard, Steve Nash. The New Jersey Nets certainly had theirs, and he was at his best.

Deron Williams had 35 points, his most since coming to New Jersey at last season's trade deadline, and 14 assists as the Nets held off the short-handed Suns 110-103 Friday night for just their third victory in 12 games this season.

Williams said it was his best game "by far" since coming to the Nets from the Utah Jazz.

"I kept my turnovers down today," he said. "I scored, I assisted, I did a better job of leading the team. That is what I have to continue to do."

Williams had been tossed from the team's previous game after drawing his second technical foul in the fourth quarter of a loss at Denver on Wednesday night.

"I just wanted to play better," he said. "I got thrown out of that last game and needed a little spark. I used that to my advantage to get my head back and get back to playing good basketball."

Coach Avery Johnson cited Williams' overall game.

"He scored, he passed it, but also when we needed stops, we put him on the guy on their perimeter that was hurting us the most," Johnson said.

Phoenix, playing without Grant Hill as well as Nash because of injuries, was down by three at the half before the Nets pulled away with a barrage of 3-pointers. A rally in the final minutes by the Suns fell short.

Williams tied a career high with six 3-pointers. MarShon Brooks scored 20, Anthony Morrow 16 and Kris Humphries 15 for the Nets, who snapped a three-game skid.

Ronnie Price, starting in place of Nash, scored a career-high 18 and had eight assists in Phoenix's third loss in a row, the last two at home. Price was Williams' backup at Utah and knew what he was up against.

"I consider him, with all due respect, one of the best point guards in the game, if not the best." Price said. "But putting that all aside I wanted to accept the challenge. I played against him four years in practice so I figured I knew his one-on-one moves, but when he's coming off screens and knocking down 3s like that, a guy has it going like that, there's really nothing you can do."

Marcin Gortat had 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Suns. Jared Dudley added 18 points.

"I thought that Deron Williams just took over the game," Phoenix coach Alvin Gentry said. "He's one of the great players in this league so sometimes that's going to happen."

New Jersey, on its second stop of a four-game trip, made 15 of 32 3-pointers, with Williams going 6 of 9 and Morrow 4 of 7.

Nash, the NBA assist leader, was sidelined with a right quad contusion, described by Gentry as a charley horse. Hill has a right quad tendon strain. Both injuries occurred in the Suns' home loss to Cleveland on Thursday night.

"It's kind of like Peyton Manning for the Colts," Dudley said of the absence of Nash. "This offense is predicated on him and everything. Ronnie filled in nicely. He played extremely well. But obviously there's only one Nash and obviously you need G-Hill out there."

Brooks' driving layup with 4:14 remaining gave New Jersey a 102-93 lead. He was fouled on the play but missed the free throw and the Suns' rally began. Brown hit a mid-range jumper, then Channing Frye found a pair of teammates for layups, first Gortat and then Brown, to cut it to 102-99 with 2:48 remaining.

It got no closer. Price forced up an errant 3-pointer, then Brooks found Humphries for a dunk and New Jersey led 104-99 1:47 from the finish. Morrow's 3-pointer on a pass from Williams sealed it at 107-99 with 50 seconds left.

Neither team led by more than five points in the first half, with the Nets up 54-51 at the break.

Williams, who missed just once in his first seven 3-point attempts, put his team in control in the third quarter.

He sank three 3s in a row in a 9-2 run that gave the Nets an 86-79 lead with 1:39 left in the third quarter. New Jersey led 88-82 entering in the fourth. After Hakim Warrick's layup cut the lead to 91-88 with 10 minutes to play, the Nets ran off the next 10 points. Brooks' 3-pointer, followed by his 11-foot bank shot, put New Jersey ahead 100-88 with 6:58 to play.

Notes: The Nets used their eighth different starting lineup in 12 games. ... The Suns begin a five-game trip, their longest of the condensed season, Sunday night at San Antonio. Other stops are Chicago, New York, Boston and Dallas. ... New Jersey started 1 of 6 on 3s, then made 14 of its next 26. ... Phoenix made 8 of 22 3s, 2 of 10 in the second half.

Notebook: Nets 110, Suns 103

By Jerry Brown, for NBA.com
Posted Saturday January 14, 2012 12:54AM

THE FACTS: This wasn't the way to prepare for the toughest road trip of the season for the Phoenix Suns.

Back-to-back homes losses to under .500 teams from the Eastern Conference -- first to Cleveland on Thursday and then a 110-103 loss Friday to the now 3-9 New Jersey Nets.

It didn't help that Steve Nash (thigh contusion) and Grant Hill (groin) didn't play. It didn't help that with the game on the line, Ronnie Price and Shannon Brown were trying to mesh with the starters during a 21-point calamity that handed the Nets their second win in Phoenix in the last 18 years.

But mostly, it didn't help that Deron Williams exploded for 35 points on 11-for-18 shooting and added 14 assists to figure in half of New Jersey's points. The harder the Suns pressed, the further he stepped back.

"I consider him one of, if not the best point guards in the game," said Price, who went at Williams for four years when the two were teammates in Utah. "I wanted to accept the challenge. I figured I knew his one-on-one moves. When he's coming off screens and knocking down shots like that ... there's really nothing you can do. And when we started trapping and getting the ball out of his hands, other guys started making shots."

MarShon Brooks added 20 points for the Nets, who had six players in double figures and hit 15 3-pointers. After missing five of their first six 3-pointers in the first quarter, the Nets were 14-for-26 (54 percent) the rest of the way. Starting guards Williams and Anthony Morrow were a combined 10-for-16 from behind the arc (62.5 percent)

"I told him he was due for a game like this," Morrow, said of Williams. "He was worried about his shots. I told him he's going to have a 35-40 point game soon, and everything is going to click. He knew it was in him and we knew it was in him. It was just a matter of time."

The timing couldn't be worse for the Suns, who dropped to 4-7 overall and 2-4 at home with a five-game gauntlet to San Antonio, Chicago, New York, Boston and Dallas now in front of them.

"We didn't take care of homecourt the way we should and now we've got to go get some wins on somebody else's floor," Price said.

FANTASY SPOTLIGHT: Price stepped in for the injured Nash and scored a career-high 18 points and eight assists -- one shy of his career high. "It doesn't mean anything to me because we lost. I don't even want to look at the stat sheet," Price said.

QUOTABLE: "Deron was just super tonight on both ends of the floor. He scored it, he passed it, but also when we needed stops, we put him on the guy on their perimeter that was hurting us the most."
-- Nets coach Avery Johnson on point guard Deron Williams.

THE STAT: Williams had the NBA's first game of at least 35 points and 14 assists in nearly two years. The last time it happened was Feb. 18, 2010, when LeBron James had 43 points and 15 assists for Cleveland.

TURNING POINT: The Nets had 22-point bookends in the first and fourth quarters but scored 66 points in the middle two quarters to lead by as many as 12. Without Nash and Hill to close the first half or start the second, the Suns fell behind by 12 and never caught up.

HOT: Kris Humphries was 6-for-8 from the field -- mostly dunks -- and contributed 15 points and six rebounds in his 28 minutes on the floor.

NOT: Robin Lopez missed five f six shots from the floor, corralled three rebounds and looked totally lost on the defensive end of the floor in his 15 minutes. After exploding in the season opener for 21 points, he has a grand total of 34 points in the other 10 games.

NOTABLE: Nash missed his first game of the season and the 34th since returning to the Suns to begin the 2004-05 season. Phoenix is 10-24 (.294) in those games.

STAT II: The Suns had won 16 of the last 17 meetings with the Nets in Phoenix (.881), the second-highest winning percentage against any foe at US Airways Center. Only the Milwaukee Bucks, who are a "perfect" 0-19 at USAC, had been worse.

QUOTABLE II: "They shot the skin off the ball."
-- Suns forward Channing Frye.

UP NEXT: For the Nets, Saturday @ Utah, Monday @ L.A. Clippers and Wednesday vs. Golden State. For the Suns, Sunday @ San Antonio, Tuesday @ Chicago and Wednesday @ New York.

• Nets: James, Lopez
• Suns: Hill, Nash

• Nets: --
• Suns: --

• Lead Changes: 18
• Times Tied: 16

• Arena: US Airways Center, Phoenix, AZ
• Officials: #38 Michael Smith, #47 Bennie Adams, #54 Nick Buchert
• Attendance: 15191
• Duration: 2:12