Suns-Clippers Preview

By NICOLINO DIBENEDETTO
Posted Mar 15 2012 2:42AM

The Phoenix Suns' surge has been mostly due to a home-heavy schedule, and it's already victimized the Los Angeles Clippers.

A change in venue has historically not made a difference in this series.

The Suns look to for an improved defensive effort as they try to continue their dominance of the Clippers on Thursday night when these Pacific Division rivals meet for the second time in two weeks.

Phoenix (20-22) has won eight of 11, averaging 103.0 points. That's an increase of almost 10 points per game as the Suns attempt to turn around a season that appeared to be slipping away with a four-game slide prior to this stretch.

Their recent surge, however, has been aided by the schedule. They've played 10 of the last 11 at home, losing the only road contest in that stretch to drop to 7-12 away from home this season.

The Suns wouldn't appear to be too concerned with matching their season-high five-game road losing streak since they face the Clippers (24-17) again. They beat Los Angeles 81-78 on March 2, rallying from an 11-point, fourth-quarter deficit to improve to 12-1 in the past 13 meetings.

Phoenix has won five of six at Staples Center, scoring 116.3 points per game.

Still, coach Alvin Gentry wasn't happy after the Suns needed to erase a 13-point deficit to beat Utah 120-111 on Wednesday, two days after falling 127-124 to Minnesota.

"We had three guys with 20 or more and all the starters in double figures and that's great and fine," Gentry said of Phoenix's scoring distribution. "But we are just going to have to zero in and get a little better defensively. The last two games have been a little alarming."

Improved defensive play could help the Suns withstand this stretch of three games in three days, which started against the Jazz and ends Friday when they host Detroit.

Another strong performance from Jared Dudley would surely help. The swingman had 21 points against the Jazz, and is averaging 19.9 while hitting 54.2 percent of his shots from the floor - 14 for 32 from beyond the arc - over the last seven games. That includes 22 points versus the Clippers earlier this month, more than doubling his career average against them from his previous 11 meetings.

Steve Nash had six points, six assists and seven turnovers in that matchup. He's been much better over the past 11 road meetings with Los Angeles, averaging 17.2 points and 12.8 assists.

Los Angeles is trying to win back-to-back games for the first time since Feb. 15-16, going 5-8 in 13 games since.

The Clippers, though, are hoping they can build on Wednesday's 96-82 win over Atlanta, as reserves Mo Williams and Eric Bledsoe scored 25 and 14 points, respectively.

"It was a must-win," said Williams, who has totaled 46 points in two games. "We put a lot of pressure on ourselves for this game because we needed it really bad. So we came out and did what we had to do against a good team."

While Williams is averaging 17.2 points over the past nine games, the Clippers will likely need increased producion from stars Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.

Paul had 13 points and nine assists against the Hawks, while Griffin's 12 points were his fewest in 30 games. The duo was also kept in check by the Suns earlier this month, as Paul scored 16 points with five assists while Griffin added 17 points and seven boards.

Brown scores 21 as short-handed Suns beat Clippers

Posted Mar 16 2012 3:13AM

LOS ANGELES (AP) The Phoenix Suns won a game without two of their best players, leaving the Los Angeles Clippers considerably cranky and unwilling to talk to the media for more than an hour after the final horn.

Shannon Brown scored a season-high 21 points, including four free throws in the final 1:33, and the Suns beat the Clippers 91-87 on Thursday night to end a four-game road losing streak.

With his team playing the middle game in a stretch of three in three nights, Suns coach Alvin Gentry had Steve Nash and Grant Hill both sit out in street clothes.

"I think it was satisfying for the guys in the locker room, because I think they wanted to prove that we are a good team all around and that we can win games without Steve or Grant," Gentry said. "We didn't have the guy who is the engine to our whole team."

Channing Frye helped engineer the stunning victory with 12 points - on four 3-pointers - and Jared Dudley added 11 points and six rebounds. Sebastian Telfair, filling in for Nash at point guard, had seven points, eight assists and a critical steal of Chris Paul in the final seconds in his first start since Nov. 22, 2010, with Minnesota.

Last month, when the 38-year-old Nash and the 39-year-old Hill sat out a game at Denver, the Suns lost 109-92.

"We really didn't know they weren't playing until we got out on the court," said Blake Griffin, who led the Clippers with 25 points and eight rebounds. "We game-planned for them, so it wasn't in our minds that they weren't going to play. Obviously, those are two key players for them, but our principles are still the same. So things like that shouldn't affect us, and it shouldn't have gone this way at all."

Paul finished with 10 points and 11 assists. The frustrated Clippers, who fell 2 1/2 games behind the first-place Lakers in the Pacific Division after their fifth loss in seven games, kept the dressing room closed for 1 hour, 6 minutes.

"Coach came in and we talked about some things before we got in the showers," Griffin said. "It was very productive. We talked about our sense of urgency, our execution down the stretch and the way we approach games.

"When you get into a setting like that, you talk about things. I mean, it wasn't about pointing a finger at somebody. But if there's a problem and no one ever talks about it, it's not going to get better. So guys talked. And the more you talk, the more you figure things out."

Trailing by 12 early in the fourth, the Suns went on a 10-2 run and closed to 78-76 with 6:57 to play. Reserve guard Ronnie Price hit a driving layup and followed that with a breakaway layup off his steal of Mo Williams to cap the rally.

Dudley's two free throws tied the score 84-all with 2:56 remaining, and Brown's 3 put Phoenix ahead 87-85 nearly 30 seconds later - the Suns' first lead since early in the first quarter. After DeAndre Jordan tied it with two foul shots, Brown gave the Suns the lead for good with two at the other end.

Dudley missed a 3 that would have sealed the win, but Telfair stole the ball from Paul near the Clippers' basket, and Brown closed it out with two more free throws. Los Angeles did not get a field goal after Griffin's 16-footer with 4:37 remaining.

"It was a huge win for us," Brown said. "I don't think it was a celebration that we won the world championship, but it was a celebration of a team win. We're fighting to get into the playoffs, we've got three games in a row, and our two main players didn't play tonight."

Playing on the road for only the second time in 12 games, the Suns made only six of 23 shots in the first quarter and fell behind 29-17. The Clippers' frontcourt of Griffin, Jordan and Caron Butler outscored their Phoenix counterparts - Dudley, Frye and Marcin Gortat - by a 21-3 margin during the quarter and 50-31 altogether.

The Clippers extended a seven-point lead to 47-30 with a 10-2 run capped by Jordan's alley-oop dunk off a lob from Paul with 2:32 left in the second quarter, but the Suns responded by scoring the final nine points of the half - including Frye's first 3-pointer of the game.

"That's not when it was lost," Griffin said. "It was lost by us not having a sense of urgency down the stretch, giving them open shots and offensive rebounds and making costly turnovers. We've got a good team and we've got to do better."

Griffin got a technical foul from referee Gary Zielinski with 8:45 left in the third quarter for complaining about an offensive foul and a subsequent delay-of-game call against him after Phoenix closed to 52-44 on Brown's 20-foot jumper.

NOTES: Former USC point guard G Nick Young, whom the Clippers obtained from Washington in a three-way deal with Denver just before Wednesday's trade deadline, was interviewed during the team's TV pregame show on a remote feed from New Orleans - where the Wizards were playing. "It is a great fit," Young said. "I find myself growing there. They have great players on the team, and I can learn from each one of them. It's a great feeling to have a team like the Clippers behind you, and knowing that a team vying for a championship wants you. You want to play for your hometown team. My mom knew before I knew, and she called me screaming." ... Gentry's first game as Suns head coach after replacing Terry Porter in February 2009 was a 40-point win over the Clippers - the team Gentry had coached from 2000 through 2003. That was the largest margin of victory in a team's first game following a coaching change until Wednesday night, when the New York Knicks beat Portland by 42 in Mike Woodson's first game as head coach following Mike D'Antoni's abrupt resignation.

Notebook: Suns 91, Clippers 87

Posted Friday March 16, 2012 2:09AM

By Dan Arritt, for NBA.com

THE FACTS: Playing without veteran starters Steve Nash and Grant Hill, the Suns didn't deviate from their habit of making big-time comebacks this season, rallying from a 12-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter Thursday night against the Clippers to win, 91-87, at Staples Center.

QUOTABLE: "We got an opportunity to start, me and Shannon [Brown]. We got in and came out with a big win."
--Suns guard Sebastian Telfair.

THE STAT: The Suns have now rallied back from seven double-digit deficits in the month of March and nine overall this season, second only to the Thunder (10). They came back from 11 points down in the final quarter to beat the Clippers at Staples Center on March 2, and 13 points down to beat the Timberwolves on Wednesday night.

TURNING POINT: After the Suns clawed back to tie the score, 84-84, on two free throws by Jared Dudley with 2:56 remaining, the teams traded leads until Brown was fouled driving to the basket and made two free throws for an 89-87 lead with 1:33 remaining. The Clippers then looked unorganized on their next possession, which culminated with Mo Williams throwing up a wild 3-point attempt to beat the shot clock. The Clippers had another chance to tie the score, but Chris Paul was stripped by Telfair as he drove into the key with 34 seconds remaining. Brown then sealed the victory with two more free throws with 6.3 seconds left.

HOT: Brown started his second game of the season and made sure it was memorable, scoring a season-high 21 points, including seven in the fourth quarter. The Clippers shot 56 percent from the floor in the first quarter, continuing their momentum from the night before, when they shot 54.3 percent in a 96-82 win against the Hawks. Unfortunately, that didn't last.

NOT: As fluid as the Clippers looked in the opening quarter, they look rigid in the fourth, shooting 3-for-14 and committing six of their 12 turnovers. Phoenix center Marcin Gortat, the team's leading scorer coming into the game at 16.2 points, missed all six of his field-goal attempts in the first half before finishing with eight points on 3-for-10 shooting. It's the second time in the last three games he has been held to single digits after scoring in double digits the previous 16.

GOOD MOVE: Phoenix coach Alvin Gentry gambled by resting Nash and Hill in the middle game of three in three nights. He rolled the dice again in the closing minutes, intentionally fouling Blake Griffin with 3:47 remaining and the Suns trailing by one. Griffin, a 55.4 percent free throw shooter coming into the game, made one of two. DeAndre Jordan, a 47.8 percent free-throw shooter on the season, was also twice intentionally fouled down the stretch and he made three of four.

BAD MOVE: Gentry may have gotten the idea to send Griffin to the line after watching him shoot two consecutive air balls the night before against the Hawks, and again on his first attempt against Phoenix. Griffin, who finished with 25 points and eight rebounds, was also called for his eighth technical foul of the season for forcefully bouncing the basketball off a referee's midsection prior to an inbounds play. The Clippers only went to the free-throw line twice during the first three quarters and missed both attempts. They finished 5-for-12 from the stripe.

QUOTABLE II: "We're playing too much as individuals instead of as a team and you can't win like that. We compound our mistakes consistently and that makes it hard."
-- Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro

NOTABLE: The Suns have beaten the Clippers in 13 of their last 14 meetings ... The Clippers held a closed-door meeting for more than an hour after the game ... The Clippers had just two turnovers in the first half, matching their season low ... The Clippers will play 20 games in March, the first team in 45 years to play that many in a single month ... Paul finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and 11 assists.

UP NEXT: For the Clippers, Saturday vs. Houston, Sunday vs. Detroit, Tuesday @ Indiana. For the Suns, Friday vs. Detroit, Sunday vs. Houston, Tuesday @ Miami.

• Suns: --
• Clippers: Billups, Young

• Suns: Telfair
• Clippers: Griffin

• Lead Changes: 4
• Times Tied: 3

• Arena: Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA
• Officials: #48 Scott Foster, #59 Gary Zielinski, #52 Scott Twardoski
• Attendance: 19060
• Duration: 2:15