Newsroom Notes: Barnes Helps Drive Suns Over Blazers

After a season that saw the passing of his mother and inconsistent playing time in Golden State, no one was more anxious to start anew this season than Matt Barnes.

The 6-7 forward made the most of his opportunities to do just that on Saturday as he helped propel the Suns to a 107-96 home victory over the upstart Portland Trail Blazers. Barnes played the role of sparkplug the entire evening, finishing with 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 3-of-8 from behind the arc. He also chipped in five rebounds and three assists, while spelling Steve Nash as the backup point guard during a key stretch in the third quarter.

Playing against a team on the second half of back-to-back games, the Suns went up early, charging to a 16-8 lead in the first six minutes of the contest. Fresh off of a day of rest, the Suns were able to push the tempo and get open three-pointers.

Phoenix hit 4-of-4 in the first period, with two coming off of Barnes’ fingertips. They finished the quarter shooting 60 percent from the floor.

“It’s been a while since I really got out there and felt good,” Barnes said. “Tonight, I was kind of back to my old self and it felt good to be out there.”

After the initial burst, the Suns allowed the Trail Blazers to storm back and take the lead heading into halftime. But during the third period, Phoenix was able to make a run behind the work of Amar’e Stoudemire and Barnes.

“There were some guys that stepped up and made some big shots for us,” Suns head Coach Terry Porter said. “Matt did a good job. It was nice to see that.”

Stoudemire led the attack with 23 points and 13 rebounds, while Steve Nash added 20 points and seven assists. Shaquille O’Neal contributed 16 points and eight boards.

Rudy Fernandez and Brandon Roy each scored 20 for the Blazers, who have lost to the Suns 10 consecutive times. It’s Phoenix’s longest active winning streak against an opponent.

IN THE ZONE

In the third quarter, a visitor appeared on the floor of US Airways Center. The visitor was welcomed, but rarely seen by fans around the Valley.

That visitor is known in the basketball world as the 2-3 zone. Besides a play or two where it was used on opening night against the Spurs, it was the first time that the Suns employed the tactic for an extended period of time.

One can’t argue with the results either. Phoenix was able to outscore Portland 31-22 in the period. The reason the zone made its debut was actually for offensive purposes. It was so the Suns could benefit from Shaq’s presence on the offensive end.

“It allows us to keep Shaq in the game when a team decides to go small on us,” Porter said. “It really helps us at times just to get those four or five minutes (for Shaq).”

After securing stops from the zone, it also allowed the Suns to kick-start their fast break.

“We also do a great job of breaking out into the open court with that,” Porter noted. “The big guys are in position to rebound and have our wings kind of high and ready to go.”

O’Neal felt that the strategy worked as well.

“We’re going to be mixing it up with a little bit of zone and a little bit of man,” the 7-1 center said. “As long as we stick to the system and do it with a lot of intensity, we should be ok.”

BORIS UNLEASHES NEW DO

Boris Diaw. A man of many talents. A man of many hair dos.

Like a caterpillar undergoing a metamorphosis into a butterfly, Diaw is a creature of stages. First there was his afro during summer workouts.

Then there was the short cornrows that he sported for all of two games. And now it appears that “3D” has settled on some sort of “fade-mohawk.”

Unlike the traditional mohawk, where the hair around the mohawk strip is nearly bald, Diaw’s mohawk has his hair incrementally increase in thickness as you get to the main strip. Due to this gradual tapering up, his do does not take on the basic tenets of the conventional mohawk. In addition, the mohawk strip is much wider than, let’s say, “a Mr. T mohawk.”

So why the change? Is this the final masterpiece that will lie on Diaw’s cranium? Could it be that this style is “all the rage” in France?

Diaw claims that his artistic expression is merely a byproduct of his creative nature, and that there was no particular inspiration behind his rotating styles. As he stated quite plainly, it was completely “random.”

But the key question was, “What will '3D' do next?”

“Maybe carve a picture, maybe a cat or my number in the back,” Diaw suggested. “I could do color too.”

ROTATIONAL ADJUSTMENTS

Louis Amundson seems to have replaced Robin Lopez in the rotation after Amundson had two rebounds, an assist and limitless intensity in his 3:35 of playing time against the New Orleans Hornets on Thursday. As a result, Amundson worked his way into the tenth slot on the bench, earning an appearance that lasted 3:24 in Saturday’s contest.

As soon as “Sweet Lou” checked into the game, he swatted away a dunk attempt by the Blazers’ Travis Outlaw and then followed that play up with another block on Outlaw a few sequences later. The reason for the alteration came down to matchups.

“I just thought that the matchups were better for Lou,” Porter said. “With (Channing) Frye and (LaMarcus) Aldridge in, I thought Lou was a better fit.”

In addition to that modification in the rotation, Porter elected to have Matt Barnes and Grant Hill spearhead the ballhandling duties when Nash went to the bench in the second half.

While rookie Goran Dragic spelled Nash in the first half, Porter alternated between Barnes and Porter as the players that would bring the ball up and initiate the offense.

“I think they are pretty good with the ball,” Porter said. “I kind of just rotated them.

“We had Matt do it a couple of times and then gave it to Grant. I was pleased with their efforts.”

QUOTE OF THE NIGHT

When asked about Blazer center Joel Przybilla's overt physicality with him over the years, Shaq responded, “Przybilla can’t guard me when I’m 27, 37 or 47.”

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