The Suns, one of only two undefeated clubs in the Western Conference, embarked on their five-game East Coast road trip today. The week-long voyage includes matchups against three undefeated teams: Miami, Boston and Orlando.

Phoenix faces Miami on Tuesday and Orlando on Wednesday, in the first of its 15 back-to-back contests this season. Facing two of the early favorites to capture the next NBA Championship, it will be a test of where the Suns are in their development.

No one is more of aware of that than Suns head Coach Alvin Gentry.

“It’s not like we’re 30-0,” he said. “We’re 3-0.”

“And as I said last week, if we win every game (on this trip) I wouldn’t be overly excited about it and if we lost every game I wouldn’t be overly concerned about it,” he continued. “I think for us right now, the big thing is that we have to try to show improvement. Our goal is to be playing the best basketball we can in April.”

Gentry has been impressed with his team’s conditioning and credits their victories over the Warriors and the Clippers to their training. During this trip, he’s hoping to see his star forward, Amar’e Stoudemire, continue to work into game-shape.

“Some of the things he couldn’t finish last night in the game he’ll be finishing 10, 15 games from now,” Gentry said. “We just have to understand that it’s not going to come back overnight.”

Last season, the Suns went 4-6 against the five clubs they face on this road trip. They went 2-0 against a Gilbert Arenas-less Wizards, 0-2 against the Heat and Celtics and 1-1 against the Sixers and the Magic.

Miami’s Dwyane Wade was particularly deadly against Phoenix last season. Wade poured in 43 points in the two teams’ first meeting before going for a video game-like 35 points and 16 assists in their other matchup.

One of the more interesting duels of the road trip will be how the Suns fare against the Magic, who will be playing without star forward Rashard Lewis (suspended for 10 games for taking an illegal substance). The returning Eastern Conference Champions haven’t seemed hampered by their All-Star’s absence.

“They’re a deep team so missing one guy - unless that guy is (Dwight) Howard – is not going to make a difference,” the Suns Head Coach said.

Despite Howard’s dominance over the rest of the league, Stoudemire outplayed the Defensive Player of the Year in their only meeting last season. Stoudemire racked up 21 points, 14 rebounds and the win, while Howard contributed just 19 points and seven rebounds.

Besides facing Howard, the Suns will do battle with the Heat’s 6-11 center, Jermaine O’Neal, as well as the tremendous size of the Celtics’ frontline. In order to match their opponents’ size better, Gentry expects new signee Jarron Collins to see more minutes on this trip.

One player who is not 100 percent on this trip is Leandro Barbosa, who is being plagued by an inflamed wrist. Barbosa has a cyst in his wrist that was struck badly while he was playing Sunday against Minnesota, causing him to play just under 14 minutes.

The seventh-year guard said that it the injury is very painful and he’s unsure if he will play against the Heat. Suns head athletic trainer, Aaron Nelson, said that LB is listed as day-to-day.

While the goal of the trip is to win every game, one of the areas Gentry would like to see the team improve upon is transition defense. The Suns only held a one-point advantage over the Wolves in fast-break points.

But as they make their first trip of the season, they can feel confident about taking care of business at home to begin the season 3-0.

“The key is to beat the teams that we’re supposed to beat,” Stoudemire said. “We have a pretty tough road trip and understand that we have the defending champs from 2008 and Orlando, who was in the finals last year. But if we can continue to play the way we are now and try to grow as a unit, we’re going to be all right.”

Notes: Stoudemire’s right eye was red today, but he said that it does that “periodically” when he takes his contacts out after practice and puts his glasses on... STAT said that the key for defeating the Magic is keeping Howard off of the boards and getting out on the break.

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