Suns Notebook: Nash Says Run, Porter More Cautious

MILWAUKEE - Steve Nash doesn’t think the Suns are running enough. Terry Porter agrees. But the reasons why it’s happening are where the fork in the road appears.

Nash feels the Suns have become too reliant on their inside game — however potent — and need to keep a happy medium with the old Phoenix style to be most effective. The Suns have had moments in each of their first four wins when they slipped back into familiar habits and used it to build scoring runs.

“When Shaq plays the way he is (29 points and 11 rebounds in Saturday’s 104-96 win), it’s great,” Nash said. “We’re much more deliberate. I just hope we find the versatility and balance. When Shaquille isn’t on the floor, we’re not a team that’s built for half-court basketball.”

Porter is all for that. But in Friday’s loss to Chicago, he pointed to turnovers, offensive rebounds allowed and poor defense for the slack off in tempo.

“We’ve had games where we’ve run a lot and scored well. But it’s tough to run when you’re turning it over and taking the ball out of the net,” he said. “We have to do a better job of executing on offense and be better on defense. That will give us more chances to run.”

The Suns weren’t as sloppy early against the Bucks and built a 13-point lead. The defense was tighter as the Bucks missed 12 of their first 16 shots. But the Suns’ tempo was still deliberate in the first half (two fast-break points) and they built their lead thanks to a 22-4 edge at the free-throw line, which turned into a 44-17 bulge at the end.

COMFORT ZONE

Robin Lopez’s first NBA start turned out to be a false start. An hour before Wednesday’s game in Indiana, Matt Barnes (birth of twins) left the team and Shaquille O’Neal wound up playing. Instead of starting, Lopez never left the bench.

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Late in the first half, he flew down the lane and hammered a pick-and-roll feed from Nash down for a dunk. Nash went right back to him on the next possession, but his layup rolled off the rim just before the halftime buzzer.

“I definitely felt a lot more comfortable out there. Knowing I was going to play a lot, it just calmed me down,” said Lopez, who had four points in seven minutes Saturday against the Bucks. “Now I have to make sure I do the same thing when I’m coming off the bench and playing less.”

SECOND UNIT BLUES

It’s the same old song for the Phoenix starters, who are watching the bench blow big early leads, forcing them to reverse the tide.

The Suns led by 11 when Nash went to the bench late in the first quarter, but the lead shrank to three by the time he returned to the scorer’s table. Rookie Goran Dragic was scoreless in 13 minutes, missing three shots and committing five fouls and two turnovers. Leandro Barbosa and Boris Diaw combined for just nine points.

“Still a work in progress. It’s a long season and this is going to serve him well,” Porter said of Dragic.

BONUS SHOTS

Amaré Stoudemire outscored the Bucks from the free-throw line (18-17) and had two less attempts (22-20). In the last three games, he’s gone to the line 53 times and converted 49 (92.5 percent).

Porter’s 5-2 start matches the best by a Suns coach to start his tenure, tying him with Jerry Colangelo and Scott Skiles — who he bested Saturday.

Chicago guard Kirk Hinrich tore a ligament in his left thumb while trying to knock the ball away from Stoudemire in the third quarter Friday. He will miss up to three months.

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