Suns lose big in New Orleans without Nash, O'Neal

What do you get when you subtract your starting point guard and your starting center from an NBA lineup? It isn’t a difficult equation to figure out. You don’t need a calculator, and you don’t need to flip to the back of the book to find the answer.

For the Phoenix Suns, the answer was a 104-91 loss on the road to the New Orleans Hornets. It marks the first time since 2006-07 that the Suns have lost three games in a row in the regular season.

Steve Nash stayed in the team hotel with the flu, and Shaquille O’Neal sat out his third game of the season to rest because of a back-to-back. That left rookie Robin Lopez making his third start of his career at center, and Leandro Barbosa starting in place of Nash at point guard.

To say the Hornets were looking to capitalize on the Suns’ misfortune might be an understatement. New Orleans came out firing on all cylinders in the first quarter, outscoring Phoenix 35-21. Chris Paul scored 12 in the opening period, and finished the game with 24 points and 15 assists.

But credit does need to be given where it’s due, and you’ve got to hand it to the Suns for not rolling over and chalking the game up as a loss from the start.

Phoenix made a furious comeback in the second quarter, starting the period on a 14-2 run, and not allowing New Orleans to score a field goal until halfway through the quarter. They rallied to take a one-point lead for a moment, and found themselves down just 51-50 at the half.

The wheels came off again in the third quarter though, and the Hornets proved to be too much for the short-handed Suns to handle.

The third period posted another disparity, with New Orleans outscoring Phoenix by 12, and that was enough to lead the Hornets to their sixth straight win over the Suns dating back to last season’s four-game sweep.

For lack of other offensive options, Amare Stoudemire got his wish to be the featured scorer of the team, and had a game-high 26 points on 11 for 19 shooting.

Unfortunately, Stoudemire’s presence was only felt on the offensive side of the ball, as he pulled down just four rebounds in 40 minutes of action. Yes Mr. Evans (my high school math teacher), that’s one rebound every 10 minutes. He had more fouls (5) and more turnovers (6) than he did rebounds.

It wasn’t just Stoudemire that had trouble controlling the glass however, as the Hornets out-rebounded the Suns 45-30 in the game. New Orleans’ David West was the only player to reach double-digit rebounds as he pulled down 14 to go along with his 23 points.

For the second straight meeting, the Suns allowed three different Hornets to scored 20 points or more in the same game. Along with Paul and West, Peja Stojakovic made five three-pointers (5 for 9) on his way to 24 points. In their first meeting on October 30^th, Paul and Stojakovic were joined by Morris Peterson as the 20+ scorers (West had 18 points).

Grant Hill contributed the most complete game for Phoenix, scoring 17 points while dishing six assists and six rebounds. Barbosa had 19 points, and Matt Barnes, who came off the bench, was 5 for 11 from the field with 13 points and seven rebounds.

Robin Lopez was nearly invisible in his 20 minutes on the court. He scored just two points on his only shot attempt, didn’t manage a single rebound, and had four fouls, three of which were in the first half.

The Suns (11-8) will have O’Neal back in action tomorrow night, and hope to have Nash back as well to face the Dallas Mavericks (9-8) for the first time this season.