In the spirit of the holiday season, I compiled this video of all 16 of Steve Nash's assists from the Toronto game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqGyQQHD1-E

I hope everybody enjoys taking another look at the generosity of our master giver!

While I was compiling the video, I noted these interesting tidbits.

Recipients of Nash assists vs Toronto:
Amare - 6
LB - 4
Hill - 2
Marion, Banks, Skinner, Boris - 1 apiece

Assists by quarter:
1st - 4 (Amare, Hill, Trix, Banks)
2nd - 4 (LB, LB, Skinner, Amare)
3rd - 7 (Amare, Hill, Amare, Boris, Amare, LB, LB)
4th - 1 (Amare)

A brilliant third quarter was not enough for the Suns to make up for an awful first half, and they fell to the New Orleans Hornets, 101-98.

After trailing by 13 at the half, the Suns scored 34 points in the third quarter to tie the game at 80. But they just couldn't sustain the excellent play and scored a mere 18 points in the final quarter.

Even so, the Suns still had a chance to win it at the end, down by 1 and in possession of the ball. But Shawn Marion's drive into the lane ended with an indecisive flip to the basket which missed everything - or was it a pass? - and they fell short. The play was symbolic of Marion's relatively poor night, compared to recent performances. He finished with just 11 points after scoring only one basket in the first half.

In fact, after combining for 73 points against Utah, the Suns' "Big 3" of Marion, Amare Stoudemire and Steve Nash scored a paltry (for them) 39 points in this game. Stoudemire wasn't hitting his jumper early on and promptly abandoned it. Then he never could seem to handle the muscular defense presented by the Hornets, particularly 7'1" center Tyson Chandler. Every one of STAT's 16 points seemed hard to come by. Meanwhile, Nash was just 4-of-12 from the field for 12 points and finished with 7 assists, a big drop-off from his recent streak of double-figure games.

The only good news was that the rest of the Suns were ALMOST good enough to make up the difference. Grant Hill scored 17 points (most of them in the first half), and Raja Bell hit a few threes while also contributing 17. Best of all, Leandro Barbosa found his shot again (8-for-12, including 3-for-6 from three) and finished with 19 points.

Once again, rebounding was an issue, with the Suns losing the battle 55-46, including giving up 13 offensive boards.

It's sad to say, but the Hornets backcourt of Chris Paul and Morris Peterson definitely got the better of Nash and the other Suns' guards. They each scored 21 points, and Paul finished with 10 assists, 2 steals, and just one turnover. He's definitely a star on the rise. Hornets' fans even had fun with an "MVP" chant for him late in the game.  

So now the Suns have lost 3 of 4, heading into the "big showdown" on Monday night that everybody has been waiting for. Definitely not the best type of streak you'd want to be in, going to San Antonio.

Suns' Player of the Game: Leandro Barbosa. It was great to see him being his free-flowing self again.

Hornet's Player of the Game: Chris Paul. He only shot 8-of-20, but he was always in control of the game.

Grade for the Suns: C-. The supporting cast did as much as they could, but the Suns' top 3 players simply can't afford to have an off night all at once.

[Editor's Note: Thanks a bunch, SueB for filling in on the live blogging and writing up the recap! Sounds like I have something "must watch" waiting for me on my DVR when I get back.]

Wow.

I wish I could come up with something better than that to describe the Suns' performance in the first half of this game, but that's all that kept going through my head.

The Suns tied the US Airways Center record with 47 points in the first quarter - and they easily could have broken the record, but they missed their last 3 shots. They followed that with a "slow" 33-point second quarter to total 80 points in the first half.

That's more than the Heat scored in an entire game tonight. And two points less than the Hawks scored in their victory over the Heat.

The Suns were crazy hot in this game, although - to their great credit - the Kings hung with them for nearly 2-1/2 quarters.

Thanks to jasonsuns1 for tallying up these first-half shooting stats in the live blog thread:

Nash 6 for 8
Barbosa 3 for 5
Marion 7 for 9
Hill 6 for 7!!!
Skinner 4 for 6

Yes, that last line is for Brian Skinner, not Amare. Amare was the only starter to have a relatively quiet game. He played only 19 minutes, finishing with 13 points. Skinner finished with those 4-for-6 for 9 points, but his court presence is getting more and more impressive with each game. Considering he was on the bench and Boris was in the game at the end of the game, I tend to think Skinner (we really need a nickname for him!) is almost getting to be the more important big man. Skinner and Amare even played at the same time for a while, allowing Shawn to play at small forward.  

As for the others, I guess I'll give the "game ball" to Shawn Marion, just slightly in front of Steve. After last night's embarrassing 2-point game, Matrix exploded for 25 points tonight - inside shots, outside shots, fast break shots. It was great to see Shawn shooting so well. Weirdly, he only ended up with 3 rebounds ... but then, there weren't that many rebounds to be had tonight.

Thank goodness Nash's shot was back tonight. No worries about him grabbing his neck like last night. He had 18 points and 15 assists and extended his free throw streak to 30. LB is still shooting like a crazy man, and Grant Hill had 15 points, many of them on slashing finishes - including a dunk! - after length-of-the-court rushes. Really, who would've thought. He also had 6 assists.

Now of course it must be said that the Kings were really short-handed tonight. Ron Artest missed the trip for "personal reasons", and Beno Udrih - who is already a fill-in for the injured Mike Bibby - was out after being hurt last night. But the players who replaced those two starters led the team in scoring. Francisco Garcia had a career-high of 31 points. Even though the pace was clearly not in their favor, they hung in there into the 3rd quarter and were only down by 13 a few minutes into the second half. But they finally succumbed under the onslaught of another 30-point quarter for the Suns, and with the score 110-82 after three quarters, on came the S-U-B-S!!!!

Yes, DJ, Alando, Banks, and Marks got to play pretty much the entire fourth quarter! Diaw was the other Sun on the court. As I commented in the game thread, perhaps Piatkowski had seen too many minutes recently and needed some rest. He was the Suns' only DNP.

Alando hit his first shot of the game - a 3-pointer - and ended up with 10 points. What an athlete. I wish he was just 2 or 3 inches taller. But if that were the case, he wouldn't have still been there at pick 29. DJ scrapped for 5 points, and Marks even powered home a dunk after splitting a couple of Kings' players along the baseline. The Suns' bench went crazy over that one.

Marcus Banks played 30 minutes. Do not adjust your computer screen - I said 30 minutes. He got into the game half-way through the first quarter and played significant first-half minutes in the absence of Raja (and Pike, apparently). He missed his first shot badly but came right back and made his next one. He was even spotted taking a charge, doing some dirty work. He only had 8 points but finished with 6 assists. Definitely a creditable performance, especially after not having played for several games.  

The final score was not at all reflective of the totally dominating offensive performance put on by the Suns. Some glass-half-empty people might worry that the Suns didn't play defense. But I'll just glory in the thrill of being able to watch this team when it is running at full throttle.

Player of the Game: It's pretty hard to pick just one Sun, but I'll say Marion (just ahead of Nash).

Runner-Up: Francisco Garcia had a terrific game for Sacramento.

Grading the Game: "A", without a doubt.

Not sure if this is already being discussed anywhere, but Boris Diaw is currently playing with France in the European championships in Spain (aka "Eurobasket 2007").

So far, France is 3-1, having beaten Poland, Italy, and Germany so far (and lost to the surprise of the tournament so far, Slovenia). Today, France tips off against unbeaten Lithuania.

Anyway, even though this tournament seems quite a bit more competitive and interesting than the FIBA Americas tournament - and features almost as many NBA players - there is apparently zero TV coverage in the US.

From what I can tell, Diaw has been "okay". He's been starting alongside Parker, Turiaf and a couple of guys who play in Europe, and he's leading the team in rebounding (6.3 per game) but is only 5th in scoring (8 ppg). Parker has been the story for France, scoring 25 ppg, second only to Dirk's 28.3 ppg for Germany.

I'd like to see more scoring from Boris (anything which might give some hint of aggressiveness), but it's hard to know if it's just a result of the role he's been given on the French team.

[Thanks for the head's up, Sue B! For readers in the Dallas area, it looks like this will be shown Tuesday instead of Monday (2pm CT on Channel 13).]

I just saw that Steve Nash is going to be on the Charlie Rose show (on PBS) this Monday. Check your local listings!

If you've never watched Rose's show, he does long, in-depth interviews and usually manages to come up with new and interesting points of discussion with his interviewees, rather than the same old topics rehashed all over again. I hope that's the case this time although I'll enjoy it either way. I've got my timer set, and I'm looking forward to it!

Congratulations to Grant Hill on the birth of his daughter, Lael Rose Hill, yesterday afternoon:

She's the second daughter for the handsome couple who have been married since July 1999.
The family plans to move from their home in Orlanda to Arizona later this month...

I hope she inspires him to great things this season. :)

[Part 2 of SueB's report from Steve Nash's Charity Classic]

Finally, a hotel with free internet. Here's a little bit more about our experience in Vancouver this weekend.

We arrived on Friday, and I knew we were staying at the "official hotel" of the event, but I didn't realize that meant all the players were staying here as well. So when I took the kids down to find the pool, I was surprised to see a bunch of players - including Raja Bell - gathered in the lobby. I was just getting all excited about that when I turned around again, and there was Steve Nash, greeting all of them and making a joke about being dressed "business casual". I was a little upset to be caught without my camera, but I'm a non-intrusive person, so I was probably not going to go up and bother them for a picture or autograph anyway. It was thrilling enough just to see them. I headed to the elevator, so I could resume breathing, and waiting there was Sam Cassell. He had a friend with him, and just as I was wondering if the three of us would fit on with both of them and their luggage, the elevator arrived, and off came Samuel Dalembert. Cassell and Dalembert greeted with a shrug, and I was still wondering what to do, when Cassell resolved the matter with a very polite "After you", and we all got on. Very cool.

When I saw them, Steve and Raja must've just completed the press conference described in this article. Then I figure they were gathering to attend (or grab a bite before) this event, which was just a little tiny bit out of our league.  

Saturday morning, we headed out to explore Vancouver. Walking through the hotel lobby, we again ran across Nash, walking briskly toward us while talking to a couple of people with him. My husband - who really isn't much of a hoops fan - said later he probably would not have even noticed Nash if I hadn't been going ballistic (quietly, in my own way, noticeable only to him). Nash definitely doesn't look any bigger off the court than he does on it! I don't believe for a minute that he is 6'3". After semi-jokingly wondering if hanging around the hotel lobby might really be the best way to spend the day, we headed out.

After a short miserable time spent exploring historic Gastown on foot (and getting semi-lost) in the rain, we took the subway (aka "SkyTrain") and got down to the arena to scope out the parking situation and opted to buy a pre-paid parking pass. Thank goodness because it was raining before, during and after the game, and it would've been miserable trying to catch a cab afterwards.

Fortunately, the rain did stop for a few hours Saturday afternoon, enough time for us to attend the "Good Karma" block party, across the street from the arena. We got there early and saw pretty much everything there was to see and picked up a couple dozen freebie handouts in about 10 minutes. Only then did we notice the posted schedule of events and see that there would be two player autograph-signing sessions a little later. With two young kids in tow, it was pretty much impossible for us to do both the autograph sessions and the "Fast Break" which was a Q&A session with the players before the game. In hindsight, I wish we'd chosen the "Fast Break", but I was so quickly and easily able to approach Leandro Barbosa for his autograph that we opted to wait for the other players to show. We did manage to get some more autographs, including those of Raja and Nash, but the long wait and the crush of the crowd made it pretty unpleasant.

I've always felt an autograph itself wasn't as important as being close enough to meet the person. But this setting allowed for little or no interaction, and I ended up being more concerned about my 6-year-old son's safety to really pay attention to the players that much. It wasn't the players' fault, of course - they were all very gracious. I can really understand why it's probably not their favorite thing to do either. We did get some pictures, at least, so that was cool. And we beat the rain - it started raining again soon after Nash went by us, so I'm sure a lot of other people either got soaked or missed out. But for me, just happening across Nash & company a couple of times at the hotel was the much more thrilling experience.  

I already discussed the game itself in my other post. They didn't announce the attendance at the game, but reports seem to be that it was over 10,000, which sounds about right. It was a nice vocal crowd, lots of fun. All the Suns' players - along with former Grizz Felipe Lopez - got the biggest cheers during introductions. Barbosa probably had the second loudest cheer behind Nash. And man, oh man, I haven't seen that many Nash jerseys anyplace outside of US Airways. Well, make that never, since I've never been to US Airways. I'm guessing at a  Suns' game, you see mostly Nash but also a good mix of jerseys from various other players. This was pretty much all Nash, all the time. I saw one Bosh jersey and one Wade jersey, and my son claimed to see a "Suns jersey that was 31 instead of 13", so maybe a Matrix jersey was present as well. But pretty much everything else was Nash. Purple, white, orange, even red Canada #7's. He truly is an icon in British Columbia. In all of Canada, really, but especially in his home province.

Anyway, tomorrow we fly home after a week of rain and clouds - just in time for it to turn nice here in the Northwest! But despite the bad weather, I'm still really glad we came. I read an article in which Nash said they're not sure they'll be doing a charity game again next year, so I'm definitely glad we made it to this one.

And of course, now I just need to make it to a Suns' game.

[Here it is - SueB's much-anticipated report from the front lines at Steve Nash's Charity Classic. Thanks, SueB, for taking time to share with us what it was like to be there. -TexSUN]

I wasn't anticipating being able to get on the internet today, but a wireless connection suddenly appeared, so I'll take advantage to post what I can about the game. Later, I'll add in anything else I remember as well as the parts about seeing Nash, Raja and others in our hotel lobby, riding the elevator with Sam Cassell, and our autograph-seeking experience. But for now, just the game ...

The players were divided into two teams:

East - Ira Newble, Fred Jones, Dan Dickau, Drew Gooden, Jackson Vroman, Raymond Felton, and DJ Strawberry
West - Steve Nash, Sam Cassell, Felipe Lopez, Samuel Dalembert, Raja Bell, Leandro Barbosa, and Alando Tucker

So no Marcus Banks after all, but it was great to see Alando and DJ there. I guess they needed to balance the teams out position-wise, so that's probably why DJ played for the East. Unfortunately, they announced just prior to the game that Raja would not be playing (just saw in this article that he tweaked a hammy playing pickup soccer with Barbosa!). That was disappointing. At some point in the second half, I also noticed that Felipe Lopez was not playing anymore. This meant the West was down to just five players (3 of them Suns) for most if not all of the second half.

The game may have just been for show, but it was great fun to watch. There wasn't too much in the way of defense, but there was definitely some - I was surprised to see Dalembert start the game with a couple of blocks and a foul early on. But later, with Lopez out and no other big man on the floor for the West, Gooden started to have his way a little bit more. Dan Dickau seemed to take the game as a challenge to perhaps "outdo" Nash and led the East in scoring (they didn't announce final scoring tallies, but at some point in the 4th quarter they mentioned he had 35 points). Sam Cassell was great - a true show-man, and he was shooting very well. I think he led the West in scoring although Barbosa was up there as well.

Which brings me to the main point of interest - how the Suns' players did. Barbosa showed no signs of being slowed by his elbow surgery. He was as much of a blur as ever and scored a bundle of buckets on layups on feeds from Nash. LB had a couple of 3-pointers but missed many more, bringing to mind his nightmarish shooting against the Spurs. Nash wasn't shooting that well either, but he predictably ended up with something like 20 assists. One problem was the lack of subs on his team. And also, he was having to switch gears because he was involved in many of the activities taking place at every timeout (see below). It was great to see that Alando Tucker seemed to feel right at home. He ran the court well and was also the beneficiary of many Nash assists. He had one especially impressive windmill slam in the second quarter. I really hope he gets significant minutes this season. In the fourth quarter, when players were taking it more seriously (the losers of the final quarter had to do 25 pushups at center court), Tucker had a couple of clutch baskets, including a 3-pointer, as the West scrambled to come back. It wasn't quite enough,  and with no subs, they ran out of gas and lost the quarter by 3. The West HAD won the first three quarters by 10 or 12 points, so the total score would've been in their favor.

I had to keep reminding myself to pay attention to DJ Strawberry on the East team. He didn't play as much because they had a couple of subs, but he also had an impressive slam dunk or two. He struggled to defend Leandro at times, and on offense, he had a couple of good one-on-one showdowns vs Alando. His most memorable play was when he caught up with Nash on a fast break in the first half and made a clean steal from behind. I'm not sure how much Nash liked that! He looked pretty dejected and took himself out of the game at that point. If DJ doesn't make the squad, remember that play! ;)

To enhance the quality of the show, each timeout was approximately the length of a mini-halftime show. The Gorilla was there and fired his T-shirt bazooka and held "mascot boot camp" for an array of hapless local mascots. My 8-year-old daughter enjoyed that part. As mentioned above, Nash was involved in a lot of the breaks, answering interview questions from cancer kids, helping a kid answer conservation-related trivia questions, and playing a game of "M-V-P" (think "H-O-R-S-E") with a 40-something rounding-in-the-middle fellow who'd entered for a chance to play in this contest back in April. This guy turned out to be quite the dead-eye, and Nash actually lost (I told you his shot was off). Now this guy can brag about the accomplishment for the rest of his life. During one timeout, Nash drew one of the largest cheers of the night when he announced that the Suns and Sonics would be playing an exhibition game in Vancouver on October 26.

More later ...

Update (7/22/07): SueB has now posted her recap of the game which she attended in person.

Editor's Note: Thanks, SueB for posting this. Sounds like the Suns backcourt will be well-represented at this event. Nice find on the Nash interview as well.

Steve Nash is hosting his foundation's third annual charity basketball game one week from tonight (July 21) in Vancouver, BC. I'm very pleased to say I'll be at the game! The article below says Raja Bell, Leandro Barbosa, and Marcus Banks are all expected to be there. Having never attended a Suns' game (or indeed any NBA game), I'm very excited that I'll be able to see these guys up close, even if it's a just-for-fun game. I'm sure they'll put on a good show.

I apologize that I can't figure out how to embed links here (I'll edit this if somebody will answer me and tell me how). But here is a link to the Charity Classic's official site:

http://www.classic.stevenash.org/

And here's an interview with Steve that appeared in today's Canadian press, as he works to build publicity for the event: All About Nash