Surprised we stayed in it as long as we did<a href="http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/articles/0110suns0111.html" target="_blank"> </a> link <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>SALT LAKE CITY - Since Steve Nash returned to the Suns in 2004, they had not played a game without him and his fellow Suns All-Star, Shawn Marion. The Suns learned Thursday night that they would prefer to avoid doing so again. Reduced to nine available players on the second night of a back-to-back set Thursday against Utah, one of the NBA's better home teams, the Suns had about as much hope as the Washington Generals have against the Harlem Globetrotters. Without three starters - Nash (flu), Marion (right elbow bruise and sore right shoulder) and Grant Hill (appendectomy) - the Suns were drilled for a 108-86 loss. "For the first half, we gave it a shot," Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said. "We came out the second half and our legs were wobbly. I think last night (a home overtime win Wednesday against Indiana), coming back the way we did, it took something out of them... We just didn't have enough firepower. We had some guys who tried to get it done but didn't quite get it done." It was Phoenix's worst margin of defeat of the season. The Suns shot 36.1 percent from the field, their worst performance this season. The Suns trailed by double digits for the entire second half and hardly resembled the team with the Western Conference's best record. And they barely still have it, as the loss put Phoenix at 25-11, a half-game ahead of Dallas for the conference's best mark and a game ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers for the Pacific Division lead. Phoenix had been 14-0 when center Amaré Stoudemire posts at least 20 points and 10 rebounds this season, but a more telling stat proved to be the Suns' record the past four seasons without Nash. Stoudemire had 21 points and 14 rebounds in three quarters, but the Suns fell to 4-13 when Nash has been out injured. Phoenix started Leandro Barbosa, Marcus Banks and Boris Diaw (who also was hampered by a tight back) in the place of the usual starters and tried to employ a zone defense to stay out of foul trouble and limit points in the paint, a category in which Utah leads the league. It backfired early, when the Jazz scored 22 in the paint in the first quarter. But Phoenix kept pace, with Barbosa scoring 16 and the Suns trailing 35-28. "I started off strong in the first quarter," Barbosa said. "I played well I thought. In the second half, I got a little bit tired and let up a little bit." In the third quarter, with most of its starters resting, Utah lost patience against the zone and settled for jumpers, scoring just three points in the first six minutes of the quarter. But Phoenix missed its first seven shots of the quarter during its last available window to challenge.</div>
The thing that gets me is that if Okur can get 17 boards, Bargnani should be able to get at least five (which Okur did on the offensive glass).
