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Bench Warmer
For a guy who won back-to-back MVPs playing in a "Seven Seconds or Less" system -- a system that required taking the first available shot and was intolerant of a player taking his time -- it's ironic how one of Steve Nash 's best qualities as a person is his patience.
It's a quality belonging to the Suns' captain that manifested itself in the home locker room after Phoenix blasted the Los Angeles Lakers 118-103 on Monday.
The mood was satisfaction, sure, but not celebration.
"We want to just play well," Nash said after posting his 18th double-double of the season with 16 points and 13 assists.
"More than the win, it was just that we played well today. ... For me, what was important was that we came out and had a great approach and mentality and we fought for it. That's what's going to have to be a lasting characteristic for our team to continue to have a successful season."
Coming into the game, Phoenix was just 5-9 in the month of December after starting the season 14-3. There are a lot of teams in this league that would puff their chests out and say, "We're back," if they were mired in the kind of rut that the Suns have been in and suddenly came out and dominated the defending champs for 48 minutes.
But not Nash and the Suns.
"It's one win against a really quality team, but that's all it is: one win," Suns coach Alvin Gentry said.
"I think in a week everybody will forget about it, so it's not a statement game," Nash added.
Kobe Bryant scored 34 points to lead all scorers, but the Lakers, who had already beaten Phoenix twice this season, fell behind by as many as 22 and continued a disturbing trend of losing by double digits. Despite being tied with Cleveland for most wins in the NBA with 24, L.A.'s average margin of defeat is 15.0 points in its six losses.
Nash and Bryant have a lot in common. They're former MVPs. Each is playing for the franchise he started his career with. Each is in his 14th season and is still leading the league in one of the five major statistical categories -- Bryant in scoring (29.9 points per game) and Nash in assists (11.2).
But this past summer, when Nash was faced with a situation similar to what Bryant went through two years ago, the point guard's patience directed his decision.
We all remember Kobe's I've-had-it trade demand in May 2007, just a few short weeks after Nash's Suns knocked Bryant and the Lakers out of the first round of the playoffs in a five-game series.
Bryant sensed his championship window in Los Angeles was closed, and he wanted to jump through the glass and flee to greener pastures rather than wait for another window to open in L.A.
Nash was in the same boat this past summer. It's been more than two seasons since the Suns were truly championship contenders in 2006-07. (The epitaph on the Shaquille O'Neal experiment turned out the move was ultimately more about publicity than title plausibility.) Nash has seen the franchise let go of his coach (Mike D'Antoni), part with his best friends on the team (Raja Bell and Boris Diaw) and trade draft picks to avoid paying their salaries, yet he signed a two-year extension that will keep him in Phoenix for what's left of his prime. He'll be 38 years old when the contract is up.
"I'm glad as [expletive] it ain't me," Bryant said at shootaround on Monday when he was asked about Nash's situation as an elite player with little immediate hope for a championship.
"It's tough. We went through it. We used to come up here during the playoffs and get our butts kicked and it was brutal. I'm sure he's feeling it a little bit, but I know he likes his chances here with the team he has."
Where Bryant has it wrong is that Nash concerns himself with the team and not the chances. The journey and not the results. It's kind of an old-school character trait that's survived today's instant-gratification society.
"Sometimes after games he's frustrated with the outcome and lack of execution, but I don't think he's someone who is going to go to a team just to win a championship," Suns forward Jared Dudley said after putting up 19 points and seven rebounds off the bench, proving to be the difference-maker in Phoenix's bench outscoring L.A.'s 52-31.
"I told the guys in the locker room, 'You guys really screwed up because we know what you can do now, so we expect this to happen,'" Gentry said after his team tied the Lakers on the glass, even though the Lakers were starting a nearly all 7-foot frontline of Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.
The win lifts Phoenix to 20-12, tied with Denver for the third-best record in the West. The playoffs are in sight. And for a Suns team that has now beaten Los Angeles, Boston and Orlando, it's not that far-fetched to start thinking about the ultimate reward of a championship.
Not that Nash will be crushed if that doesn't happen quite so fast.
"There's a lot of reward just playing with these guys," Nash said. "I really enjoy myself. I love competing, I love being around these guys, so it's fun. Patience is not really something I have to worry about."
Dave McMenamin writes about the Lakers for ESPNLosAngeles.com
It's a quality belonging to the Suns' captain that manifested itself in the home locker room after Phoenix blasted the Los Angeles Lakers 118-103 on Monday.
The mood was satisfaction, sure, but not celebration.
"We want to just play well," Nash said after posting his 18th double-double of the season with 16 points and 13 assists.
"More than the win, it was just that we played well today. ... For me, what was important was that we came out and had a great approach and mentality and we fought for it. That's what's going to have to be a lasting characteristic for our team to continue to have a successful season."
Coming into the game, Phoenix was just 5-9 in the month of December after starting the season 14-3. There are a lot of teams in this league that would puff their chests out and say, "We're back," if they were mired in the kind of rut that the Suns have been in and suddenly came out and dominated the defending champs for 48 minutes.
But not Nash and the Suns.
"It's one win against a really quality team, but that's all it is: one win," Suns coach Alvin Gentry said.
"I think in a week everybody will forget about it, so it's not a statement game," Nash added.
Kobe Bryant scored 34 points to lead all scorers, but the Lakers, who had already beaten Phoenix twice this season, fell behind by as many as 22 and continued a disturbing trend of losing by double digits. Despite being tied with Cleveland for most wins in the NBA with 24, L.A.'s average margin of defeat is 15.0 points in its six losses.
Nash and Bryant have a lot in common. They're former MVPs. Each is playing for the franchise he started his career with. Each is in his 14th season and is still leading the league in one of the five major statistical categories -- Bryant in scoring (29.9 points per game) and Nash in assists (11.2).
But this past summer, when Nash was faced with a situation similar to what Bryant went through two years ago, the point guard's patience directed his decision.
We all remember Kobe's I've-had-it trade demand in May 2007, just a few short weeks after Nash's Suns knocked Bryant and the Lakers out of the first round of the playoffs in a five-game series.
Bryant sensed his championship window in Los Angeles was closed, and he wanted to jump through the glass and flee to greener pastures rather than wait for another window to open in L.A.
Nash was in the same boat this past summer. It's been more than two seasons since the Suns were truly championship contenders in 2006-07. (The epitaph on the Shaquille O'Neal experiment turned out the move was ultimately more about publicity than title plausibility.) Nash has seen the franchise let go of his coach (Mike D'Antoni), part with his best friends on the team (Raja Bell and Boris Diaw) and trade draft picks to avoid paying their salaries, yet he signed a two-year extension that will keep him in Phoenix for what's left of his prime. He'll be 38 years old when the contract is up.
"I'm glad as [expletive] it ain't me," Bryant said at shootaround on Monday when he was asked about Nash's situation as an elite player with little immediate hope for a championship.
"It's tough. We went through it. We used to come up here during the playoffs and get our butts kicked and it was brutal. I'm sure he's feeling it a little bit, but I know he likes his chances here with the team he has."
Where Bryant has it wrong is that Nash concerns himself with the team and not the chances. The journey and not the results. It's kind of an old-school character trait that's survived today's instant-gratification society.
"Sometimes after games he's frustrated with the outcome and lack of execution, but I don't think he's someone who is going to go to a team just to win a championship," Suns forward Jared Dudley said after putting up 19 points and seven rebounds off the bench, proving to be the difference-maker in Phoenix's bench outscoring L.A.'s 52-31.
"I told the guys in the locker room, 'You guys really screwed up because we know what you can do now, so we expect this to happen,'" Gentry said after his team tied the Lakers on the glass, even though the Lakers were starting a nearly all 7-foot frontline of Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.
The win lifts Phoenix to 20-12, tied with Denver for the third-best record in the West. The playoffs are in sight. And for a Suns team that has now beaten Los Angeles, Boston and Orlando, it's not that far-fetched to start thinking about the ultimate reward of a championship.
Not that Nash will be crushed if that doesn't happen quite so fast.
"There's a lot of reward just playing with these guys," Nash said. "I really enjoy myself. I love competing, I love being around these guys, so it's fun. Patience is not really something I have to worry about."
Dave McMenamin writes about the Lakers for ESPNLosAngeles.com
