Baller-in-Chief

(From Paul Coro for The Arizona Republic Online)

Suns now filled with ‘hope,’ ‘fun’

A ninth-place standing in the Western Conference had some Suns fans clinging to a glass half-full perspective once Alvin Gentry returned the team to the fun-and-gun style of play.

The news Friday of losing leading scorer Amaré Stoudemire for the season because of a detached retina shattered the glass for many, but not inside the US Airways Center home locker room.

The words “The Audacity of Hope,” the title of a book by President Barack Obama, were written on the Suns’ locker-room board before they won Friday, becoming the first NBA team in 18 years to score 140 points in three consecutive games.

“It’s the brilliance of hope, to have hope in the face of adversity,” Suns guard Steve Nash said.

Nash figures the Suns need to win about 18 of the final 28 games to make the playoffs. Center Shaquille O’Neal said they should go 22-9 at worst after the All-Star break and, with a 3-0 start, could go 26-5 at best.

Hope is free, and the Suns gathered as much as they could last week, using the downtrodden Clippers and Thunder to prepare for tougher tasks. They will play winning teams in nine of the next 11 games, starting with Sunday’s home clash with the Boston Celtics. The Suns catch the Celtics without Kevin Garnett, who is out two to three weeks after straining a muscle behind his knee in a Thursday loss at Utah.

“We definitely owe them,” said Suns forward Matt Barnes, recalling a Jan. 19 loss in Boston in which his team trailed 54-24. “They really embarrassed us. They destroyed us. We’re a completely different team now.

“You have to have fun to play this game. For a while, we weren’t having fun.”

After replacing the fired Terry Porter, Gentry brought back a well-spaced, quick-shooting offense that has the Suns averaging 14 more shots in the past three games.

“We’re the leading-shooting team in the league, but we haven’t been getting a lot of shots up,” Gentry said.

The Suns are coming off their lowest two-game turnover total (17) this season and have rediscovered a 3-point touch with the floor spread. In the past two games, they made 22 3-pointers after averaging 4.6 in the previous 17 games.

“The key is that (the system) is liberating for 90 percent of our roster,” Nash said. “It makes everyone more involved and makes everyone highlight what they’re good at, and it suits our team. Playing a little more of a half-court game only suited Shaquille. We can still go into him. As you’ve seen, he was really effective.”

As for audacity, hope and Obama, the Suns appear to have landed one more big game. Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon delivered a letter to Obama at the White House last week, challenging the basketball enthusiast and his staff to a three-on-three game against Nash, O’Neal and Grant Hill, who signed the letter, along with Gordon and Suns President Rick Welts.

In part, it read, “We know the importance of having a home-court advantage, so we would be just as happy to meet you on your own home court at the White House.”

Obama told Gordon, “We’ll make it happen.”

“That’ll be a dream come true,” Nash said. “Hopefully this administration doesn’t have too many ringers. . . . I’m not too worried about those cats.”

Hill said they would offer a rule that O’Neal could not shoot in the paint.

“We’ll probably have Nash on him,” Hill said of guarding Obama. “USA vs. Canada. Canada might win this one.”