Josh Childress played with the Phoenix Suns last year after a two-year stint in Greece. (GETTY IMAGES)

Josh Childress started his NBA career with the Atlanta Hawks, but spent two seasons in Europe playing for Olympiacos in Greece before returning to the NBA last season with the Phoenix Suns.

It’s fair to say that Childress is an authority on the Euroleague. Europe has become a hot-button topic lately, with NBA superstars such as Deron Williams, Dwyane Wade, Amare Stoudemire and Kobe Bryant are entertaining the thought of playing overseas should the NBA lockout persists. Childress recently talked to ESPN’s First Take about his experience in Greece, and after hearing what he had to say maybe players should rethink this whole European exploration.

“My main thing is do your research and make sure that you know what you’re getting into,” the 28-year-old forward said. “It’s not bad. I really enjoyed my time in Greece and in Europe. I was with a great organization and had great ownership.

“But I just wanted to let guys know to make sure exactly the type of team and organization you’re going to.”

Childress, who helped Olympiacos reach the Euroleague final in 2010, described his overall European experience as “wonderful” and says he truly enjoyed his time in Greece. However, there are some drawbacks, mainly dealing with the tardiness of the paychecks.

He said European pro clubs oftentimes are late in paying their players, and that’s not something NBA players have ever had to deal with. “It depends on the team, but primarily you’re at the mercy of the clubs,” Childress said. “Sometimes you don’t get your payment on time and you kinda have to deal with it.”

He added, “I was lucky to be with ownership that took care of everything, but that’s not the case everywhere.”

Childress also noticed a difference during ballgames, as fans get more boisterous and sometimes become part of the action. “You’re in the gym and fans can throw things at you,” he said. “Sometimes they have a laser pointed in your face while you’re at the free throw line.

“And the referees, sometimes, are corrupt. But you learn and deal with it and try to play through it.”

Another thing Childress mentioned was the travel. He said his club team, Olympiacos, was fairly good about housing players on nice hotels, but the flights are commercial, which should be enough to scare off the majority of NBA prima donnas. Can you image Kobe and LeBron flying commercial? The horror.

His advice for those players who are thinking about Europe? “My advice, two things: Number one, make sure you are sure of yourself. [Second], make sure you have your contract done at a neutral country. I had mine in Switzerland. When we had payment problems, we’d go to court there.

“Those are the two biggest things. Make sure you are covered.”

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The Lakers held Amare Stoudemire to 7-for-20 shooting in Game 6. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

In what may have been his final game in a Phoenix Suns uniform, Amare Stoudemire walked off the court disappointed.

Although Stoudemire scored a team-high 27 points in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals, the Suns’ All-Star center didn’t have the type of game worthy of a maximum contract this summer. He struggled from the field (7 for 20), grabbed just four rebounds and, more importantly, his team lost in six games and is now out of the 2010 NBA playoffs.

Stoudemire can opt out of his contract on July 1 and become an unrestricted free agent. He is among an elite class of potential free agents – LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Joe Johnson and Chris Bosh heading the list – who could change the landscape of the league.

But Suns All-Star point guard Steve Nash, Stoudemire’s teammate in Phoenix for the past six seasons, told reporters on Saturday night just minutes after Phoenix was eliminated by the L.A. Lakers in Game 6 that he prefers the Suns to stay intact, and that includes re-signing Stoudemire.

“I feel a great source of pride for me to be able to play with these guys, ” said Nash, who scored 21 points and had nine assists in a losing effort. “They’re such great people, great teammates that have committed absolutely to what we’re trying to do. We’re a good team. We had a real legitimate chance to beat the Lakers and get to The Finals and play for a championship.

“It’s pretty clear I’d like to keep the group together. I’d like to keep it together and keep it going.”

Suns coach Alvin Gentry and Steve Nash enjoyed a solid season, but fell short of reaching the NBA Finals. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

During his postgame news conference following the loss to the Lakers, Nash also endorsed Alvin Gentry as the right coach to lead the Suns to a championship.

Nash may be the face of the franchise and the two-time league MVP, but it’s Stoudemire’s presence in the middle and his ability to finish at the rim off pick-and-rolls are what separates the Suns from becoming the Golden State Warriors. Stoudemire and Nash form the NBA’s best pick-and-roll combo in the league, and it would be difficult for Phoenix to find a suitable replacement.

Stoudemire has repeated all throughout the playoffs that there’s a 50-50 chance he’ll be back in Phoenix, the only franchise he has played for in his eight-year NBA career. He upgraded it to a “good possibility” that he’ll return to the Suns after the Game 6 loss, but it may depend on how much the Suns are willing to pay him and for how long.

“There are so many ways to structure a deal and what have you, but it’s very important to have a sense of security,” Stoudemire told The Arizona Republic.

Stoudemire has one year left on his current deal that pays him $17.68 million. He admitted that all the trade rumors the past two years have really bothered him and could ultimately be the reason why he leaves. But Stoudemire also said that his relationship with Suns management greatly improved after he was not dealt last February.

Expect Stoudemire to test the free-agent market this summer as he waits for the Suns to make him an offer he can’t refuse. In the end, Suns owner Robert Sarver may have to overpay his already overpaid superstar in order for the Suns to keep their title hopes alive.

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Kobe Bryant made sure there wasn’t going to be a Game 7 as he made three clutch shots down the stretch to lead the L.A. Lakers to a 111-103 victory over the Phoenix Suns and clinch the 2010 Western Conference championship.

L.A. will face the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, a matchup of two teams with a combined 32 NBA championship banners. Game 1 of The Finals begin Thursday night in Los Angeles.

Against the Suns in Game 6, the Lakers built a 12-point lead at halftime and led throughout the second half. But backup point guard Goran Dragic led a furious fourth-quarter rally by the Suns in which the home team sliced an 18-point deficit to three points with under three minutes remaining. Dragic ignited the surge when he scored six points in nine seconds, two coming on free throws after Sasha Vujacic was called for a Flagrant 1 foul when he hit Dragic in the chin as the two Slovenians got tangled up in the backcourt.

Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher make their third consecutive trip the NBA Finals, their first trip with Ron Artest as a teammate. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

But when the game got close, the Lakers turned to the best closer in the game – Bryant.

After the Suns cut the lead to 99-96 with 2:19 left, Bryant got the ball on the wing and buried a shot over Grant Hill and Channing Frye to give the Lakers a five-point lead. Then, with 35.2 remaining, Bryant put the game away when he drove past the Suns bench, rose up over Hill and swished a fadeaway shot from about 22 feet to make it 107-100.

“Just had to keep attacking, trying to stay aggressive,” said Kobe Bryant, who scored a game-high 37 points – his ninth 30-point game in his last 10 playoff games.

“They had help coming from the weakside, with traps and things like that, and made it difficult for me to get to the basket. So, I just had to create a little bit of space and raise up,” Bryant said. “I had a good look, it looks like a tougher shot than it actually is. I got a good look, got my legs underneath me and was able to knock it down.”

Suns coach Alvin Gentry got a great view of Bryant’s fall-away shot and thought Hill played it about as well as any player could defend it. Unfortunately, Bryant was just better than any defense the Suns threw at him.

“After I had knocked down a shot, I just heard him mutter something like ‘That’s BS!’ Something to that effect. It just made me smile. I just padded them on the butt,” Bryant said of his sideline encounter with Gentry.

“I mean, what can you say about Kobe?” Gentry asked. “There’s an intense game going on and you almost have to laugh at what he does. I thought we played great defense on him and he just made tough shot, after tough shot.”

Bryant’s got some help offensively from Ron Artest, who carried over his game-winning play from Game 5 to a very solid 10-for-16 shooting night and 25 points in Game 6.

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The Phoenix Suns’ zone defense has altered the complexion of the Western Conference finals.

After two convincing victories in Game 1 and Game 2, the Lakers appeared to be headed for sweep until the Suns, out of pure desperation, went exclusively to a zone defense that not only slowed up the Lakers’ offensive attack but it has energized the Suns’ offense. Despite 38 points from Kobe Bryant, the Suns got enough stops on defense and a huge lift from their reserves to score a 115-106 win in Game 4.

“The only thing that we tried to do is that we look at the tape and we try to look at it as if we were the Lakers, and we said, ‘OK, where would you attack us?’ ” said Suns coach Alvin Gentry, whose team has held the Lakers under 50% from the field on consecutive games after L.A. shot 56% in two games in L.A.

The Suns bench also played a big role in Game 4. They not only outscored the Lakers bench, 54-20, but they also brought a lot of energy on the floor and helped Phoenix outrebound the Lakers, 51-36.

Suns reserve forward Jared Dudley gets the Phoenix fans excited after knocking down a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter. The Suns bench outscored the Lakers bench, 54-20, in Game 4. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

“We saw some areas where we were really vulnerable so we talked to our guys about being well aware of that. One of them was the high screen-and-roll with Kobe,” Gentry explained. “We thought that we would have to get up and at least make him drive it and not just come off and rise up and shoot the ball. We also thought that they would try to pound the ball a lot more, so we would have to be inside and then close out on shooters and I thought we did a good job with that.”

Gentry said the other day the Suns will continue to play their “girly zone” for as long as it keeps the bigger and taller Lakers from dominating inside. “The whole key is, although it’s a zone, we try to match up,” Gentry said. “Initially, everyone has to have a man and then from there we try to pass guys off. Early on they were making jump shots, and I think we’ll have to live with the jump shot.”

Lakers coach Phil Jackson dismissed the notion that the Suns won Game 4 because of the zone defense, noting that the Lakers shot 49% from the field. Instead, he highlighted the fact the Lakers were outshot from the free throw line again.

“We shot 49 percent didn’t we? That’s pretty good. Nothing wrong with that. I won’t say we struggled against the zone. I think we’re struggling at the defensive end,” Jackson explained. “We outscored them from the field in both games, shot better than they did, we did a lot of things very good but still wasn’t enough to win the game. They beat us at the foul line both nights and that’s the difference in the margin of the game. We have to do a better job in that activity.”

Jackson pointed out the discrepancy in the number of foul shots in the two games in Phoenix. In Game 4, the Suns were 22-for-32 from the free throw line while the Lakers shot 7-for-13. In Game 3, the Suns went to the line 42 times and converted 37 of them, while the Lakers got just 20 attempts.

“Every time we came near them they fell down and went to the line,” Jackson joked.

Bryant carried the Lakers offense for much of the second half, including a huge scoring binge in the third quarter. But in the fourth quarter, Bryant was silent and that’s when the Suns bench took over as Channing Frye, Jared Dudley and Leandro Barbosa helped build a nine-point lead on consecutive 3-point shots.

“Our defense could’ve been much better,” Bryant said. “Coming up here, we lost the sense of urgency defensively. I think our concentration was focused on how to attack the zone and it kind of flipped our attention to detail defensively. Our focus was on the other side of the floor, which doesn’t win championships.”

Bryant only had four shot attempts in the fourth quarter, but he says it wasn’t because of the Suns defense. “We didn’t lose the game because of that, we lost the game because our defense sucked.”

Though Jackson and Bryant made some valid points, the simple fact that they seem very agitated whenever the zone defense questions keep popping up gives reason to believe that the Lakers are frustrated with the way the zone has disrupted their flow and rhythm on offense. The Lakers’ triangle offense is an extension of their defense, and when the Lakers are rolling on offense they seem to play better defensively.

The Lakers are attacking the Suns’ zone defense from the wing, which goes away from the weakness of the zone. There were times when 7-footer Pau Gasol (who was held to 15 points) was out on the wing moving the ball, which takes him out of the low block where he is most effective. The attack must start with one player on the pinch post – either Bryant, Ron Artest or Lamar Odom – initiating the attack from the top of the foul line and down. By putting someone in the middle of the zone, this collapses the defense and opens up the baseline as well as the corner.

Whenever Bryant or Gasol got into the middle of the zone, the Lakers got easy buckets. They did this for much of the third quarter when they made their run but, for whatever reason, got away from it in the fourth quarter and began settling for 3-point shots. The Lakers are 18-for-60 from behind the arc in the last two games.

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Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson revealed on Sunday night that he is considering sitting center Andrew Bynum for Game 4 to rest his ailing right knee.

The Lakers have a 2-1 edge in the Western Conference finals against the Phoenix Suns and Game 5 is on Thursday in Los Angeles so that would give Bynum three full days of not putting any weight on his right knee, which has a torn meniscus.

Bynum told Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com that he prefers to play because he’s not doing more damage to the knee. But Jackson is more concerned about how Bynum’s injury is impacting the Lakers, especially on the defensive end.

“I’ll talk to him and see what his suggestion is and how he feels about it, ” Jackson said of Bynum, who had two points, two rebounds and four personal fouls in a little over seven minutes in Game 3, won by the Suns 118-109.

“I think that he was ineffective tonight. There’s some things that got by him. He had one nice move in the post. Defensively, I thought he was a little bit late.”

Amare Stoudemire punished the Lakers defense with a series-high 42 points, aided by 14 free throws on 18 attempts. But Stoudemire scoring 40 points is not that surprising. What was surprising was that Robin Lopez made eight of 10 shots from the field and scored 20 points. If Bynum were healthy, Lopez wouldn’t have 20 points. Heck, he may not even have more than six.

Bynum doesn’t need to score to have an impact in the game. They have Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol for that. What Bynum brings to the floor is size and length on defense, which discourage players, such as Stoudemire, from driving to the basket. With Bynum and Gasol in the backline, the Lakers possess two 7-footers with extremely long wingspans and perimeter defenders such as Ron Artest can apply more pressure on the opposition and not worry about getting beat to the basket.

“Obviously, he’s been a key player all year. He can bring a lot to the table defensively and offensively,” Gasol said of his teammate. “He’s a big presence for us. We don’t know how much that knee is a factor. Of course, I would like for him to play more, and provide more, and help us.”

The Lakers are good enough to advance past the Suns without Bynum, but they will need him in the NBA Finals. And that’s the big picture Jackson and the Lakers are looking at.

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Kobe Bryant collected the 11th 40-point game of his playoff career in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals against the Suns. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

Despite all the things he has achieved in his soon-to-be Hall-of-Fame basketball career, Kobe Bryant still finds little things to motivate him. It’s what makes him the best player in the Association. It’s the reason why he has four NBA championship rings. It’s the kind of closer mentality that separates him from his peers. Actually, take that back. Kobe Bryant is without peer.

Bryant loves to take on challenges. Kevin Durant pushed him in the first round, and Bryant pushed him out of the playoffs. Utah fans made fun of his L.A. Times photo shoot, and Bryant responded by sending the Jazz home after four games. Now, in the Western Conference finals, Bryant has taken on the challenge posed by the Phoenix Suns and forward Grant Hill.

Hill got a five-page scouting report on Bryant courtesy of his Duke buddy Shane Battier. Well, after Bryant lit up Hill and Suns for 40 points to lead the L.A. Lakers to a convincing 128-107 victory in Game 1, Battier may need to send five more pages to help out his fellow Blue Devil.

Since LeBron James accepted his second consecutive NBA regular season MVP award, Bryant has scored 31, 30, 35, 32 and 40 points and the Lakers have won five in a row. Coincidence? Hardly.

Bryant believes he is still the top dog in the league, and not receiving a single first-place MVP vote burns him to the core. (Are you kidding me, media members? Zero first-place votes for the reigning NBA Finals MVP. Unbelievable!). Now, Kobe is going to take it out on the Suns or whichever team comes out of the East.

“Kobe carried a lot of the offense tonight. I don’t know about [taking it personally], but I would say he shouldered the game,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said of Bryant’s 13-for-23 shooting in Game 1, a game in which the Lakers shot 58% from the field and outscored Phoenix 56-36 in the paint.

“The way he got those points, when he’s in that zone like is tonight there is not a whole lot you can do about it,” Suns coach Alvin Gentry said of Bryant, who scored 21 points in the third quarter and pushed the Lakers to a 14-point lead almost on his own.

“Every time [Kobe] plays he takes it personally,” Gentry added. “That’s his motivation. He understand how important this first game is and I just thought he played at a real, real high level. Since he walked into the league, I’ve never underestimated him. You knew at some stage that he would try to take the game over. That’s what he does. He’s a great player. He is focused on one area and that’s try to win a championship.”

When Kobe was asked if he takes things personally whenever he takes the court, he replied (with a smile): “It’s never personal with me.”

“He’s the best scorer in the league,” Lakers forward Lamar Odom said of Bryant, his teammate of six seasons. “Fadeaways, of course he gets out on the break, playing with his back to the basket, inside, outside, shoots the ball with his left hand when his right hand is broke. Time off was exactly what he needed.”

Given a week off to prepare for the conference finals, Bryant feels healthy and now has a bounce in his step.

“I’ve done a lot of work during the season,” Bryant said. “You see me before games, working on my shooting and just working on different things. Now I feel like I have two legs to play with. I have better balance on my shot, so shots aren’t going short anymore they’re going in. It’s a combination of those two things.”

Though he won’t admit it publicly, Bryant felt completely disrespected with the MVP voting. It was bad enough that his chief rival for the top spot was a runaway winner, but it was compounded by the fact that three media members left him off the All-NBA first team and Durant finished ahead of him.

LeBron may have a case for No. 1, but in no way shape or form that Durant has surpassed Bryant. It’s not even close. Durant led the league in scoring because he was on a team that needed scoring. Bryant could have averaged 30 points during the season if he wanted to, but he’s playing for an NBA title not a scoring title.

And here’s a question for the media who voted for MVP: “How many players had six game-winning shots during the season?”

Not LeBron. Not Durant. Not Dwyane Wade. It’s the guy who is STILL playing in the playoffs and the guy who is about to win his fifth NBA championship ring.

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Phil Jackson loves to play mind games with the opposition.

The first jab of the 2010 Western Conference finals was thrown by Lakers coach Phil Jackson when he said Steve Nash, Phoenix’s All-Star point guard, is tough to guard when he is allowed to carry the ball.

When asked what a chore it would be for his team to contain Nash and simulate what he does in practice, Jackson joked with reporters and said, “Yeah, because you can’t carry the ball like he does in practice. You can’t put that ball up and run with it.

Jackson is well known for this kind of gamesmanship. He made a similar remark prior to the start of the Lakers’ first-round series against Oklahoma City when he highlighted that Kevin Durant gets a lot of favorable calls from officials.

The little verbal potshot may have worked on the 21-year-old Durant, who was visibly upset by Jackson’s claim, but the 36-year-old Nash has been in way too many of these playoff battles to be suckered into a war of words. And he certainly knows how to handle the Zen Master’s mind games.

“I mean the best coach in the league, Gregg Popovich, didn’t have a problem with it last week,” said Nash.

Pau Gasol and the Lakers will have their hands full against the crafty Steve Nash.

Though both teams have a lot of respect from one another, there is a little bitterness in terms of recent playoff history between the two Pacific Division rivals. This is the third playoff meeting between Phoenix and L.A. since 2006, and the Lakers have a score to settle with the Suns since they were the last Western Conference team to knock out the defending NBA champs.

The Suns are coming off an impressive four-game sweep of the San Antonio Spurs, while the Lakers recently beat up the Utah Jazz in four convincing games.

Nash and Amare Stoudemire are playing at a high level in the playoffs, but so are Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant.

“They’re a great combo. Their two-man, screen-roll situations are phenomenal. We think that we have a good combination in Pau and Kobe, and we’re going to try and match that,” said Jackson.

During the regular season, the Lakers defeated the Suns three out of four times and had a seven-point average margin of victory. The Suns bench, which was key in the Spurs’ series, played a big part in Phoenix’s lone victory over the Lakers on Dec. 28. The Suns bench outscored the Lakers bench, 52-31, and 44 of them came from Jared Dudley (19), Goran Dragic (14) and Leandro Barbosa (11). One footnote from that game was that Ron Artest, the Lakers’ best defender, did not play because of a concussion.

Artest will likely guard Suns shooting Jason Richardson, who struggled mightily against the Lakers this season. He averaged just 8.7 points in four games and made just three of 21 3-point shots.

The Suns will need their bench, as well as Channing Frye, to play at a high level against the Lakers because depth is the only real advantage for the Suns in this series.

“It’s a challenge that we should look forward to,” said Suns coach Alvin Gentry, who was an assistant with Mike D’Antoni in 2007 and 2006 when the Suns bounced the Lakers from the postseason. “We’ve earned the right to play [the Lakers]. Nobody gave it to us, we’ve earned the right to play them.”

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Like two prize fighters who just went toe-to-toe for four brutal rounds, Manu Ginobili and Steve Nash shook hands at midcourt and congratulated each other.

Ginobili and his broken nose then left the court and headed for the offseason because his San Antonio Spurs were knocked out of the 2010 playoffs by the Phoenix Suns, led by Nash and his one good eye.

Nash had six stitches above the right eye after getting caught with an inadvertent Tim Duncan elbow in the second half, but the Suns’ leader returned to the court and scored 10 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, including a running one-hander in the paint to put the Suns ahead, 103-97, with 29.9 seconds left.

“I couldn’t be happier for a class, class, class guy. I hate him, but he’s classy,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of Nash, who admitted he could barely see with his bandaged right eye.

Manu Ginobili congratulates Steve Nash after the Suns knocked off the Spurs in four games. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

“I can’t really see out of it,” Nash said. “I don’t want to glorify it, but it’s been a long time since we beat this team and advanced in the playoffs, and I tried to do what I could to close it out.”

The Spurs have tormented the Suns in their past five playoff appearances, eliminating Phoenix four times. But the Suns made sure this year was different, beating San Antonio at its own game with solid defense and an efficient halfcourt offense that is normally a staple of the Spurs.

“They just hit a lot of big shots,” said Ginobili, who had 15 points but was just 2-for-11 from the field thanks to excellent defense from Grant Hill. Ginobili said the nose injury didn’t bother him in the series, but it was obvious his aggressive and his forays to the basket decreased since he got hit by Dirk Nowitzki in the first round.

“I just think where Steve [Nash] has taken us and what he’s been able to get done, it started in training camp. He was just determined that ‘we’re gonna get back to where we were and I’m gonna see that.’ ”

Like a one-eye jack in those classic pirate movies, Nash spearheaded a poised Phoenix team down the stretch. And he didn’t need to see Amare Stoudemire on those pick-and-rolls because the two All-Stars know each other so well they could probably run their pick-and-roll sets with their eyes closed. In Nash’s case, he really had to do it with his eyes closed because his right eye was so swollen he needed a cutman on the bench.

“I can’t really see out of it,” Nash said. “I don’t know how it didn’t keep me on the sidelines. I wanted to give it a try, and luckily it worked out.”

“They just outplayed us,” said a dejected Tim Duncan, who got outscored by Stoudemire, 29-17, in Game 4.

The Suns’ four-game sweep clearly signaled that the Spurs’ three-time championship trio of Duncan, Ginobili and Tony Parker can no longer carry the load. Duncan is 34 years old and has a ton of mileage on his legs. Ginobili, 33, recently signed an extension that should keep him a Spur for the rest of his NBA career, but he has been injury prone and the same goes for Parker.

The Richard Jefferson experiment didn’t work out for San Antonio, so Popovich must find another scorer (or two) to help his big three.

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Suns backup point guard Goran Dragic scored 23 of his team-high 26 points in the fourth quarter. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

Those who watched the Phoenix Suns take apart the San Antonio Spurs in the fourth quarter of Game 3 of their best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series were all wondering the same thing: Who is Goran Dragic?

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is probably losing sleep right about now thinking about Goran Dragic, who had scored just four points in the first two games of the series.

Spurs point guard Tony Parker is probably watching tape right now trying to figure how he got outplayed by a second-year guard playing in his first postseason.

And it’s a good thing Alvin Gentry is the head coach for the Suns because Mike D’Antoni would never have played Dragic deep into the fourth quarter in an important playoff game.

Through the first three quarters, Dragic had just three points. But something happened in the fourth quarter and Dragic caught lightning in a bottle, scoring 23 of his team-high 26 points in the fourth to lead the Suns to a stunning 110-96 victory in Game 3 and take a commanding 3-0 series lead.

Dragic and Leandro Barbosa led a Suns second unit that helped the Suns outscore the Spurs 39-24 in the fourth quarter. The Suns benched outscored the Spurs, 48-28, for the game.

“Steve who?” Gentry asked reporters during his postgame news conference, poking fun at the fact that he didn’t need his All-Star guard because Dragic played so well down the stretch.

The Suns’ backup point guard was a perfect 4-for-4 from 3-point range in the fourth quarter, and when he wasn’t nailing outside shots he was destroying the Spurs interior defense with his dribble penetration and some clever footwork and lefty floaters in the paint.

“Obviously, LB and Goran played great in the fourth quarter. They just stepped it up,” Gentry said of his backup guards, who combined for 39 points and seven 3-pointers. Barbosa had 13 points in 18 minutes and made five of seven shots from the field.

[The Spurs] were switching and we said we had to attack the switches, and I thought [Goran] and LB did a great job attacking the switches,” said Gentry, who should be credited for staying with his second unit for the entire fourth quarter.

“When we put him in the game, we told him ‘You have to be aggressive,’ ” Gentry said of Dragic. “Even at the chance of making a mistake he’s gotta be aggressive because when he is I think people forget what a great athlete he is. He’s as fast with the ball than anyone we got on our team. When he’s playing with confidence, he’s got a lot of tricks and shoots the ball exceptionally well.”

“I love that kid. He’s a teacher’s pet, and he has worked so hard to get to where he is right now,” Gentry said of the 6-foot-3 guard from Slovenia, who was acquired by the Suns through in a draft-day trade in 2008. “He’ll do anything to please the coaching staff and the guys on this team. I’m just happy for him. You won’t meet a better kid.”

With Dragic and Barbosa taking turns in creating offense for the highest scoring team in the league, the Suns were able to chip away at the Spurs’ lead and Barbosa’s layup and 3-pointer with less than 10 minutes left in the fourth gave the Suns an 80-76 lead.

“It’s been tough for Leandro simply because J-Rich is playing so well there hasn’t been a lot of time for LB to play. But when he’s gotten in there, he’s done some good things,” Gentry said of Barbosa.

“In general, their second team kicked our butt,” Popovich said. “Their second team was fantastic. Their whole team showed a lot of character.”

The Spurs now face elimination, and no team in NBA history has won a series after being down 0-3.

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After tugging a 7-foot-1, 330-pound weight on their shoulders the past two seasons, the Phoenix Suns appear to have shed the Shaqles and are back to being the run-and-shoot squad that averaged 58 wins the previous four seasons.

The cast of characters remain with one minor addition (Channing Frye) and one major subtraction (Shaquille O’Neal). But make no mistake about it, Alvin Gentry’s Suns are looking more and more like Mike D’Antoni’s Suns.

Reinstalling D’Antoni’s free-wheeling offense was the best coaching move Gentry made when he took over for Terry Porter halfway through the 2008-09 season. The Suns averaged 117.7 points per game after the All-Star break and, though the team missed the playoffs, won six out of their last eight games.

Steve Nash leads the NBA in assists at 11.5 and is making 44% of his threes.

This season, the Suns have picked up where they left off last spring as Steve Nash and Co. have a league-best 109 scoring average (tied with Denver) and a league-best 49% shooting percentage. The red-hot shooting has translated into a fast start as the Suns are well ahead of last year’s pace and in second place behind the West-leading Lakers in the Pacific Division.

Earlier in the season, the Suns concluded an East Coast-trip that saw them go 4-1. The road trip was highlighted by a 110-103 win at Boston and a 119-115 win at Philadelphia, a game where Nash scored 21 points and dished out 20 assists.

The 35-year-old Nash owns a NBA-best 11.5 assists per game and is making 52% of his field goals and 44% of his threes, all above his career averages.

As good as Nash has been in terms of shooting the ball, his statistics pale in comparison to teammate Jason Richardson, who is making 50% his field goals and 44% of his 3-pointers.

Most observers thought Amare Stoudemire would benefit the most from O’Neal’s departure, but obviously it’s Richardson who has really prospered. With Shaq no longer a hindrance on offense, the Suns have been able to fully utilize Richardson’s skills.

Richardson, who along with Jared Dudley, came to Phoenix as part of a four-player deal that sent Boris Diaw and Raja Bell to Charlotte last year. Richardson said it took him a full season to get acclimated to his third NBA team, but now he feels more comfortable with his role in the system.

“They need me to step up scoring a little, and I’m being more aggressive,” Richardson told the Arizona Republic.

Frye was Phoenix’s “minor” offseason acquisition. It’s a minor transaction compared to the big splashes made by the Celtics, Lakers and Cavaliers.

But the 26-year-old former University of Arizona star has been bargain, a move that cost Phoenix just a little more than $2 million for two years. A career 8.4 scorer with New York and Portland, Frye is averaging close to 14 points a game and has already made 25 3-pointers, which is somewhat shocking considering the 6-11 center made just 20 3-point shots in his previous four seasons.

Frye’s new-found long-range game has afforded the Suns to field a starting five who can all face up and make jump shots. This creates more room for Nash and Stoudemire to run their pick-and-roll offense.

The Suns may not be able to chase down the L.A. Lakers in the Pacific Division, but they’ll make a strong case for a playoff berth.

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