Suns hang on, top Clippers

Suns hang on, top Clippers

Associated Press Los Angeles Clippers guard Quentin Richardson (left) can only watch as Phoenix Suns forward Shawn Marion dunks the ball during Saturday's game.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tim Tyers The Arizona Republic Mar. 24, 2002

LOS ANGELES - The Suns spent the better part of their six-game losing streak digging themselves into a crater and clawing their way back to the top, only to fall short.

They changed the script 180 degrees against the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, building themselves a nice mountain and then hanging on for their lives to keep from sliding off.

Shawn Marion, who had 32 points and 14 rebounds, and Dan Majerle's three clutch three-point shots not only kept them from the cliff's edge but allowed them to snap their losing streak with a 97-94 win over the Clippers.

In a situation that only makes sense in the NBA, it was the Suns, who are out of serious playoff contention, and not the Clippers, who fell to 2 ½ games behind Utah for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, who came out like a team in playoff contention.

They doubled up the Clippers' 13 first-quarter points, thanks in part to a 12-0 advantage in second-chance points, and extended the lead to 16 midway through the second period before the Clippers narrowed it to 49-40 at halftime.

Marion, who was questionable for the game because of back spasms, had 18 first-half points, and guard Marbury ran the Suns offense almost perfectly.

But it was a surprisingly solid effort by the Suns' Jake Tsakalidis against Michael Olowokandi that neutralized the Clippers' inside game.

Tsakalidis had eight points, six rebounds and two blocks, and Olowokandi had 10 first-half points but was limited to just four boards and no rebounds. Clippers teammate Elton Brand was held to 0-for-4 shooting.

The Suns' slide began over a 4:34 stretch in the third period, when the Clippers turned a 62-50 Suns lead into a tie at 64 on Eric Piatkowski's acrobatic, running jumper.

The run coincided with Tskalidis picking up three quick fouls within 1:24 and having to take a seat. The Suns started standing around offensively, either going one-on-one too much or settling for long-distance attempts.

They managed to exit the third period with a 70-66 lead, thanks to a bucket by Marion and a three-pointer by Majerle. A pair of threes by Majerle early in the fourth period, when the Clippers crept back within two and one, kept Suns from letting the Clippers get the lead.

Via Arizona Republic

Los Angeles Clippers, Phoenix Suns

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Johnson's loyalty pays off in Phoenix job

An hour before the start of the Phoenix Suns' 87-76 loss to the Charlotte Hornets Saturday night, Frank Johnson stood outside the Suns' locker room talking about the team's most-pressing issues.

Make no mistake, the Suns have many pressing issues these days.

Anfernee Hardaway is grumbling about his demotion to the second unit. Tom Gugliotta is out with a foot injury and is probably done for the rest of the season, leaving the Suns with little offensive punch on the front line. Joe Johnson is trying to fit in and prove himself after coming over in a trade with Boston last month. Stephon Marbury is taking another bad shot even as you read this.

It all translates into losing, and with each passing day, the Suns' playoff hopes continue to fade.

"This is a tough job," Johnson said. "I'm doing a lot of make-shifting and a lot of improvising right now, just trying to hold it all together. It's funny. It's a different job when you move one seat over, no question. There's a lot more pressure and a lot more things to deal with."

Johnson isn't complaining, though.

When he took over as head coach on Feb. 17 after Scott Skiles resigned under pressure, it was the reward for years of dedication to the franchise. And it was the culmination of a dream that dates back as far as his days as a standout guard at Wake Forest in the late 1970s and early '80s.

"This is something I've wanted to do for a long time," he said.

Johnson closed out a 13-year professional playing career in Phoenix, playing his final two seasons there after seven seasons in Washington, one in Houston and three in Europe.

He remained with the organization after retirement, working in the community-relations department and heading up the team's Stay in School program for two years, then got into the coaching ranks as an assistant in 1996. He has worked his way up the coaching ladder continually since.

"It is very gratifying, especially when you work your way up and then finally you are at the point where you wanted to be," Johnson said. "I had a chance to be an assistant in Minnesota when I retired, but I chose to stay with this organization instead, and it has paid off. I wasn't even coaching when I started, then it was fourth assistant, then third, then second, then first. So to have it play out like this and to know you've put in your time and earned it, it is very rewarding."

It's gratifying, too, after Johnson lost out on the Wake Forest coaching job after Dave Odom left for South Carolina last summer.

Johnson had the support of one faction of Wake alumni and supporters, and he acknowledges he would have loved to return to his alma mater. But he's not sure how serious a candidate he actually was in the mind of Athletics Director Ron Wellman, who eventually hired Skip Prosser away from Xavier.

"We talked, but we never had anything formally," Johnson said. "We were just exchanging notes with each other and it never really got off the ground. I had friends there who asked me if I'd be interested in the job and I said yes, I would be. When you talk about Wake Forest and the ACC, I mean, I could have gotten very excited about that. But I never really got a chance to talk at length, so I don't know what to think.

"But you have to say it's worked out well for me anyway."

Paul Silas, the coach of the Charlotte Hornets, was an assistant in Phoenix when Johnson joined the coaching ranks in '96. His assessment of Johnson is a positive one.

"He's a really good guy," Silas said. "He's got a great personality. He's very knowledgeable about the game, very into the game. And he worked with the players very diligently the year we were together, so you know he has the work ethic."

The key for Johnson to make it as a head coach, Silas figures, will be Johnson's ability to go from the good-cop role of assistant to the sometimes bad-cop role as the boss.

"He's always had that very outgoing personality, quick to laugh, and some might question if his toughness is there," Silas said. "I think it is. I think the toughness is there when it has to be. If he can put his foot down when he has to, he has a chance. That's what he's got to do the rest of the season. If you don't stand up for yourself, you've got no chance."

With a dysfunctional group like Hardaway, Marbury and Bo Outlaw, that's not going to be easy.

Johnson isn't sure about his long-term status as head coach. The Suns are 5-11 since he took over, and there is little reason to believe this team will get turned back around in the final four weeks of the season.

That doesn't necessarily bode well for the future.

But Johnson remains the loyal trooper nonetheless.

"I don't know what they're thinking about next year," he said. "You'd have to ask them. I just want to do my best and see what happens. It will work out the way it's supposed to work out. I have a lot of confidence in this organization, and I know the people in charge are committed to winning. We'll right this ship, whether I'm part of it next year or not."

Via Winston Salem-Journal

Charlotte Bobcats, Phoenix Suns

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Penny Can Keep Blaming Magic, but He Also Needs to Start Blaming

Penny Hardaway has never forgiven Orlando. Maybe it's time to move on. As things have turned out, both parties are better off for Hardaway having left the Magic for Phoenix in August of 199.

Circumstances had reached the point where the hypersensitive Hardaway had to go.

He got his jackpot contract (seven years, almost $87 million) in a sign-and-trade deal, and the Magic got the salary-cap space they later used to sign Tracy McGrady and Grant Hill. Win-win.

If there was a loser in the deal, it was the Suns, who got an injury-prone player who is having difficulty accepting the fact that he is no longer one of the NBA's elite athletes.

And he has four years left on a contract that pays him as if he were.

But there was a time when a different decision could have changed the whole story, according to Hardaway.

"If I could do it all over again, I would have sat out the entire season after I had my second surgery (in 1998) instead of trying to come back," he said before Wednesday night's game in Orlando.

"Then I'd probably still be in Orlando.

"After the second surgery, people didn't tolerate anything I did wrong. They just couldn't understand why I couldn't play the way I had been playing.

"But I was hurt. There was no way around it. They used all kinds of excuses against me, but I just came back too soon."

In Hardaway's view, "they" is the Orlando he had to leave. It includes the Magic organization, then-coach Chuck Daly, teammates who may have questioned the extent of his injuries, the media, the fans and everyone who turned against him when he was injured. "They" are all in it together. Hardaway once blamed Owner Rich DeVos for not ordering the media to stop criticizing him.

"They" are still out there and Hill, who has had two ankle operations since signing with the Magic, had better beware.

"They weren't patient with me, and they really weren't patient with Grant," Hardaway said. "You have to let people just rest and come back when they want to. The one person I respect the most throughout this whole thing is (New Jersey's) Kerry Kittles because nobody heard from him for about two years. He sat out fully and he got fully well, and now he's the old Kerry Kittles.

"I kept coming back early because the team needed me, and I got smashed for it. It's the same thing with Grant; he needs to sit out. He just had surgery again, and if he tries to come back, it'll happen again."

There are elements of accuracy in Hardaway's memory. There isn't much doubt he came back too soon after his first knee operation in the winter of '97. There is no doubt the Magic needed him, and he finished that season with the highlight of his career, scoring 31 points a game in a first-round playoff loss to Miami.

He has never been the same player after the second operation, which cost him 80 percent of the 1997-98 season. His legs never regained the lift that made him a nightmare for opposing guards in his first three NBA seasons. Probably there were people who couldn't understand that and were disappointed by his performance. Daly may have been one of them.

But he was still a very good player. The decline in his game was only a small factor in the decline of Hardaway's popularity in Orlando. In fact, his decline in popularity was grossly overstated, especially by Hardaway himself. Until his final days in Orlando, when he basically talked his way out of town, he was actually very popular among most fans.

But if three people were booing in a crowd of 16,00, he would hang his head and get defensive. Then came the selfish demands, antagonistic statements, overreaction to the slightest criticism, whining.

When Daly resigned in the spring of 1999 and Doc Rivers took over as coach of the Magic, he tried to talk Hardaway into staying. The Magic would have given him the same maximum contract he got from the Suns, but by then Hardaway had his heart set on Phoenix.

In what looked like a one-sided deal favoring Phoenix, the Magic took Pat Garrity and the final year of Danny Manning's contract. Manning was traded before ever putting on a Magic uniform and Garrity has proved to be an inexpensive asset.

"The trade has worked out terrificly for us," Rivers said. "Penny Hardaway is obviously a better player overall, I guess. But because of the injuries and the other stuff . . .you've got to think Pat Garrity worked out far better for us, especially when you factor in that we got Tracy and Grant due to that deal."

The Suns have been disappointing in each of Hardaway's three seasons out there. He missed virtually all of last season and now Coach Frank Johnson is bringing him off the bench.

Hardaway, now 30, doesn't like it one bit. He concedes that he may have to change his game eventually to compensate for what he has lost in spring and quickness.

"But I'm not at that point now," he said. "I don't have to change my game for anybody."

Via Lakeland Ledger

Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns

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