Suns of the desert

Byron Scott tweaked the starting lineup tonight: second-string point guard Bobby Jackson started at shooting guard, Peja Stojakovic moved to small forward, and Desmond Mason shifted to power forward. It didn't make a whole lot of difference in the first half, with Phoenix jumping out to a 51-46 lead, and just to make it uninteresting, the Hornets revived the old and unlamented Third-Quarter Drought™, scoring a meager thirteen. Thirteen is also the number of treys they attempted before hitting one.

The Bees remembered they had a defense in the fourth quarter, but it wasn't enough to make up for an evening of fairly lousy shooting, and the Suns won it, 92-83, dropping the Hornets to 8-4.

The bench wasn't much help tonight, contributing only 8 points, six of which came from Jannero Pargo. The starters, however, performed respectably, with both D-Mase and Peja scoring 21 and Chris Paul adding 19; Tyson Chandler swept away 16 rebounds. Top honors, though, go to Steve Nash: the Phoenix point guard dropped in 24 points.

Friday, it's back at the Ford, for a rematch with the Timberwolves.

Posted at 10:17 PM to Net Proceeds