FanHouse Alvin Gentry

LOS ANGELES -- Rebounding is all that Suns' head coach Alvin Gentry has been talking about during the preseason, and with his team being an undersized bunch who would rather try to run you off the floor than stand toe-to-toe and slug it out, that's completely understandable.

But the emphasis on taking care of the boards had its consequences in the team's season opener on Wednesday, as Phoenix -- yes, the extended remix of the Seven Seconds or Less Suns -- managed just two fast break points in their game against the Clippers.

The ultimate result, however, was a positive one. The Suns' focus on rebounding enabled them to hang with a big and talented Clippers' front line, and pull out a hard-fought, last-second 109-107 road victory in Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES -- The Clippers held a seven-point lead over the Suns with about nine minutes remaining in their home opener, in a game that was the season opener for Phoenix.

But Steve Nash made sure that his Suns left with the victory, by scoring 15 of his team's 24 fourth quarter points, including the game-winner in a thrilling 109-107 contest at Staples Center.

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

The 2009-10 Phoenix Suns are caught somewhere between the past and the future. But just because they don't know where they're going, and have one foot stuck in a place where they've already been, doesn't mean that the team can't win this season, while playing an entertaining style of basketball along the way.

An hour before the Phoenix Suns were set to play their first preseason game of the year, I asked the team's head coach, Alvin Gentry, how he felt about the prospect of replacement referees calling the games. His response?

"You think I'm touching that one?" Gentry joked. "You want to see the memo I got from the league?"

Actually, I did, but he didn't have it handy. The point was, replacement referees are a touchy subject, and complaints about them were supposed to be kept to the bare minimum by team personnel.

Apparently, Larry Brown didn't get the memo. Because he flipped out and was ejected by the replacement refs during his Bobcats' preseason game Monday night against the Atlanta Hawks.

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- For the second straight year, the Phoenix Suns hosted an outdoor preseason game at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in California. Only this time, the weather cooperated to make it a fantastic event in an atmosphere about as unique as they come by NBA standards.

PHOENIX -- The last time Amar'e Stoudemire took the court against a meaningful opponent, he scored 42 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in a regular season game that took place over seven months ago. After undergoing multiple procedures to repair a partially detached retina in his right eye, Stoudemire made his return to competitive basketball in the Suns' preseason opener against Partizan Belgrade.

At times, Stoudemire showed flashes of what we're used to seeing from someone who was a starter on the Western conference All-Star team last season, and finished with 12 points and five rebounds in just 17 minutes of action. But both he and his head coach, Alvin Gentry, know that he's still a long way from being all the way back.

PHOENIX -- Emptying the notebook at the WNBA Finals, where the Phoenix Mercury and the Indiana Fever will tip off Thursday night (9 PM ET) at the US Airways Arena.

Statistics suggest that Indiana can't afford to keep pace with Phoenix and stay in this series for long. The Fever have been averaging 81.5 points a game in the postseason thus far, a number inflated by Tuesday night's 116-point output in the overtime loss.

What little chances the Phoenix Suns still had at sneaking into the playoffs came to a quick and violent end on Sunday, when the team gave up 140 points on the way to an ugly loss in Dallas. To a man, the Suns' players and coaches seemed genuinely surprised at the way the game went, but really, given the way that they've performed on the road of late, the outcome was one that should have been expected.

The numbers and the math say the Phoenix Suns still have a shot at making the playoffs. What the Suns say, however, make the numbers and the math seem like optimists.

After the Suns' 126-118 slap-in-the-face loss to the Sacramento Kings on Sunday night, reality is setting in. There was talk of hope and things not being over, but you got the sense the Suns were trying to convince themselves more than anything.

"We were playing for a lot tonight and I don't think we showed up with our attitude or our desperation," guard Steve Nash said. "I don't know. We didn't get it done."