FanHouse MattBarnes

Who doesn't like a list, especially on a Monday morning when that's about all you can handle?

Here are five moves that might not have gotten a lot of attention but were very solid nonetheless:

--Raptors get Marco Belinelli from Warriors for Devean George, cash: Belinelli may not be a starter in the NBA, but he can be a rotation guy. And it just so happens the Raptors are pretty much bereft of two guards. That alone should get Belinelli on the court, and from there he'll certainly help at various junctures. As for George, who knows if he'll be healthy and who knows if he'll be able to crack the Warriors' rotation if he is.

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.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

Joe Johnson has leveled off after a stunning start to the season. Of course, "leveled off" simply puts J.J. back in the tangible stratosphere instead of another galaxy. As such, his terrific 35 points, seven rebounds and six assists against Portland still stands out as one of Sunday's best lines, Earthbound or not.

PHOENIX -- Less than an hour before the Suns were set to tip off their nationally televised game with the Lakers, head coach Alvin Gentry got the call in his office from the team's head athletic trainer. It was bad news: Steve Nash would be unavailable, due to an ankle sprain that would force him to miss his third straight game.

Gentry was optimistic about his team's chances anyway, and as it turned out, he had good reason to be. The Suns got a balanced effort from several players, and behind 33 points from Shaquille O'Neal, they beat the Lakers 118-111.

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PHOENIX, Ariz -- Kelenna Azubuike is a young, athletic, and potentially explosive offensive player for the Golden State Warriors. But his up and down play this season has made him somewhat of an enigma to his coach, Don Nelson.

Azubuike scored 25 points and made four of his six three-point attempts during the Warriors' win over the Suns earlier in the week, but completely disappeared in the rematch on Friday. After playing 27 minutes in the first meeting, he managed to stick around for just 15 minutes in the second, and finished with just five rebounds and three personal fouls -- but zero points.

When the game was over, I asked Nelson what he was seeing with Azubuike, considering the extreme change from game to game in his performances. With an unopened Bud Light in his right hand (hey, technically it wasn't a press conference), I got a sarcastic yet classic response from the veteran NBA head coach.

A report from the US Airways Center in Phoenix, where the Timberwolves faced the Suns on January 16th.

At first glance, you probably wouldn't have expected the Timberwolves to go into Phoenix and beat the Phoenix Suns as they did on Friday night. After all, Minnesota was just 11-26 before this one, and the Suns -- though up and down at times -- have begun to figure things out and seem to be a team on the rise.

But if Minnesota's win was really that much of a surprise, you probably haven't been paying close attention.

A report from the US Airways Center in Phoenix, where the Clippers faced the Suns on January 2nd.

Late in the fourth quarter of the Suns' 106-98 victory over the Clippers, Matt Barnes picked up his second technical foul of the night, which of course, is an automatic ejection. He was arguing with the official over a foul call -- just his first of the night -- when he said something disagreeable that caused him to get tossed.

For Barnes, it was his second ejection of the season, and for the Suns, it was the second straight game where one of their players got kicked out for arguing with the refs -- Amare Stoudemire lasted just 11 minutes in Memphis.

Barnes ducked out before the media could talk to him about what happened, but I did see him in the tunnel talking to Baron Davis afterwards. Baron joked that Barnes "needed to keep his mouth shut," and then Barnes went on to tell Baron exactly what he said to the official to pick up that second technical foul.

The demise of the Phoenix Suns has been greatly exaggerated. After a week of doom and gloom in which the team was accused of not competing, they came out with fire and energy and got a quality two-point win over the Utah Jazz.

Terry Porter made a change in the starting lineup, reinstating Grant Hill and choosing to bring Matt Barnes off the bench. This wasn't a reflection of Barnes' play at all; he's been mostly stellar in his role as a starter. It was more of a case of Hill never getting comfortable in a bench role, one that he hadn't tried since, by his own estimation, he was "six years old."

"I kind of wanted to try to ride it out and get better at it, and hopefully be better by the end of the season," Hill said. "I really tried, I would come in the back and do sprints in the hallways to try to get loose."

Porter said afterwards that the Hill experiment was unsuccessful, and he made it seem like it's over for good.

Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic has a tremendous story on how Matt Barnes coped with the death of his mother last November, and how he's trying to help teammate Leandro Barbosa deal with his own loss. Matty's mom died a year ago Thursday.

"She loved when I shot threes," Barnes said. "That was her favorite part."

Tuesday, Barnes won Phoenix's game against the Thunder with a three in the final 30 seconds.



We focus so much on numbers and salaries and the fringes of quantitative thought that, I think, sometimes we forget how emotional and human the game of basketball is.

Suns' coach Terry Porter has made it clear that when his team is facing back-to-back games against even one opponent that is supposed to be sub-par, Shaquille O'Neal is going to get a night off. I'm on record as saying this is a bad idea; my colleague Nate Jones isn't so sure. One thing's for certain though: in the two games Shaq has been "rested," the Suns are 1-1, and after squeaking out a one point win against the league-worst Thunder, it's still something that warrants a discussion.

The first time that Shaq sat out, the Bulls pretended to be offended that the Suns were taking them more lightly than the following night's opponent (Milwaukee), and basically ran them off the floor. Last night against the Thunder -- whether it was a case of the home team feeling slighted or the combination of playing their first game for a new coach and the Suns taking a 1-13 team too lightly -- OKC came out firing, and led by as many as 16 in the third quarter before the Suns made a furious rally to literally steal a one-point victory.