FanHouse Terry Porter

PHOENIX -- The Suns easily disposed of the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday, and hit the ridiculous 140 point mark for the third straight game while doing so. It was the first time an NBA team has put a streak like that together since the Portland Trail Blazers did it back in the 1990-91 season.

It's either a sad irony or a cruel coincidence that recently fired head coach Terry Porter was a member of that Blazers' team, but that it took new head man Alvin Gentry to get the Suns scoring like this. After three games against the league's bottom feeders and with a game against the Celtics looming on Sunday, the question is, can the Suns keep it up?

PHOENIX -- It wasn't "one of those" weekends for the NBA All-Star game. Nobody shot anybody (that we know of), there weren't any amazing plays in the All-Star game, and the biggest storyline was two players that we, as the media, have hyped up as hating each other reuniting for co-MVP awards. But the weekend did give us some highs and lows and, all in all, was a pretty good time in the desert.

PHOENIX -- I have this funny little device called The Jordan Tax. Anybody who comes in contact with Michael Jordan and benefits disproportionately from him, in context with the rest of that person's career or life, should be taxed accordingly and pay up. It could be an owner, a general manager, a teammate, a media person, a public address announcer, a gambler, an ex-wife, Ahmad Rashad, anyone.

Terry Porter is done in Phoenix. No, it won't be official until Steve Kerr makes the announcement, but Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic reports he's received confirmation from multiple team sources who all agree that the decision has been made. The NBA frowns on teams making announcements or trades during All-Star weekend, but it's probably safe to assume a press conference will soon be scheduled on Monday.

Assistant coach Alvin Gentry, who's been with Phoenix since Mike D'Antoni's second year and is the lone coaching holdover from D'Antoni's staff, will take the reins as interim head coach. Here's the real gem: Coro writes that Gentry is expected "to return the Suns to their previous season's style."

Rumors about Terry Porter's job security in Phoenix have been running rampant since Wednesday, but so far everybody -- from team owner Robert Sarver, GM Steve Kerr and Porter himself -- has denied there's anything to it. Until Saturday night, that is.

Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic reported Saturday that "there are strong indications that the Suns will have a new head coach" come Monday. In response to the report, Kerr gave an extremely telling non-denial to the AP: "We haven't made a decision. There are a lot of things we're working on this weekend."

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.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Before the Suns took the court in Detroit on Sunday, head coach Terry Porter defended Steve Nash, who's seen his numbers decline across the board in Mike D'Antoni's absence.

"Steve has gotten a bad rap this year, and I put that all on me as far as [people] saying he's slowed down or he's not doing the things he's used to do," Porter said. "A lot of that has been because of the things we've done offensively at times."

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

Suns' head coach Terry Porter spent almost 20 minutes with the assembled media prior to Friday night's game against the Timberwolves, and with good reason. There was a lot to talk about, and it mostly had to do with his team coming off of a tough overtime loss the night before in Denver.

Porter felt that there should have been a foul called on the final play of regulation, one where Grant Hill went to the basket but was tripped by the Nuggets' Dahntay Jones. He admitted that his team sent tape of that play (and a few others) to the league for review, and talked about the Hill play in particular, before discussing whether or not instant replay in that situation might be something the league should consider.

Chauncey Billups is still in his prime as a player, but that doesn't mean that he's not already thinking about his "dream job" after hanging up his sneakers. What might that be? Taking Mark Warkentien's job as general manager. From Benjamin Hochman of the Denver Post:

"I think it's a tough challenge (working) behind the scenes," said Billups, the 2004 NBA Finals MVP for the Pistons. "You get to orchestrate, make moves and try to build a champion, and I think I know what it takes. . . . You've got to be a personable guy; you've got to be able to incorporate relationships."

This isn't some passing interest, either; Hochman reports that Suns coach Terry Porter, who coached Billups as an assistant in Detroit last year, revealed that Billups and Joe Dumars "had quite a few talks" about Billups someday joining the front office. George Karl agreed that Billups has the right makeup to someday be a good front office exec, but added a disclaimer.

If you were looking for evidence to see if Shaquille O'Neal was still able to dominate in his 17th NBA season, then let his game against the Bucks serve as Exhibit A. Shaq was unstoppable, finishing with 35 points, eight rebounds, and three blocked shots in 34 minutes of action. It was his biggest scoring output since joining the Suns last season, and in fact it was the most he's scored in a game since March of 2006.

As great as Shaq was against Milwaukee, the team has a bigger test on their hands tonight when they travel to Los Angeles to take on the Lakers. And the fact that Shaq played all of those minutes the night before would lead you to believe that he'd be on the sidelines for the second game of a back-to-back, as has been the case for most of those scenarios this season.

Suns' coach Terry Porter was coy about Shaq's availability for the Laker game, saying "We're going to decide [Thursday] what we're going to do with him." O'Neal himself, however, confirmed afterwards that he'd be skipping the trip to Los Angeles, but it would be for a reason other than needing some additional rest.

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.