Nash sad to see ex-coach step aside in Dal …
David Vest
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 20, 2005 12:00 AM
Suns point guard Steve Nash is going to miss playing against his former coach,
Don Nelson, who resigned from the Dallas Mavericks Saturday.
"It's sad to think of Nellie not being (involved) in the game and not being on
the bench," Nash said. "Hopefully, this is what he wants and he feels real comf
ortable and happy with the decision. If that's the case, I'm 100 percent behind
him."
Nelson, 64, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that Nash, who departed Dallas in
the off-season after six years with the Mavericks, is still one of his favorit
e players. advertisement
"When Steve left a piece of me died," Nelson said Saturday.
On the road again
Before heading to the airport on Saturday, head coach Mike D'Antoni tried to ra
lly the Suns from a mini-funk in which they've lost two of the past three games
.
D'Antoni didn't give a fiery pep talk after practice, but he did encourage his
players to play with urgency and to reclaim the swagger they walked with not to
o long ago.
"It's time for us to really pick it up and figure out what we're going to be in
the playoffs," Nash said before the Suns left for a five-game, seven-day trip
to the Southeast. " . . . Now that we've won so many games, I think complacency
has set in a bit."
The trip's first stop is today in Memphis for an ABC matinee vs. the Grizzlies.
Memphis, a playoff-caliber team, has beaten the Suns twice in three tries and
has held Phoenix to a 95-point average in those games, 15.4 points below its se
ason average.
D'Antoni downplayed the Grizzlies' success against the Suns and insisted his te
am can fix itself.
"All of our weaknesses are things that we can control," D'Antoni said. "If we d
idn't shoot the ball well or have speed or we didn't have athleticism, that's o
ne thing. The stuff that we don't do, being tougher (and) running harder, are t
hings that are under our control. We're just trying to point that out to them t
hat we've done it before so there's no reason not to do it."
Dear diary
Reserve forward Paul Shirley has agreed to chronicle this five-game trip on the
team's Web site: www.nba.com/suns.
Shirley, who started writing as a hobby while playing in Greece, said his repor
ts would be more than just game recaps.
"I don't think the games are particularly interesting," Shirley said. "I think
what's interesting is people's takes on things. Not to say that my take is more
interesting than anyone else's, but since I have the opportunity I'll probably
do it from my perspective."
The seldom-used forward joked he may title his reports The View from the End of
the Bench.
Free throws
Forward Walter McCarty, who played just three minutes on Friday because of back
spasms, was walking gingerly and did not practice Saturday, and is questionabl
e today.
So is center Jake Voskuhl, who missed Friday's game because of a sprained left
ankle but practiced Saturday.
?The Suns plan to donate $100,000 to the Phoenix Boys and Girls Club to help bu
ild a facility in south Phoenix. Its basketball court will be named after late
coach Cotton Fitzsimmons.
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