Suns Send a Nash Note

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Steve Nash, who was sent packing here so he could become an MVP in Phoenix, returned to American Airlines Center on a memorable Friday night that his old fans would prefer to forget. Nash had 27 points and 17 assists and the Suns broke the game open with a 15-0 fourth-quarter run to beat the Dallas Mavericks, 119-102.

The Suns, who showed up for this latest episode of the gunfight at the OK Corral with one less Earp -- Joe Johnson, who remained at home with a fractured orbit bone -- went back up in the series, 2-1, and took back home-court advantage.

Without Johnson, all five Phoenix starters played at least 40 minutes. As Dallas Coach Avery Johnson noted ruefully, “They all looked like they could have played some more.”

Said Sun Coach Mike D’Antoni: “Steve Nash, we’ll just get him some IVs and we’ll be ready to roll.”

Nash made 12 of his 21 shots after starting inauspiciously, taking a three-pointer the first time he got his hands on the ball and putting up an airball.

“I almost don’t want to tell this because it’ll be an excuse but it’s too funny,” said Nash. “I got fouled by my drawstrings. I went up to shoot and I got my hand caught up in my drawstrings.”

It was a shaken group of Suns who showed up here Friday without Johnson, their 6-foot-8, 240-pound shooting guard who functions as a second point guard and led this team of fast guns in three-point shooting percentage this season at 47.8%.

The Suns have made no announcement but Nash, who visited Johnson in the hospital after he had surgery Thursday, said, “He’s probably not coming back in this series for sure and probably not if we make the Finals. He’s probably gone.”

The Suns’ advantage in this series was supposed to have gone with Johnson. With Jim Jackson starting, D’Antoni was left with little in reserve and was obliged to play second-year wild man Leandro Barbosa if he wanted to get Nash any rest at all.

Barbosa had played 31 minutes in the first five playoff games and D’Antoni didn’t hide his concern.

“That’s why I didn’t play him,” D’Antoni said between games, “so all of a sudden I can’t tell you, ‘Oh boy, he’s going to be great.’ I don’t know. That’s up to Leandro.”

Leandro was OK in 16 minutes, which was good enough with Amare Stoudemire going for 37 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks, Shawn Marion scoring 21 and Quentin Richardson getting 17.

In a measure of who has the deepest team, the Maverick bench outscored the Suns’ bench, 37-5. In the measure of who was best, the Suns’ starters outscored the Mavericks’ starters, 114-65.

The Mavericks, routed by 25 points in Game 1, surprised the Suns, winning Game 2 after Dirk Nowitzki called out starting center Erick Dampier, criticizing his effort, and Dampier produced 15 points with 12 rebounds.

Before this game, it was Miami’s Shaquille O’Neal who insulted Dampier, saying he was doing so badly, “I’m playing like Erick Dampier.”

It wasn’t the same. Dampier had four points and four rebounds Friday in only 13 minutes, trying vainly to find Stoudemire so he could guard him.

The Mavericks signed Dampier to a $73-million deal last summer. That was why they couldn’t afford to re-sign Nash.

The game turned around in the last five minutes. With the Suns clinging to a 98-96 lead, Nash drove the lane, found nothing, dribbled the ball back out, then went back down the lane a second time. This time he kicked it to Marion, who knocked down a three-pointer from the corner.

A moment later, Jackson blocked Dampier’s layup from behind, then hit a three from the same corner Marion’s had come from. Suddenly a rout was on.

Afterward, the high-strung Avery Johnson went off again, noting the Mavericks didn’t get to shoot a single free throw in the fourth quarter.

“The whole thing with me is, no excuses, right?” said Johnson. “And I’ll stand by it. That’s been my whole deal and I’ll stand by it as long as I’m a coach. But you know what’s a fact right now, to have a guy like Dirk Nowitzki that is an MVP-caliber player, he’s one of the least respected MVP players that I have ever been associated with. ...”

The Mavericks would have needed a lot of free throws in that fourth quarter. The Suns outscored them, 32-20.