COAST TO COAST

Breaking up the rest of their old gang?

With Raja Bell and Boris Diaw joining Shawn Marion and Coach Mike D’Antoni as former Suns, there’s speculation Steve Nash could be next.

Shaken by Wednesday’s trade of Bell and Diaw, Nash shot two for 12 from the field in that night’s loss to the Lakers, noting, “I was pretty flat emotionally.”

Bell and Nash, close friends, had been publicly petitioning Coach Terry Porter to speed up his offense.

The Suns are fighting for No. 8 in the West, and Nash, 34, will be a free agent in 2010.

“I knew you were going to go there,” Nash told the Arizona Republic’s Paul Coro. “I don’t know. Like I said before about the 2010 speculation, it’s so far away.”

Of course, no one would want Nash more than D’Antoni, now coaching in New York, where Nash lives in the off-season.

You back already?

Meanwhile, the Suns are going back to the offense Nash and Bell begged for.

“The identity of our team was lost for a month,” said General Manager Steve Kerr. “We’re getting that back and that’s important.”

If they need pointers, D’Antoni returns with his Knicks on Monday, having just acknowledged his rift with Suns owner Bob Sarver to the New York Post’s Peter Vecsey.

“We had four straight years of competing at the highest level,” D’Antoni said. “Yet in the end, their attitude was like we didn’t win a championship so we didn’t do nothing.”

D’Antoni can expect a warm welcome, from the fans, anyway.

Maybe he could fix the economy

Last season, Orlando Coach Stan Van Gundy challenged Dwight Howard to lead the league in rebounding, which he proceeded to do for the first time.

This season, the staff challenged Howard to lead in rebounding and blocks, which he’s doing, almost doubling his career high of 2.1 blocks to 4.0.

And next season’s goal?

“I don’t know what will be left,” Van Gundy said.

Communication breakdown

Denver’s J.R. Smith, demoted by Coach George Karl during the Nuggets’ 14-4 surge, lamented, “We never talk. I wish we did. You never want to not even talk to your coach.”

Replied Karl: “J.R. is a good-bad player and we’re trying to take the bad out. . . . Some nights I’ll tolerate his bad and some nights I’m probably going to go someplace else.”

Replied Smith: “He’s going to think what he wants to think. I just go out there and be me.”

Farewell, Cat

Aside from underlining the NBA’s need to more closely monitor the heart condition that killed Hank Gathers and Reggie Lewis, Cuttino Mobley’s retirement ends the career of one of the league’s grittiest competitors.

Listed at 6-4 but really 6-2, he averaged 16 points over 11 seasons and earned a reputation as a tough defender while guarding bigger players.

A Clipper for three progressively worse seasons, he remained one of their most unselfish players, once volunteering to come off the bench so Corey Maggette could start.

After his trade to the Knicks, an MRI test showed the condition that obliged him to sign waivers with the Rockets, Kings and Clippers had worsened. Said Mobley: “That MRI saved my life.”

With $18 million coming, no one has to hold a benefit for him, but he was someone who earned his money.