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. --

※ 发信站: 批踢踢实业坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 220.142.228.89