Phoenix are on a roll again  

The Phoenix Suns owns the best record in the NBA after the All-Star break and that catapulted them to the number 4 seed in the West. In fact as of this writing, the Suns are tied with the Dallas Mavericks and the Denver Nuggets for the 2nd to 4th seed with an identical 51-27 record.

Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire are playing very great basketball once again and they are the primary reasons why the Suns are on such a run. Another very notable thing is that the Suns are playing better defense. In fact, this has been the best defensive Phoenix Suns team since Steve Nash returned in 2004 and Mike D'Antoni employed the run and gun type basketball. Now, playing good defense and a very high octane offense makes the Suns a very formidable team.

One concern about the Suns during the start of the season is the shallowness of their bench and age. Nash and Grant Hill are all at least 35 years of age and both are among the very reliable Suns players. There are concerns about them as to whether they could survive the grueling season and the much tougher playoffs. At the start, the Suns were virtually limited to Nash, Hill, Stoudemire, Leandro Barbosa, and Jason Richardson. Channing Frye did a great job of stepping his game up at the start of the season. Heeding the call, relievers Jared Dudley, Louis Amundson, Goran Dragic, and even Robin Lopez also are playing good basketball which makes the Suns a deep team.

Experts are picking the Suns as the second best team in the Western Conference now just behind the defending champions Los Angeles Lakers. Should the Suns live up to expectations, that would be so great. After all, this season's playoffs will be filled with a lot of high scoring basketball games.