This season really is hard to believe

[ducks]

This season really is hard to believe
By Scott Bordow, Tribune Columnist
A Suns official came into the pressroom before the game, smiled and shook his head.
"Can you believe this?" he asked.
Well, no.
The Suns can’t be this good. They can’t.
Doesn’t make any sense. They won 29 games last year, added Steve Nash and Quentin Richardson in the offseason, and now they’re 31-4?

Might as well believe in the Easter Bunny.

You know what’s even crazier than their record, though? The way Phoenix is bludgeoning some of the NBA’s elite teams.

The Miami Heat came to town Tuesday night with the best record in the Eastern Conference and Shaquille O’Neal living large in south Florida.

Here was the dominant big man that would test the Suns’ belief that smaller can be better. Amaré Stoudemire would guard O’Neal, and coach Mike D’Antoni offered Stoudemire the only advice he could: "Try not to get hurt."

So what happens?

The Suns don’t break a sweat on their way to 40 first-quarter points. They hit 100 by the end of the third quarter, the final is 122-107, and all the Heat can do is try to get the license plate of the Corvette that sped by them.

"I don’t know what to tell you," said coach Stan Van Gundy. "They beat us everywhere. They defended better than us, rebounded better than us, then ran very well. It was total domination, and there wasn’t an area where I felt we outplayed them."

January was supposed to be the month that tested the Suns’ mettle. Their early season schedule was soft, and skeptics thought they’d come back to earth when they played some of the NBA’s superpowers.

Well, they’ve won at Minnesota and Houston on back-to-back nights. They destroyed Indiana by 35 points, and Miami never had a chance. Phoenix is 6-0 this year, and it’s won the past three games by an average of 22.3 points.

"Me and Casey Jacobsen were talking in the shower, and he said he was kind of amazed by how well we’re playing," Richardson said. "Once we pretty much get clicking, it’s kind of like a snowball."

Actually, it’s like an avalanche on Mount Everest.

Now, a game in January doesn’t mean much come June. And a victory over the Heat shouldn’t send the Suns to the jewelers to get their ring fingers measured.

The Eastern Conference is the NBA’s ugly stepchild. Until Phoenix proves it can play with San Antonio, the Spurs are the team most likely to be celebrating a championship this summer. But the Suns are not going to lose their slipper come the postseason. There’s no such thing as a fluke 31-4 team.

"We know we’re capable of being very good," Stoudemire said. The Stoudemire-O’Neal matchup was the feature on the marquee Tuesday, and it played to rave reviews. O’Neal had 34 points on 16-of-20 shooting, which will happen when most of your shots are dunks. Stoudemire also had 34 points, on 13-of-19 shooting.

A draw, then? "Nah," Stoudemire said. "We won." When Stoudemire was in high school — all of three years ago — he had a poster of O’Neal on his bedroom wall. He still looks up to Shaq, and the two have become good friends. Imagine, then, how Stoudemire will feel when he hears the compliment Shaq paid him.

"Tonight, it was the old me against the young me," O’Neal said. The Suns are in Utah tonight for the start of a six-day road trip. Indiana, Washington and Detroit await. Stoudemire’s not worried. "Right now," he said, "we’re not even thinking about losing." Can you believe this?

[SirChaz]

Despite his team's eye-popping record, coach Mike D'Antoni won't call the Suns the best team in the NBA.

"You know, San Antonio's good," he said. "They only beat us by 20 points, so it's kind of hard for me to say we're better than they are. We're good. We're playing real well, and we're going to get better."