Raja Bell is still far from 100 percent, but he’s good enough to play and start tonight against the Magic. The Suns will have their full complement of players.

 The Magic are also ready to go, and at 14-3 are looking to avenge one of their few losses of the season. The Amare Stoudemire-Dwight Howard battle is just about to tip off.

 Steve Nash is the latest of more than 250 celebrities and athletes who have donned the Body By Milk National Milk Mustache. The message — to drink three glasses of lowfat or fat free milk every day to stay healthy, lean and strong — was started in 1996 and the latest group to take part include Nash, singers Beyonce Knowles and Carrie Underwood, soccer star David Beckham, football Marvin Harrison and baseball’s Alex Rodriguez.

 Nash’s ad says ”Pass by Steve … body by milk.”

 ”They don’t pay you for that,” Nash was quick to point out, but didn’t have much more to add about the experience. “My management thought it would be a good idea for me to do it.”

You can see Nash’s ad and some behind-the-scenes footage of his commercial shoot at www.BodyByMilk.com

Don Nelson couldn’t help himself, he had to gloat a little bit when he talked about how the Suns removed some of their greyhounds and went with big men Brian Skinner and Amare Stoudemire to combat his running and gunning Warriors.

“We looked like the Phoenix Suns out there,” he said, smiling. “We made the Phoenix Suns go big … can you believe that?”

And while it’s true the Suns don’t like to switch what they do, that doesn’t mean they won’t have a different approach handy the next time they meet up with Golden State. “They were really good. It was tough going for us,” guard Steve Nash said. “There was a lack of decisiveness a lack of movement. But give them credit, they made a lot of tough shots. We have to look a little closer at our strategy when we play them … There are things we can do, we’ll learn from this.”

Several Suns felt that they didn’t have enough energy, that the fact they had run across a team willing to match their style led to them backing down from full throttle. “The game was fast, but we still weren’t fast enough,” guard Leandro Barbosa said. “We can play faster than that, but we played as fast as they wanted to.”

So the Suns will try to reload at home against two teams they have already beaten on the road this season – Houston and Orlando. The Rockets will have Tracy McGrady this time, but the Suns still match up well against Yao Ming and company and have handled Dwight Howard and the Magic well recently also.

The good news for the Suns: The rest of the Western Conference powers didn’t fare any better on Monday — in fact, their loss might be the least unsightly. The Spurs were drubbed just up the road in Sacramento, while Utah lost to the lowly Knicks in New York. Dallas was whipped at home by Gilbert Arenas-less Washington, and New Orleans lost at home to … yikes … Minnesota!

LB limping

With Raja Bell still fighting back from injuries, Barbosa admitted he’s been fighting a sprained ankle of his own for two weeks. He said he hurt the right ankle against the Knicks on Nov. 13 but knew the team needed him to keep playing with Bell already down.

“There are some things on the court that I can’t do right now, things I want to do, but I want to keep playing,” Barbosa said. “It’s still hurting, but I can can still play OK.”

 OAKLAND — The Suns will be without guard Marcus Banks tonight when they face Golden State tonight.

 Banks was in Las Vegas Monday morning to attend the funeral of his aunt, who passed away over the weekend, and was unable to get back to the Bay Area for the game. He was expected to see some playing time against the Warriors — he played in each of the last two games and his speed comes in handy against the quick pace both teams want to play.

 Raja Bell practiced well on Sunday and should be fine to play normal minutes tonight, and Eric Piatkowski (shoulder) is also availabe if needed. But expect the top eight players to see most of the playing time against the Warriors, who don’t go much deeper themselves.

 The Suns will have their top seven players available for only the fourth time this season tonight. Guard Raja Bell, who has missed five of the last six games with ankle and back problems, will start tonight but will likely be limited in minutes.

 Suns guard Eric Piatkowski (shoulder) is still hurting, so that should give Marcus Banks — who played well Wednesday against Sacramento — another chance to prove himself tonight.

 The Clippers are missing Brevin Knight tonight and are already without Elton Brand, Shaun Livingston and Corey Maggette. Sam Cassell and Cuttino Mobley will start in the backcourt for the CLippers.

Both the Suns and Kings will be short-handed for tonight’s rematch at US Airways Center.

 The Suns expect to play without Raja Bell for the fifth time in the last six games — the last two because of back spasms. 

 But the Kings will play without Ron Artest, who had 33 points against the Suns Tuesday. Sacramento coach Reggie Theus said Artest flew back home after arriving with the team early Thursday morning to deal with an unspecificed medical issue invovling one of his four children.

 Artest, who missed the first seven games of the season serving a suspension, has played in only four of Sacramento’s first 12 games.

 The Kings are also without point guard Beno Udrih — who is subbing for the injured Mike Bibby — after he suffered a thigh contusion for the Suns. John Salmons will start for Artest tonight, while Francisco Garcia will start for Udrih.

 The Suns expect to play without Raja Bell for the fifth time in the last six games — the last two because of back spasms. But while that news might have been expected, the Kings were greeted with more of a shock.

 Ron Artest, who had 33 points against the Suns Tuesday, did not accompany the team to Phoenix and will miss the game due to ”unspecified personal reasons.” Now if you’ve followed Artest’s career, you know that could be just about anything, stay tuned and we’ll try to come up with more information.

Here’s an update from the Tribune’s Matt Paulson on the physicial condition of Suns guard Steve Nash, who has been reluctant to shoot in the past two games:

Nash, who has been plagued the past few years by a rib which has a tendency to slip out of place, is dealing with that issue again, the Suns point guard said Friday.

The injury is not serious enough to keep the two-time MVP sidelined, but it causing soreness and tightness in his right (shooting) shoulder.

“I don’t have very good range of motion on my shoulder right now, but that’s OK,” said Nash, who added he feels the injury most when shooting. “I can contribute in other ways until my shoulder settles down a little bit.”

Suns trainer Aaron Nelson said Nash recently woke up with irritation in the shoulder — there was no single incident that led to the problems and that Nash is undergoing treatment to relieve the pain.

 Nash experienced similar symptoms in February and missed four games with what the team called shoulder inflammation.

 Meanwhile, the Suns face their biggest test of the young season Saturday in Houston, but won’t have to deal with Tracy McGrady. The NBA’s leading scorer so far this year at 29 points a game, McGrady is out for at least a week after spraining his right elbow in Wednesday’s loss to the Lakers. Missing games is nothing new for McGrady, who missed 50 games in his first two seasons with the Rockets (Houston was 13-37 in those games). McGrady feared he might be out long term, but MRI exams showed no tendon or ligament damage, according to the Houston Chronicle.McGrady said he did sustain some nerve damage after the arm-to-arm collision with Luke Walton of the Lakers.

 It’s more than just a coincidence that Boris Diaw becomes a different player when Amare Stoudemire is off the floor.

 And it happened again Thursday just in time to save the Suns.

 When Stoudemire went to the bench with five fouls 3:18 into the fourth quarter – picking up four of the fouls in just over two minutes – Diaw had missed four of five shots, committed five turnovers and was on his way to another sloppy and soft performance.

 But as soon as Stoudemire went to the bench, Diaw scored seven points on the next three Phoenix possessions – including a three-point play on a pretty give-and-go with Steve Nash that gave the Suns the lead for good and highlighted a 37-point fourth-quarter outburst.

 For more than a year, the Suns have tried to find a way for Stoudemire and Diaw to co-exist on the court without success. But a foul-prone as Stoudemire is, there appears there will still be time for Diaw to work the middle of the defense himself and produce some offense.Phoenix’s smaller lineup ran away from the Bulls over the final eight minutes, with Nash dishing out seven assists and Shawn Marion scoring 11 of his 21 points. But the Suns don’t want to make a habit of giving back 15-point leads and having to win games twice – something that has haunted them in the past.

 The good news is the Suns again made some defensive stops when they needed them most in the fourth quarter, limiting

Chicago to one contested shot and using their transition game to beat the Bulls down the floor for easy baskets – finishing the game the way they started, with a flourish.

Shawn Marion didn’t arrive at US Airways Center until about an hour before tip-off after he was involved in a four-car, chain-reaction collision southbound on State Route 51 about 6:50 p.m.

Other some damage to the left fender of his Hummer, Marion came out of the crash no worse for where, but quickly called the Suns to let them know he had to remain at the scene of the accident. He started Thursday’s game against the Bulls at his usual position.

“Usually, I can avoid that stuff, but this time there was nowhere to go,” he said.