Surprised the MRI on Tony Parker’s heel showed no significant injuries? Or that the decision to sit Parker, with the Spurs struggling, came the at the same time they came out of nowhere to win the Damon Stoudamire Derby?

 Four days ago, Stoudamire was picking the Celtics over the Suns because of playing time and the chance to play a significant role for a title contender. But the minute Boston GM Danny Ainge balks on Stoudamire, Parker goes into dry dock with an injury that’s hurt him all season and there’s a new point guard headed to the Alamo.

 The Suns weren’t heartbroken to lose out on Stoudamire and aren’t all that upset that he wound up in San Antonio either — given the way Jacques Vaughn plays defensively when Bruce Bowen isn’t harrassing Steve Nash. But he is another shooting threat for a team that could use one.

 The Suns will be without Grant Hill for today’s afternoon game with the Bulls. As expected, the Suns want Hill to take his time with a back problem that has bothered him for a week. Boris Diaw, who had 11 points and nine assists in Friday’s comeback win over Cleveland, gets the start. You also might see more of D.J. Strawberry today, the coaches were happy with his defense and presence against the Cavs.

 The Bulls will go without both Luol Deng (out indefinitely) and Ben Gordon, who has a bad wrist that was still sore in pregame warmups. The Bulls also have several other players (Chris Duhon, Thabo Sefolosha, Joe Smith) who are playing hurt. Sefolosha and Smith are in the starting lineup.

Milwaukee will be without guard Mo Williams tonight against the Suns. Williams sprained his left pinkie finger in Monday’s loss to the Hornets in New Orleans. Williams, who averages 17 points a game and shoots a team-best 39.5 percent from 3-point range, will likely be replaced by ex-Sun Charlie Bell.

 The Suns get Grant Hill back after he missed seven straight games recovering from an appendectomy. He return to his starting small forward spot, with Boris Diaw returning to his reserve role after averaging 11.3 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.0 assists in 37 minutes as a starter.

 Alando Tucker, the all-time leading scorer at the University of Wisconsin, is drawing all the media attention here tonight — although he is inactive for the game. More on his trip home in my notebook tomorrow.

 Amare Stoudemire hasn’t been shy about voicing his displeasure over not getting the ball late in games — look at his comments after the Christmas Day loss in Los Angeles and the home loss to New Orleans, which was followed by a missed practice that needed to be ”handled internally” by the organization.

 So you can imagine how sitting and watching the final 10 minutes Thursday against the Lakers — even in a Suns win — sat with Stoudemire. But Phoenix coach Mike D’Antoni said his decision was the result of a perfect storm of consequence, not any grand plan that he had or intends to repeat.

 D’Antoni sat Stoudemire for the final 5:43 of the third quarter after he picked up his fourth foul (an offensive foul) and when he brought him back to start the fourth quarter “he just looked a little stiff.”

 Over the next two minutes, the Lakers scored eight straight points to cut an 18-point lead to 10. D’Antoni sent Steve Nash to the scorer’s table to come in for Brian Skinner when Stoudemire collected his fifth foul, also on the offensive end.

 ”So I said, ‘Steve, go get Amare,’ ” D’Antoni said. And he’s sitting over there now for five minutes but it’s really 20 minutes with all the TV timeouts. We’re up (nine) but we’re playing well — Boris is scoring and Skinny is defending — so instead of throwing him out there for one or two possessions to see, we just went with that group. And now it’s some kind of controversy, I guess.”

 Asked if Stoudemire was upset, D’Antoni said “Maybe just a little.”

 Shawn Marion also sat for five of the final six minutes. He came out not long after a prolonged protest of a no-call while the Lakers were scoring on the other end, but D’Antoni said that had nothing to do with his substitution decision, saying that he needed a rest after playing 18 straight minutes to open the second half.

When he scored a season-high 21 points against the Bucks on Saturday – to go with 10 rebounds – Boris Diaw was attacking the basket for layups and dunks. Thursday against the Lakers – on the heels of a 3-for-8, one rebound, one technical performance against the Clippers that had coaches and teammates rolling their eyes – Diaw was back on the beam with 19 points on 9-for-13 shooting in the 106-98 win, hitting eight of the shots from the outside including one 3-pointer. His 20-footer with 24 seconds was the final dagger to the Lakers’ fourth quarter comeback bid. “If he can become consistent with that shot, he’s a big problem for people,” said Suns guard Steve Nash, who kept feeding Diaw the ball when the Lakers gave him the open jumper. “Even without making jumps shots, he can still have a huge impact on every game just by being aggressive.” Of course, Diaw said he was just doing what the situation called for – making the right play. Against the Bucks, he found himself on smaller defenders due to pick-and-roll switched, so he drove. Thursday, the middle was clogged, a bigger defender sloughed off, so Diaw let the jumper fly. Perhaps he had a little leftover aggression after doing so little against the Clippers. Perhaps wearing the TNT microphone made him want to do something worth talking about. But in the space of five days, Diaw has had two games the Suns have been waiting for all year. He had six turnovers, but they were aggressive turnovers. He had six rebounds, which the Suns will take and five assists. “I was left open a lot,” Diaw said. “There were a lot of jumpers. I can’t drive anyway (with the middle congested). As long as you’re open if you don’t take them it’s not good for the team anyway. It makes it easier to make them when you make a few.

 It had been a tough few days for Leandro Barbosa.

 He missed eight of 12 shots in Saturday’s win over Milwaukee, then played his worst game of the season in Tuesday’s loss to the Clippers, scoring only nine points in 23 minutes and being victimized  time and again on the defensive end. After watching his performance on tape Wednesday, he apologized to the players and coaches and promised a better effort Thursday against the Lakers.

 But it also helped Wednesday when he heard the news that tests on the tumor removed from his good friend, Denver forward Nene, revealed it was benign. Barbosa has kept in close contact with his countryman since the problem was discovered last week and said the news gave him a lift that might have played a part in his 8-for-12 shooting, 22-point effort in the 106-98 win over the Lakers Friday.

  Suns assistant coach Dan D’Antoni, Barbosa’s close friend and mentor, said Barbosa would never use his own personal anguish as an excuse for his poor play against the Clippers.  “I asked him if all the stuff with Nene was bothering him, and he said right away, ‘Coach I have to get above that. I have to be better. But I know better. That’s the kind of person he is.”

 After the game, Barbosa talked about good news on and off the floor.

 ”I’m so happy that it’s not cancer and everything is going to be OK,” Barbosa said. “That’s a scary word, for him and for his friends who care so much for him. It has been very hard for him, we have talked a lot and there has been some hard days. You do not have many close friends, and you want them to be OK. Now he can work on getting better and playing basketball and being happy again.

 ”He is OK. We won the game. I’m very happy.”

 A few player notes in the wake of a nasty loss Tuesday:

*After turning in his best game of the season Saturday against
Milwaukee (21 points, 11 rebounds) Boris Diaw was back to invisible in his fourth start for the injured Grant Hill. Diaw was 3-for-8 from the field and had as many technical fouls as rebounds in 37 minutes on the floor.  The Suns felt they would be OK without Hill because Daiw has lot of experience as a starter and would step up his game to fill the void. Tuesday, the void did in the Suns. *Amare Stoudemire once again scored at will against the Clippers by putting up 29 points – his exact average for the four games against them this season. But Stoudemire was outrebounded 18-8 by Clippers center Chris Kaman and managed only four boards on the defensive glass all night. The Suns were outrebounded 47-36 despite a 17-rebound effort from Shawn Marion.

 *Marcus Banks may be out of the rotation again. In four games since his 23-point eruption against
Denver, Banks has 19 points in four games and the Suns were outscored 21-6 in his seven minutes on the floor during the first half on Tuesday. He didn’t get off the bench in the second half and might not again Thursday when the Suns face the Lakers.

A few postgame offerings fromt the locker room

“We needed to score more points than Sam (Cassell) did and we just couldn’t do it. Our offense let us down and we couldn’t stop Sam, so it was a combination of both. Our offense, for whatever reason, just wasn’t clicking at all and we just didn’t play well.”

–
Phoenix coach Mike D’Antoni

  “We were sloppy. We didn’t play well and they are a tough matchup for us all over the floor. Even when we beat them, it’s not easy. They play the pick and rolls very hard and we never did loosen them up.”

–Steve Nash, who had 14 points and 13 assists but missed nine of 14 shots and had six turnovers.

 “Sam had the best short game in the league, those jumpers inside the 3-point line. Once he gets going, it’s hard to stop him.”

–Amare Stoudemire

 The Suns will be without two starters — and perhaps even a third tonight against the Jazz.
 Already without Grant Hill for 2-3 weeks (appendix), the Suns will play without guard Steve Nash — who stayed home with a bad case of the flu.
 Suns coach Mike D’Antoni said Nash was in a hospital emergency room about midnight Thursday and received an IV fluid bag to counteract the dehydration from vomiting and diarrhea. Nash felt better in the morning and toyed with the idea of following the team to Salt Lake City, but trainer Aaron Nelson nixed the plan.
 D’Antoni said forward Shawn Marion is also a game-time decision tonight after taking a nasty fall on his right shoulder and elbow in the fourth quarter of the 129-122 overtime win over Indiana. X-rays on both areas were negative, but Marion is still very sore — he was unable to lift his right arm after the game.
 Leandro Barbosa will start in place of Nash — the Suns are 6-0 when Barbosa starts this year, but that stat will get a severe test tonight. If Marion can’t play, Raja Bell will shift to the small forward spot and Marcus Banks will join Barbosa in the backcourt and team with Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw.
 The Suns have summoned guard D.J. Strawberry a day early from Albuquerque of the NBA Developmental League and he will be with Phoenix tonight.

 You can take the half-full/half-empty look at Wednesday’s win over Indiana on several fronts:

 *The Suns defense was downright horrible in the first half, and those who have doubted the impact of Grant Hill this season needed only to see the Pacers (without Jermaine O’Neal) shoot 68 percent from the field in the first quarter and feast on the Boris Diaw-Amare Stoudemire-Shawn Marion front line.

 Troy Murphy had 15 rebounds, five on the offensive end. Yuck. Danny Granger and Jeff Foster had 11 each. Double yuck.

 But once again, the Suns played better defense as the game went along and reeled in a 16 point deficit within minutes once they clamped down. They caught a break when Jamaal Tinsley decided that letting Granger (9-for-18) and Shawne Williams (9-for-12) shoot down the stretch was foolhardy and missed eight straight shots of his own, but holding a team to just one free throw over the final five minutes is still pretty good.

 And wiping out a double-digit deficit without Hill and Nash and with Marion and Leandro Barbosa hurting shows the Suns do have plenty of fight in them.

 Other thoughts:

 *What a great time for a Raja Bell sighting. In what will be a key to watch over the 2-3 weeks Hill is out (and maybe a little longer, since the Suns will be very cautious with him) Bell moved as well as he has all season and not only hit six 3-pointers but looked good on almost all of the 11 he took. The Suns can’t count on Marcus Banks as a consistent 3-point threat. Bell and Barbosa have to carry the load and push back toward the 40-percent they’ve averaged in their careers.

 *You look at the 12 shots Stoudemire got and feel he was underused. But he also went to the line 12 times (hitting 11) and the Suns leaned on him heavily from the fourth quarter on.

 *Barbosa can monopolize the offense at times, but Indiana had no answer for him in the second half and overtime. After a 1-for-5 first half, he was not only 6-for-12 from the field but 11-for-12 from the line, aggressively driving to the hoop and drawing calls. The Suns are at their scariest when Barbosa is attacking.

 So another win that was harder than it had to be, but at 25-10 the Suns sit atop the West. With no Hill and likely no Nash tonight (he didn’t fly to Salt Lake with the team after the game, but could fly there today if the flu runs its course), the Suns will have their hands full with a Jazz team that starting to come out of a month-long tailspin.

By Jerry BrownTribune        

 Grant Hill’s run of 34 straight starts with the Phoenix Suns will end tonight against
Indiana under the strangest of circumstances.

 Hill was diagnosed with appendicitis on Wednesday morning and will undergo an appendectomy about 6 p.m. this evening. Suns trainer Aaron Nelson estimates that Hill will miss 2-3 weeks while he recovers from the surgery.

 Boris Diaw will start tonight against the Pacers — and likely for as long as Hill is sidelined.

 Suns general manager Steve Kerr said Hill, who has been bothered by aches and pains for about a week, work up Wednesday morning not feeling well, but wasn’t showing any of the normal flu like symptoms. He took Hill to the hospital where he condition was diagnosed.

 Hill started every game with the Suns, he longest run of health since he was a Detroit Piston during the 1999-2000 system, and has played very well for
Phoenix. He’s averaging 15.9 points on 51 percent shooting from field along with 4.6 rebounds and 3/5 assists. He hit eight of 11 shots and had 20 points in 22 minutes in Monday’s win over 137-155 win over
Denver and took part in practice on Tuesday

Contact writer: (480) 898-6528 or jbrown@evtrib.com