Sunday Suns Links: 1,000th Nash Game Edition

First some internal business: We have two contests going on and Robin Lopez scheduled for a Live Chat visit this week..

• Steve Nash 1000th Career Game Guess the Quote Contest - Bright Side Of The Sun
  
• Bright Side of the Sun March Madness Bracket Contest!! - Bright Side Of The Sun
• Robin Lopez Live Chat: Wednesday, March 17 - Bright Side Of The Sun

Other Suns News:

The NBA fined Coach Gentry $25k for his tirade. I am sure he's thrilled about that.

Leandro Barbosa was officially a game-time decision to tonight.

From The Republic...

Paul Coro is back from his week-long furlough and provides this perspective on Robin's ZERO rebound showing against the Lakers..

azcentral.com blogs - Coro's Suns dish - PaulCoro - 7th is no Suns heaven
But Lopez was also a victim of helping in the zone at times. He wound up boxing out Kobe Bryant one time 10 feet from the basket. He wasn't always matched up with Bynum and he left him justly to double or help on penetrators at other times and that helped Bynum get his 18 points.

And Bob Young writes up the Steve Nash 1,000th game story...

Phoenix Suns' Steve Nash set to play in 1,000th NBA game Sunday vs. New Orleans Hornets
Has it really been 14 years since Suns fans booed the team's 1996 first-round draft pick, a skinny Canadian point guard from Santa Clara? The draft-day crowd was disappointed because fans wanted the team to selected John Wallace, a 6-foot-8 forward from Syracuse who ended up going three picks later at No. 18 to the New York Knicks.

• Game Recap: Win Streak Comes to an End, 128-94 - Mavs Moneyball
  Game Recap: Win Streak Comes to an End, 128-94
• Chris Paul Cleared To Participate In Practice - SB Nation
  Three-time All-Star point guard Chris Paul was cleared Friday to begin participating in drills with his teammates at three-quarters speed, New Orleans Hornets Coach Jeff Bower said. Paul participated in Friday's shootaround at the New Orleans Arena, but Bower said there is still no set date on his return.
• NBA Talking Points: What If Larry Bird Was Black? - SB Nation
  In this week's edition of NBA Talking Points, Andrew Sharp looks back at Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, the subjects of a new HBO documentary. Imagine if a few things had gone differently...
• Gasol Gets Physical, Gentry Gets Ejected in Lakers' Win Over the Suns -- NBA FanHouse
  Kobe said the foul was "not playing dirty, it's just not giving up anything easy." I'm not sure whether I believe that or not, but one thing's for sure: Gasol benefits from being known as a "soft" player, and Lou's lack of acting helped seal his fate.
• Conspiracy Theory: Joe Johnson to the Knicks? -- NBA FanHouse
  Sources say that All-Star shooting guard (and former Sun) will be headed to New York this summer, saying it's "a done deal". Let the wild (free agency) rumpus begin!
• Remaining stretch crucial to Suns' postseason seed | Valley of the Suns
  With just 17 games remaining, the final stretch has become crucial to the Phoenix Suns' postseason.
• KNEE JERK NBA: A Haiku For Every Team
  A haiku for each NBA team (in the traditional 5-7-5 syllabic format) summarizing their current state and what their future might look like.
• Advanced Statistics and Correlation vs. Causation - Eric Freeman - The Baseline - Sporting News
  However, it's worth noting that the more likely relationship is a correlation between good teams and those who are willing to investigate and put resources into innovate strategies in all aspects of the franchise, not just statistical work. Instead of statistical analysis making teams good, we have a situation where teams that make good decisions throughout the organization also invest in stats work. That's not to say employing a stats guru doesn't help. But it's just one indicator of a successful organization, and those teams' winning percentages don't explain exactly how much difference it makes.