Steve Nash said he's over his "tired three weeks" and is primed for the stretch run. Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

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The issue has been raised more than ever this season because Nash, at times, has seemed sluggish. He's still having a terrific year (17.5 points, 11.3 assists) but probably won't get too many votes for MVP, an award he won in 2005 and '06. Nash agreed that he hasn't been quite as sharp as in the past, but said there is nothing profoundly different from other years.

"My routine is almost always the same. It's what I'm comfortable with," said Nash, who typically sits out the final two minutes of the first and third quarters and the first four of the second and fourth. "There's going to be a point in the season when you're tired anyway. Everyone gets like that. But you overcome that and bounce back and feel better again. I'm at that point now where I'm just starting to bounce back. I had a tired three weeks but now I'm back.

"I know Baron gets tired because we talk about it," he said, referring to Warriors point guard Baron Davis, who averages 39.2 minutes. "It's not like I'm the only one going through it or the only one who's going to break down. And I'm not going to break down."

• My observation is that, with Nash and Shaq in the game, the Suns' half-court offense looks pretty much like it did over the last few years when Shawn Marion was on the floor. Everyone willingly sets high picks for Nash, including Shaq, and he uses them and the offense flows. There is no compulsion to slow down the offense and look for a big post-up guy.

But when Nash is on the bench and Shaq is on the floor, the offense does look more, well, traditional, and ineffective. Backup point guard Leandro Barbosa, a "point" in nomenclature only as he is the very definition of a slashing shooting guard, is uncomfortable running a high pick-and-roll offense and the team feels more uncomfortable setting picks for him. When he's not getting his own shot, something he does quite well, the offense can stall and become the predictable look-inside-to-the-big-guy approach.

Having said that, just about any team's offense is worse when its first-string point guard is on the bench. Phoenix has a better option than most -- installing ball-handling forward Boris Diaw to run the show -- which is something the Suns will surely have to get more mileage out of in the postseason.

• A major factor for the Suns' title hopes will be Grant Hill's ability (or inability) to defend the opposition's top perimeter scorer for key minutes. Though their defense was criticized in past years for being porous -- and often it was -- the Suns always believed that they were a better-than-average defensive team in large part because of the 1-2 punch offered by Raja Bell and Marion.

Bell, a physical, in-your-face type, played the big minutes against opponents like Kobe Bryant and Manu Ginobili, but Marion would be around down the stretch to offer a contrast. The Matrix is an energetic and athletic defender, able to play off his man and still bother the shot. Hill is more along those lines, and, while he's willing and ultracompetitive, he is 35 and a veteran of multiple surgeries.

• The tutor-tyro relationship between O'Neal and Amaré Stoudemire is the one that gets the most attention. But Hill and Shaq are extremely close, too. Hill said it began back in college when Shaq, then at LSU, would call the Duke dorm room Hill shared with Antonio Lang, who was friends with Shaq from recruiting visits to LSU. "Shaq would get on the phone and do his DJ impersonations and just crack us up," Hill said.

Hill has also addressed a subject of far less amusement for Shaq: free-throw shooting. "I remembered that Shaq had good form when he shot in college," Hill said, "so I got some old footage up and showed him on the computer." So far, it hasn't worked. Shaq is shooting 44.6 percent with the Suns, worse than his career mark of 52.4 percent.

• O'Neal continues to say that he did not instigate the trade from the Heat. "I have a $30 million house down there," he said. "Why would I want to be traded?"

Other than to escape a miasmic hellhole of a team that won't win 20 games to join a contender, I can't think of a single reason.