Suns Vs. Knicks: Steve Nash Visits Amar’e Stoudemire’s New Digs

The Phoenix Suns, fresh off two straight home wins, visit the New York Knicks in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day matinee. The Knicks trounced the Suns in Phoenix 10 days ago, with former Sun star Amar'e Stoudemire totaling 23 points and New York hit 17-33 from behind the arc. With Mike D'Antoni leading the Knicks and Amar'e in place, the Knicks' huge win effectively announced that the best small ball attack in the NBA now belonged to New York.

Now, New York defends its turf. (Or pine, as it were.) Steve Nash, the last remaining on-court vestige of the Suns' true glory era under D'Antoni's Seven Seconds or Less system, enters New York a reported trade target of the booming Knicks, with Raymond Felton's awesome season still leaving a bit to be desired. More accurately, the tremendous lack of backcourt depth has the Knicks' faithful worried; behind Felton and Amar'e, the Knicks' top players are all small forwards.

As it always has been in Phoenix, defense is the biggest issue for the Knicks, with D'Antoni forced to decide between the offensive benefits of starting Stoudemire at center and adding a shooter to the line-up, and the defensive benefits of bumping Amar'e down to power forward and giving Ronny Turiaf a go at center. Timofey Mozgov, a Russian rookie imported during the offense, has been all but abandoned in favor of Turiaf; Turiaf, however, doesn't play a ton of minutes, leaving Wilson Chandler, Bill Walker and Shawne Williams -- small forward, small forward, small forward -- covering the four for large stretches.

Danilo Gallinari is expected to return from his injury absence; his shooting skill is a huge boon to the Knicks, and New York hopes to leverage that into a win. The Knicks have lost two straight, Friday's defeat at the hands of the traveling Sacramento Kings -- one which featured 31 percent shooting from New York -- most embarrassing.