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Spurs, Suns tangle in the desert

Apr 13, 2011 - 3:17 PM (Sports Network) - Things can change quite a bit in one year.

The Phoenix Suns swept the San Antonio Spurs out of the playoffs last season en route to a Western Conference finals appearance. In 2010-11, its San Antonio that is the Western Conference's top seed while the Suns will be finishing an extremely disappointing season when the two clubs clash in the desert.

At 61-20 San Antonio is deadlocked with Chicago for the best record in the NBA. If both clubs finish with the same mark, a random draw will decide which team would have home-court advantage in a possible NBA finals meeting.

The Spurs seemingly gave up a chance to control their own destiny with the Bulls on Tuesday in Los Angeles by resting starters Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Antonio McDyess in a 102-93 loss to the Lakers.

San Antonio was led by Gary Neal's 16 points in the setback, while Matt Bonner chipped in 13 points in the loss, the club's first in five games.

Coach Gregg Popovich hinted his starters will be back in the lineup tonight, however.

"It's a back-to-back, and I'd rather play [Wednesday] and not have such a long time before the weekend," Popovich said. "[The bench] got some experience. I'm happy with what they did."

The Suns, meanwhile, are trying to close strongly and are coming off a 135-127 overtime win over lowly Minnesota on Monday. Channing Frye hit nine three- pointers en route to a career-high 33 points while Jared Dudley went 5-for-5 from long distance in that one.

Grant Hill had 21 points and Steve Nash posted eight points but had 16 assists for the Suns, who made 18-of-29 shots from the three-point arc and snapped a two-game losing streak.

"Channing (Frye) shot the ball well," Phoenix head coach Alvin Gentry said. "JD (Jared Dudley) shot the ball well. We did a good job of getting them the ball and they knocked in some three-point shots which we very much needed to get back in the game."

The Suns swept the Spurs in the West semifinals last season before bowing out to the eventual NBA champion Lakers in six games during the West finals. The team lost star forward Amare Stoudemire to New York in a sign-and-trade during the offseason and will be finishing with its first losing record in seven years.

San Antonio has won all three of its meetings with Phoenix this year and will be attempting to sweep the season series for the first time since 2003-04.