Steve Nash At His Best As Suns Get Rare (This Year) Win Over New Orleans

By Paul Rubin Thu., Feb. 2 2012 at 9:38 AM

Steve Nash is pushing 38, and he's been taking a particularly brutal physical beat-down this year on what is a lousy Phoenix Suns team.

Still, he's one of the all-time gamers, and rather than rest his aching leg against a truly pathetic New Orleans Hornets team, Nash played 29 wildly effective minutes last night in a vintage performance.

The great Steve Nash during better times a few years ago.

Nash scored 30 points, had ten assists and but one turnover--almost a perfect game, in other words--as Phoenix came from behind to beat the 4-18 Hornets in front of what appeared to be a mostly disinterested New Orleans "crowd."

It was a thing of beauty (not the Suns' win necessarily), but Nash's throwback, record-breaking performance. He broke current Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson's all-time team record for assists, which was 6,518.

We can't think of anyone else in NBA history as consistently good at the "advanced" age of 38 as Mr. Nash is right now.

He's still a joy to watch play ball.

Marcin Gortat had his 13th-straight double-double (23 points and 11 rebounds), which is an impressive stat. The big man plays very, very hard, and he's getting better by the week.

All that said, the Suns just aren't a good team, being kind.

Next up, a road game against the Houston Rockets, starting at 6 p.m.

The game will be televised on Channel 34, and KTAR620 also will air it.