Chicago Bulls

Part of the Phoenix Suns' early success can be attributed to their impressive play against the Eastern Conference.

One of the Western Conference's best teams will look to continue its dominance of the East when the Suns visit the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday.

Phoenix (21-8) will try to improve to 12-1 against the East, including 7-0 on the road, when it faces a Chicago team it has beaten four straight times.

The Suns are averaging 115.8 points against Eastern teams - nearly five more than their league-leading average overall - while shooting 50.8 percent from the field. Their only loss out of conference was a 144-139 overtime defeat to Washington on Dec. 22.

The Bulls (19-12) are only percentage points behind Detroit for the best record in the East, but are 3-8 against the West this season.

The Pacific Division-leading Suns have won 18 of 20 overall, including the first two in a stretch of five straight games against Eastern foes. Phoenix swept a five-game road trip against East teams from Dec. 7-13.

After beating New York 108-86 on Friday, the Suns won 108-101 at Detroit on Sunday.

Steve Nash had 35 points and 12 assists in the latest victory for his 20th double-double of the season. He's averaged 26.0 points over the last five games to claim the team scoring lead for the season at 20.6 per game.

``He's been taking over a lot of games lately, and he did it again today,'' Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni said.

Amare Stoudemire added a season-high 31 points and 13 rebounds for his third straight double-double and fifth in six games.

Nash, though, was more pleased by the way Stoudemire played defense. Stoudemire had three blocks for the second straight game and 10 of his rebounds were at the defensive end.

``We're going to win a lot of games when Amare plays that kind of defense,'' Nash said. ``He has a lot of pride and he wants to grow as a defender.''

Phoenix knocked off the Central Division leader on Sunday, and now meets the division's second-place team.

The Bulls have won three straight to nearly pull even with the Pistons, and enter this matchup with a 15-2 home record. Their only home losses were to Western teams Sacramento and Minnesota.

Chicago has fared well lately against the NBA's better teams record-wise, beating the Los Angeles Lakers on Dec. 19 and most recently defeating Cleveland 103-96 on Saturday.

The Bulls finished 14-3 in December after starting the season 5-9.

``We are feeling good,'' Chicago's Luol Deng said. ``We started slow, but we had a great month. We are proud of that.''

A sprained right wrist suffered in Wednesday's win over Miami has not had a negative effect on Deng. The third-year forward has scored 57 points in two games since getting hurt and is second on the team with 18.0 points per game, including a career-high 32 on 15-of-19 shooting against Cleveland.

``He has always been a good pro player and I feel he is settling in to a point where he starts to relax out there,'' Chicago coach Scott Skiles said.

Ben Gordon scored more than 20 points for the eighth straight game Saturday and leads the Bulls with 20.2 per game. He scored 39 points the last time he faced the Suns, but the Bulls lost 118-101 at Phoenix on Feb. 4, 2006.

DENVER_This is the time of year to give thanks. Unless you're a turkey, of course.

The Chicago Bulls, coming in here Tuesday night 0-4 on their trip, are now 0-5. They were wavering between having something to be thankful for_namely, a victory_and being Thanksgiving turkeys.

As it turned out, this game was just gravy for Denver, especially Bulls reject J.R. Smith, who scored a career-high 36 points to lead the Nuggets to a 113-109 victory.

The loss dropped the Bulls to 3-8 and was especially painful because Smith led the Nuggets back from a third-quarter deficit and helped them pull away with an assortment of flying slam dunks and three-pointers.

With the Bulls down just six points with three minutes left, Smith hit a three and then had a slam dunk after Andre Miller stole the ensuing inbounds pass. That gave the Nuggets an insurmountable 106-95 lead.

They held on despite 28 points from Kirk Hinrich, 22 from Luol Deng, though just two after halftime, and 19 from Ben Gordon, 10 in a furious rally at the end. Carmelo Anthony had 29 for Denver. He missed two free throws in the closing seconds, ending his streak of 30-point games at six. That left him tied for the franchise record with Alex English, who did it during the 1982-83 season.

It looked again like the Bulls were going to have the stuffing knocked out of them as the Nuggets jumped to a 31-24 lead after one quarter behind 15 points from league-leading scorer Anthony, who shot effortlessly over Deng and Andres Nocioni.

"I don't care what their record is," Nuggets coach George Karl said of the Bulls. "They will be a good basketball team. They have too many fundamental foundations."

Seeing another indifferent opening from his starters, Bulls coach Scott Skiles moved swiftly to motivate the team with a large first-quarter substitution. He took out Chris Duhon, Deng and Hinrich, and Ben Wallace shortly thereafter, with Gordon playing point guard.

There's always the possibility of lineup changes with the Bulls' record, and Skiles said he would like to play Viktor Khryapa more.

"He probably should play some, but that always begs the question where," Skiles said. "We need to start getting (better) production from those guys in front of him every night. If not, Viktor will get his shot."

Wallace had an extended stay on the bench, about 10 minutes, and by the time he returned the Bulls had rallied from a seven-point deficit to leading by one.

With Wallace out, the movement appeared to increase, especially for Deng, who benefited from having Anthony barely guard him. For all the impressive scoring Anthony is doing this season, his idea of defense seems to be yelling "miss" from several feet away.

Deng slashed to the basket and finished the first half with 20 points to help the Bulls to a 53-53 halftime tie.

The Bulls came bounding out after halftime behind an energized Hinrich, who drove and was fouled, hit a jumper and then a three-pointer around a Wallace pick-and-roll basket. After Nocioni scored on a pass from Hinrich and Duhon ran out for a basket against a lax Nuggets effort, the Bulls were ahead 70-58. Duhon made the lead 73-61, spotting up for a three, but the Nuggets muscled back into the game on Smith's shooting and athletic plays.

With the Bulls still ahead 78-67, the high-flying Smith converted a lob from Marcus Camby, drove for a score and then finished the quarter with a pair of threes, the last on a 32-footer as time expired after Malik Allen missed a jumper.

NEW YORK -- Michael Jordan's shot that won Game 6 of the 1998 NBA finals has been selected as the greatest moment in playoff history.

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 The Raptors courted former Chicago Bulls point guard Jay Williams last year and the infatuation has continued.

Williams, considered one of the best young point guards in the NBA prior to his suffering horrific injuries in a motorcycle accident three years ago, worked out for the Raptors at the Air Canada Centre yesterday and expressed interest in signing as a free agent with Toronto.

"The opportunity here is tremendous," said Williams, who wore a bandage over his left eye after being cut in workouts. "You talk about Chris Bosh, I saw him at Georgia Tech. He has grown and become a better player. Charlie Villanueva, from draft day, a lot of guys killing him, to scoring 48 points in a game. MoPete ... all the pieces of the puzzle are here. The possibilities are exciting."

If the Raptors and Williams reach an agreement -- and that's certainly not guarantee as Williams will work out for several more NBA teams this month -- it's likely Toronto would abandon the Mike James sweepstakes. James, who put together a career year for the Raptors last season, is eligible to drop out of the final year of his contract and sign a long-term deal with another team.

Williams, 24, led Duke to a national championship in 2001 and was a first-round draft pick by the Bulls (second overall). He experienced a roller coaster ride as a rookie, averaging 9.5 points and 4.7 assists in 75 games, but demonstrated enough on-court ability and leadership to be considered a potential future all-star at the point. He certainly would come a lot cheaper than James, who is looking for, in the neighbourhood, of $5 million to $8 million US per year.

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John Paxson was angry and made no effort to hide it. Training camp was about to start, and the Eddy Curry standstill had just come to a jarring conclusion.

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