Suns visit new look Hornets they blew out last week

NEW ORLEANS - Owners of the best record in the Western Conference, the Phoenix Suns shoot for their third straight win tonight against the New Orleans Hornets in the Big Easy.

Phoenix improved to 10-2 on the season following Tuesday's 111-105 victory over the Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center. Amare Stoudemire scored 23 points and grabbed six rebounds, while Jason Richardson pumped in 20 points with five boards for the Pacific Division-leading Suns, who have won six of their last seven games.

"I didn't shoot the ball well, I thought we had a good team effort, we missed shots early taking quick shots that fueled their break. They made a lot of threes early and got a lot of layups in the first twenty minutes of the game. We settled down, got better shots running our transition game, it was a bit of a struggle tonight. We weren't great but we got some great contributions from a lot of people," explained Suns guard Steve Nash, who finished with 12 points and 16 assists.

Grant Hill and Channing Frye each had 11 points in a winning effort.

The Hornets, meanwhile, earned the first win of the Jeff Bower era with a 110-102 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday in the opener of a three-game homestand at New Orleans Arena.

David West had 24 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Hornets, who ended a three-game slide and will also host Atlanta on the residency. Devin Brown added 16 points and Peja Stojakovic netted 15 in the win. Hornets All-Star guard Chris Paul is still sidelined indefinitely with a sprained left ankle suffered in last Friday's loss to Portland.

Darren Collison, Marcus Thornton and Bobby Brown all scored 12 points in the recent win for New Orleans, which beat the Clippers for the 11th straight time and got 14 rebounds out of Emeka Okafor.

"This is definitely a big boost to my confidence, to get that first win under my belt as a starter," said Collison. "I can really give thanks to David West and Devin Brown. They were looking out for me all night, trying to help me out. It makes the process a lot easier and the game slows down."

Phoenix just beat New Orleans, 124-104, on November 11 at US Airways Center and has won two straight after losing the previous six meetings. The Suns have won seven of 10 as the visitor in this series.