How can feel so blue when you’re scoring 136 points in a game? When you’ve been running up the score for four seasons, you don’t have a ring to show for it, and you have at least six months to go before you can earn a shot at a Finals appearance. After last night’s decisive win over the Raptors, Steve Nash had this to say to Toronto’s Globe and Mail:

"Sometimes I have to be careful, because I can take the joy out of the game, because I'm critical. And I have to careful [sic] not to lose that passion and joy. We play so many games, and now I've played so many years, that that joy is very important for me, to get up and have that motivation and that desire that allows me to handle my job.”

Now, we submit that part of Nash’s fears stem from his own lofty standards he affixes to his own game and the play of his teammates. But this bit of insight also stands as a solid look inside the leader of a team that – more so than any other NBA squad – wishes it could get to the playoffs tout bloody suite and start things in earnest. Teams like Detroit may lollygag through half the season and still succeed, while squads in Dallas and San Antonio know they can work at half speed and still peel off 50-plus wins, but Phoenix is different. It has to go all out, running pell-mell all over the court while covering for myriad holes in the defense just to have a shot.

And, usually, the Suns have better than a shot. But this is still a team full of creaky backs, bum ankles, surgically repaired knees, bruised egos and Sean Marks. And even though Phoenix has consistently been the NBA’s best-watch since Nash re-signed with the organization back in 2004, if you could afford the six-month bye to any NBA outfit, it would have to be this lot. Anything to avoid what we saw last June.