HOOPSWORLD | Basketball News & NBA Rumors

It’s Uphill From Here: The Phoenix Suns are sitting at 33-33 on the season. In the Eastern Conference .500 gets you a seat in the playoffs, in the Western Conference .500 puts you three games out of the playoffs and trailing Memphis, Utah and Houston for the final Western Conference seat.

Suns’ guard Vince Carter knows it is not going to be easy, especially with how inconsistent the Suns have been lately.

"We’re fighting for our playoff lives. Plain and simple," Carter said to HOOPSWORLD.

"We’re fighting for our lives. We’re just trying to win games. I think sometimes we put a little too much pressure on ourselves, we don’t come out and play our style of basketball in the beginning of games, then we have to play catch up and fight like hell to win games. We just need to go out there and relax and play, but still play with a sense of urgency."

The Suns remaining 16 games, the second most remaining games in the West, will feature 14 Western Conference teams and nine teams with a record above .500.

"I feel like we can win them all from here on out if we want to," explained Carter. "We just have to want to. From there, execute and do the things to win."

"Right now there are a lot of unfortunates that are happening. We’ll scrap and play hard if we don’t hit shots, we’ll hit shots and we’re not scraping and playing hard. We just have to put together complete games that is the way it has to go."

Suns’ guard Steve Nash is trying to play through a pubic symphysis irritation, which is an inflammation of the groin area, which is said to feel a lot like a badly pulled abdominal muscle.

"Everyone has to step it up," Carter explained. "[Steve] is trying to give us what he has. That’s a tough injury to play with. He tried to sit out and get back as quickly as possible, but everyone has to step it up. Plain and simple."

The Suns need to almost run the table to make the playoffs and that’s an ever present concept inside the Suns locker room.

"It’s not a secret," explained Carter. "I think we can do it and I am ready to make a run for it."

The Suns next wave of games include hosting Golden State on Friday, a swing through LA to face the Clippers on Sunday and the Lakers on Tuesday before a three game home stand versus Toronto, New Orleans and Dallas.

The Royals?:  In another move toward the inevitable re-location of the Sacramento Kings, Tony Bizjak and Dale Kasler of the Sacramento Bee are reporting that attorneys representing the Maloof family have filed trademark paperwork on the names Anaheim Royals, Anaheim Royals of Southern California, Orange County Royals and Los Angeles Royals. The internet domains anaheimroyals.com and laroyals.com, were also recently secured.

The Maloofs have made no secret that they are working towards a deal that would have the Kings playing in the Honda Center in Anaheim California as soon as a next season and securing trademarks on a new name is just one more required step.

The Kings had requested an extension from the NBA on its March 1st deadline to file for relocation, giving the Maloofs until mid-April to finalize all the details needed to formally apply to move.

Sources close to the situation say the Maloofs have the framework of a lease agreement with the Honda Center and the ground work for a deal with the Clippers and Lakers has already be discussed at a high level.

League sources say while there are concerns about broadcasting dollars, both the Clippers and the Lakers do not see a sizable enough draw from Orange County to outright block a move by the Kings. Both franchises are expected to receive additional compensation if the Kings are granted permission to relocate, which informed sources say is more of a formality.

Nash is Tweeter Of The Year:  In December our friends at HoopsHype asked readers to vote for the top NBA Tweeter. While Suns’ forward Jared Dudley got the most first-place votes, his teammate Steve Nash ended up winning the award. Nash accepted the award yesterday in New Orleans and had some fun along the way.

What’s Gotten Into Tyler?:  If you have missed the last five Pacer games, you likely are not alone, but if you did catch them, the fact that Tyler Hansbrough has turned into a monster likely isn’t a surprise to you.

{AUTHOR_BOX} Tyler was 4-for-14 last night versus the Celtics, but in the four previous games he was a combined 37-of-67 from the field shooting a scorching 57% from the field. Over this latest stretch Hansbrough has logged 30 and 29 point games versus the Knicks, 20 versus the Raptors and 21 versus the Timberwolves.

"It feels great, especially after so many people doubted me," Hansbrough said to Andrew Perna of RealGM. "I had a coach that didn’t believe in me."

Hansbrough struggled to get meaningful minutes under former Pacer coach Jim O’Brien. Since O’Brien’s release, Hansbrough has seen meaningful action in 25 games and is averaging 26 minutes and 14.8 points per game over that stretch.

Hansbrough gives a lot of credit to interim head coach Frank Vogel.

"He’s definitely given us a lot of confidence," Hansbrough said of Vogel. "He lets us know what’s going on and to be honest with you, he’s a much better communicator. We can say things that we think and we should work on, vice versa."

The Pacers are currently fighting for the final playoff seat in the Eastern Conference and have 14 games remaining on their schedule. In that span Indiana will face just 7 teams with a record of .500 or better and 11 Eastern Conference teams.

More Twitter:  HOOPSWORLD has launched a new Twitter module where we will be releasing more breaking news and insider-type information via Twitter. Make sure you are following all of our guys to insure you are getting the very latest from our team: @stevekylerNBA, @AlexKennedyNBA, @jfleminghoops, @TheRocketGuy, @EricPincus, @joelbrigham, @alexraskin82, @stephenlitel, @TommyBeer and @YannisHW.

NBA Chats: There are three NBA Chats today starting with HOOPSWORLD rookie Stephen Brotherston at 12pm EST. Stephen covers the Toronto Raptors and the Eastern Conference for HOOPSWORLD. Senior NBA Writer Joel Brigham will host his weekly NBA chat at 4:30pm EST. HOOPSWORLD rookie Lang Greene will host his NBA chat tonight at 8pm EST. Lang covers the Atlanta Hawks and the Eastern Conference. Get your questions in early. You can always find the next NBA chat here: Upcoming NBA Chats.