Phoenix, Ariz.—March 1, 2010.  The Phoenix Suns have a new weapon in their arsenal: Defense.  The Suns held the Denver Nuggets, who are the second highest-scoring team in the NBA, to 11 second quarter points in route to a 101-85 win at US Airways Center.

Phoenix, who did not play well in their loss yesterday against the San Antonio Spurs, came out flat in the first 12 minutes and found themselves down 33-24 at the end of the first quarter.  Denver went onto score the first four points of the second quarter to increase their lead to 37-24, prompting an immediate timeout by Phoenix head coach Alvin Gentry.

The Suns players on the court, consisting of Goran Dragic, Jared Dudley, Channing Frye, Lou Amundson, and Jason Richardson, came out of the timeout and began what ended up being a 33-7 run.  Phoenix converted 60 percent of their field goals in the period and grabbed 12 team rebounds.  The Suns also held the Nuggets’ Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups to no points after giving up 10 and 13 points respectively in the first quarter.  The Suns went into halftime leading 57-44.

Denver came out of the locker room and cut the lead to 59-49, but could not get any closer than 10 points for the rest of the game.

The Suns’ Grant Hill and Amar’e Stoudemire led their team with 19 points each.  Fyre scored 16 points and Richardson and Dragic each had 12.  Steve Nash had 10 assists to go with his 11 points.  Stoudemire grabbed 10 rebounds; Hill had eight rebounds and Richardson and Amundson both had seven boards.

Denver’s Billups finished with 21 points; Anthony finished with 17.  JR Smith had 16 points, including four three-pointers.  Nenẽ had 14 points.  Kenyon Martin grabbed 10 rebounds to go with his seven points.

Phoenix (38-24) next plays in Los Angeles against the Clippers (24-35) on Wednesday, March 3.  Tipoff is 8:30 PST.

Denver (39-21) returns home on March 3 to play the Oklahoma City Thunder (35-23).  Tipoff is 7:00pm MST.