Shaqling the Suns

Never underestimate Bulls center Aaron Gray as a source for inside information.

Before Friday's game against the Phoenix Suns, Gray was listed as a starter on the board inside the Bulls locker room. So the natural question was to ask how he felt about getting the call to guard legendary center Shaquille O'Neal.

"It's exciting, you know," Gray answered. "I remember when I was like 9, watching him go at it. It's a real exciting experience, an opportunity. I don't think he's going to play tonight, so I have to be ready for whatever role coach gives me."

What's that? Who's not playing, Shaq?

"I don't think so," Gray said.

He was right. The Suns play in Milwaukee tonight to end a stretch of four games in five days. So Phoenix coach Terry Porter chose the Bulls as the opponent an aging O'Neal, 36, would not face.

Maybe O'Neal will help contain Andrew Bogut in Milwaukee, but with the big man in street clothes, the Bulls blew out the Suns with a convincing 100-83 victory at the United Center.

This result was a triumph of ball movement for the Bulls. By spreading the shots around, they finally took advantage of a deep roster and received multiple strong contributions.

"Amazing how that works," coach Vinny Del Negro said. "It was just a nice team effort from start to finish. We had a good edge to us."

Coming into this game, Phoenix owned a 4-1 record and was scoring an NBA-best 106.4 points per game. The Bulls (3-3) improved to 3-0 at home, piling up 22 assists against a season-low 12 turnovers.

"I think the last few days in practice, we made an emphasis of moving the ball and trying to get guys open shots, not holding the basketball so much," guard Ben Gordon said. "It shows tonight that when we do that, everybody plays pretty well."

Also helping was the fact that Joakim Noah (14 rebounds, 9 points) played his best game of the season, and Tyrus Thomas (14 points, 7 rebounds) came close. Rookie Derrick Rose (18 points, 6 assists) was solid as usual, while Gordon (23 points) continued his hot outside shooting. Gordon has knocked down 16 of 33 attempts from 3-point range this season.

Del Negro scrambled the starting lineup for this one, using Gray and Kirk Hinrich in place of Thomas and Thabo Sefolosha.

"You guys get into lineup changes and all this stuff," Del Negro said at his postgame news conference. "I get into winning and how we can be successful. At times, the lineup will change."

Phoenix power forward Amare Stoudemire was coming off a 49-point performance in Indiana on Wednesday. He had another strong game with 26 points, though the Bulls tried not to give him anything easy, sending Stoudemire to the foul line 18 times.

But the Suns seemed like a one-man team for much of this contest. Phoenix was also missing starting small forward Matt Barnes, who missed his second game due to the birth of twin sons.

The Bulls led 20-17 after one quarter, then turned up the volume by scoring on their first seven possessions of the second quarter to jump ahead 34-18. Phoenix never got back in the game, falling behind by as many as 27 in both the third and fourth quarters.

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