Despite being held to a season-low 32 first-half points the Suns scratched out a victory. “It wasn’t pretty, especially early on,” Dudley said. “It’s been two games at home where we haven’t gotten it going early but defense kept us in there.”

The result came behind big nights from Dudley, who led the game with 22 points, and Marcin Gortat who had 18 points and 14 boards.

Channing Frye stuggled greatly on offense( 2 of 18, ouch!), but managed to hold Blake Griffin to only 17 points on an inefficient 6 of 19 from the floor.

“He bodied him up and played with him, and 6-for-19 is as good as you can hope from him,” Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. “The great thing is we took everything away from him.”

Gentry was clearly pleased with the Suns defensive effort, and it is back to the drawing board for Vinny Del Negro’s Clippers, who cannot afford many more efforts like this one if they want to win the Pacific Division. They are now only .007% percentage points ahead of the Lakers, who will not have any mercy on the Clippers having a tough road schedule ahead of them.

Blake Griffin agreed: “I felt like we were really dead and didn’t have it,” Griffin said. “There was not a lot of energy. There’s no excuse.” Blake got one thing right last night; the Clippers are definitely running out of excuses for their 4th quarter woes.

Iavaroni is best known for his stint as the Memphis Grizzlies, where he went 33-90 before being fired midway through his second season. Prior to his time in Memphis, Iavaroni had developed a reputation as being a solid assistant coach, most notably in Phoenix, where he helped Mike D’Antoni with the “Seven Seconds or Less” approach that was (and still is) wildly successful in his time in Phoenix.

Iavaroni’s hiring is a fantastic step for the Clippers, who have now added three high-quality coaches to Del Negro’s staff. Iavaroni is largely credited with helping Amare Stoudemire develop into an elite power forward in Phoenix.

Prior to Phoenix, Iavaroni worked in Miami under Pat Riley and in Cleveland under Mike Fratello. He also worked as an assistant on Mike Krzyzewski’s staff for the 2006 FIBA World Championships and spent time as an instructor at Pete Newell’s famed Big Man Camp.

Iavaroni joins Dave Severns and Dean Demopoulos on Del Negro’s staff, which is expected to add one more name by the time training camp opens. Severns came with Del Negro from Chicago and Demopoulos was hired after his contract was not renewed in Portland, where he had previously been Nate McMillan’s lead assistant.