Los Angeles  - The Phoenix Suns will be without Amare Stoudemire for the next eight weeks, after the All-Star power forward underwent successful surgery on Friday to repair a partially detached retina in his right eye.

"We are very glad to hear that Amare should have a 100 per cent recovery relative to his vision and his long-term prognosis is excellent," Suns president of basketball operations and general manager Steve Kerr said in a statement.

Los Angeles  - Bruce Bowen helped the San Antonio Spurs turn a bad day into a good night.

Bowen made two crucial free throws with 9.7 seconds remaining, and the short-handed Spurs edged the struggling Detroit Pistons 83-79 on Thursday night.

Hours earlier, the Spurs learned Argentine ace Manu Ginobili and his 16-points per game average will be sidelined for 2-3 weeks with a stress reaction of his distal right fibula (above the ankle) following X-rays and a CAT scan.

"It's a stress reaction, not a stress fracture, which is important," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said before the game. "If it had been a stress fracture, there's no way he could have been playing, and certainly not as well as he has been.

Los Angeles - New interim head coach Alvin Gentry brought out the old playbook, and the up-tempo Phoenix Suns were on the run, having fun again.

"Brazilian Blur" Leandro Barbosa scored 24 points, Amare Stoudemire added 23 to lead a balanced attack and the Suns lit up the defenseless Los Angeles Clippers
140-100 on Tuesday night.

Los Angeles  - Tyson Chandler will no longer be soaring toward the basket to convert Chris Paul's flashy alley oop passes into ferocious dunks.

The New Orleans Hornets shipped Chandler to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday in exchange for veteran forwards Joe Smith, Chris Wilcox and the draft rights to DeVon Hardin.

The deal comes with the NBA trade deadline looming on Thursday.

Los Angeles - The Utah Jazz showed they're a pretty tough team to beat even without two of their top players.

Deron Williams had 31 points with 11 assists, Mehmet Okur scored 22, including the go-ahead three-pointer with 42.8 seconds left and the Jazz snapped the Los Angeles Lakers' seven-game winning streak with a thrilling 113-109 victory on Wednesday night.

"It's a great win for us going into the All-Star break, it's a confidence builder," Williams said. "It just shows that we're a good team despite all the injuries. It just proves we can win against the best teams in the league and we showed that tonight."