Grant Hill hopes to re-sign with the Suns this offseason.

"It'd be nice to come back and prove that we can be better than we were this season," Hill said Tuesday. "Let's just hope and pray we have a season first and foremost and then we'll see what happens. Hopefully, it works out and we can improve and get better."

When Hill was most recently a free agent, he had seven interested teams and narrowed his choices to Phoenix, Boston and New York but did not enjoy the drawn-out process.

"I'm too old for all that," said Hill, 38. "Depending on what happens, for all free agents, if there's a work stoppage and if we miss some of the season, there will be a mad dash or scramble to get everyone signed. You have a new labor agreement that you have to understand and interpret. I anticipate it being a lot different than it was two years ago. Let's say the lockout hypothetically ends in November. Going off what happened 12 years ago (for the 1999 lockout), we're starting a week later. There will be a lot going on. It will be kind of a frenzy."

Though the Suns are officially eliminated from the playoffs, Steve Nash said that he's not ready to shut it down to avoid injury.

"No, I want to play for my teammates and try to win games," he said. "Without considering a (labor) lockout, 5 1/2 months is a long time without basketball. So I want to play."

Coach Alvin Gentry said he has discussed the situation with both Nash and Grant Hill, and both want to continue to play.

"But I won't play them long stretches," Gentry said. "Those guys have given everything. I know they're dedicated and they want to keep playing. But I don't think it would make sense to play those guys 35-38 minutes a game if we're mathematically eliminated."

Suns coach Alvin Gentry inserted center Marcin Gortat and swingman Jared Dudley into the starting lineup, putting Gortat into the spot of Robin Lopez, who had been groomed as a future franchise center, and Dudley in place of guard Vince Carter, who likely won't be with the Suns next season.

Gortat, 27, has received minutes and produced the numbers as if he were a starter and embraces the idea of a bigger role in the future. Sunday was his first start as a Suns center.

Gentry said a big part of the reason to start Gortat is to prevent him from playing 18 consecutive minutes, as he often is called on to do to close halves when he enters in the middle of the first and third quarters.

Lopez and Carter had been struggling preceding Sunday's move.

Going into the season the Phoenix Suns thought Robin Lopez might be the second most important player on the team. They were depending on him for the athletic skills at center that he showed last season.

"That's probably been the biggest mystery for our team," coach Alvin Gentry said when asked why Lopez's progression has stopped.

"I'm not real sure if it's the injury or what, but he hasn't been able to give us the consistent play that we thought we'd be able to get from him.

"We could use it. It's something that has hurt us a bit. We haven't really had much inside play. Gortat gives us some. Other than that, we've been pretty much resigned to the fact that we're a perimeter team.

"It's not the type of year he anticipated or we anticipated."

When the Los Angeles Lakers led Phoenix by 21 points in the third quarter, Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom were pretty sure their night would end briskly and tidily.

After three overtimes, 276 combined points and a season’s worth of heart-stopping moments, Bryant and Odom were merely grateful to stagger out of Staples Center with a victory in a once-in-a-decade thriller.

Bryant scored a season-high 42 points, Ron Artest got five of his 18 points in the final two minutes of the third overtime, and the Los Angeles Lakers outlasted the Phoenix Suns for a 139-137 victory Tuesday night.

“I wish we would have put them away when we should have,” said Odom, who had a season-high 29 points and 16 rebounds.

Both teams traded improbable last-second heroics in what turned into just the fourth triple-overtime game for the Lakers since they moved to Los Angeles.

Phoenix rallied from a 21-point deficit and another nine-point hole in the final three minutes of regulation, forcing the first OT on Grant Hill's 3-pointer with 31 seconds left.

Marcin Gortat spent his early years in the league backing up Dwight Howard.  It was a relationship that benefited both of them.

With Gortat now playing for the Phoenix Suns, it appears their personal relationship has become non-existent. During the Magic’s 111-88 victory over the Suns on Sunday afternoon, Gortat and Howard never even acknowledged each other.

“We didn’t say to each other one word. We didn’t shake our hands, we didn’t talk to each other, we didn’t say anything. And that’s fine; at the end of the day he’s on a different team, I’m on a different team, and I’m a grown-ass man. I don’t need him any more.”

After the game, Howard provided a subtle jab at his former teammate.

“I knew he was going to shoot all jump-shots," Howard said. “Every day in practice, when gets the ball, it’s the first thing he does. Wherever he is. … His swag was on the building. He looked good, so I’m happy for him.”

Channing Frye underwent a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exam at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center that revealed a dislocated right shoulder. Frye is expected to miss two-to-three weeks pending ongoing evaluation from Suns orthopedic surgeon Dr. Thomas Carter.

Frye sustained the injury with 6:28 remaining in the fourth quarter of the Suns’ Sunday game against the Thunder in Oklahoma City.

Steve Nash notched 14 assists in Phoenix's overtime loss to Oklahoma City on Sunday.

He now has 9,069 assists in his career, allowing him to pass Isiah Thomas for sixth place on the NBA's all-time list.

"He was my No. 1 player," Nash said. "Isiah was my idol and the player I tried to emulate, because he was my size and didn't dunk the ball. I used to try to play like him."

Nash needs 818 more assists to pass Oscar Robertson for fifth place. He has surpassed that total in five of his last six full seasons.

Channing Frye left Phoenix's overtime loss to Oklahoma City on Sunday in the fourth quarter with a dislocated right shoulder.

Frye's shoulder will be re-examined on Monday and the amount of time he'll miss has yet to be determined.

Suns coach Alvin Gentry doesn't believe the moves the Celtics have made over the last week will ultimately change the type of team they are.

Boston acquired Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic in a trade with Oklahoma City, while giving up Kendrick Perkins, signed Troy Murphy as a free-agent and they are reportedly close to adding Sasha Pavlovic as well.

"I think they are still the same team," Gentry said of the Celtics, adding that "I don't think you prepare differently" to play them.

Specifically, the coach sees the addition of Krstic as underrated.

"Krstic will do a really good job for them," said Gentry, who pointed out that the center will add a different dimension to the Celtics, including his ability be successful on pick-and-pop plays.

Gentry added that Boston's trade for Krstic and Green reminds him of New York's acquisition of Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups.

"Everyone is talking about Carmelo, but the Knicks got another good guy in Billups."