With the Suns' victory on Monday night over the Orlando Magic, their record improved to 18-3, their very best record through 21 games in their team's 37 year history.

"It means a lot," Amare Stoudemire said. "It's down to where I know we're not pretenders, we're contenders."

But newcomer Quentin Richardson downplayed his team's record since it so much of the season remains.

"It's definitely a nice thing, but all of this means nothing if we start going downhill," he said. "We can talk about all that stuff at the end of the year. We've got a lot more goals than just a great start."