The biggest reason for the Suns’ ongoing run as the hottest team in the NBA is being overlooked.

Going into tonight’s action in Minnesota, most of the credit for the Suns streak — 17 in a row so far, and 33 wins in 35 games since a 3–6 start — has gone to point guard Steve Nash and center Amare Stoudemire, and both deserve their kudos. Nash, the MVP in each of the last two seasons, has improved (a particular rarity for a point guard in his 30s, Nash turns 33 next month): He’s averaging 19.6 points and 11.8 assists per game while shooting 53.7% from the field and 50% from behind the arc. Meanwhile Stoudemire has recovered nicely from a season destroyed by microfracture knee surgery. After a slow start and a closely monitored 30 minutes a game, he’s averaging, 18.8 points, 9.1 rebounds, and shooting 60.6%.

That’s all well and good, but the Suns were already a top offensive team — this is the third consecutive season that Phoenix has led the league in points per game. Their offense is better this season, but the change isn’t huge. The Suns’ biggest improvement is on defense, and conventional measures fail to capture the big leap they’ve made. The Suns give up an average of 102.3 points per game, which ranks them 23rd in the league and a two-tenths of a point ahead of the Knicks, a team no one will ever confuse with a good defense. The rub is that Phoenix plays at a very fast pace. (Interestingly they are no longer the fastest team, as both Denver and Golden State play even more uptempo than they do.) With an average of 99.2 possessions per game, the Suns and their opponents have several more opportunities to score than a game involving the tortoise-like Pistons (90.3 per game) and the Trail Blazers (90.5).

When measured via Defensive Efficiency, points per 100 possessions, a metric that evens out the imbalances of tempo, the Suns rank ninth at 101.5. That’s a Shawn Marion-sized leap from last year when they were ranked 16th at 105.7. By comparison, the Suns offense is built far more around outside shots — they shoot 24.6 treys per game — than any other team. Whereas slam-dunks are pretty much slam-dunks, every outside shooter has nights where they can’t — even with a pro baller’s bank — buy a basket. The improved Suns’ defense has made the difference already in helping them win several games — most recently Friday’s 98–90 win over Milwaukee — on nights when the perimeter jumpers just weren’t falling.

One of the reasons this is counterintuitive is that many fastpaced teams couldn’t have cared less about defense. Yet several NBA teams, most notably Chicago, play strong defense and play fast. That the Suns don’t look like a strong defensive team has posed another obstacle in appreciating the Suns’ defense. There’s no Yao Ming or Tim Duncan to alter shots, though Phoenix is hardly floorbound. Their 4.9 blocks per game ranks them 15th.

The key is that the Suns employ a unique defensive strategy. Rather than guide their men toward the middle, they strive to stay in between their man and the hoops and force them to take jump shots. In other words, they goad their opponents into playing their game. This is borne out in the numbers. The Suns give up only 19.8 free throws per opponents’ 100 shot attempts, second only to the always defensive minded Spurs. And they contest those jump shots: Phoenix ranks 10th in opponents field goal percentage at 45.14 and third in allowing only 33.8% of opponents attempts from behind the arc (some of that may lofty number may admittedly be the result of tired opponents pointlessly launching threes late in the fourth quarter of Suns wins rather than the product of tight man-to-man defense extending beyond the arc). Although the style is unorthodox, the results — contested jumpers and minimal free throws — would bring a smile to the face of any fundamentalist hoops coach.

Last season the Suns displayed this level of defensive prowess, but their defense fell apart after former Knick Kurt Thomas went down with an injury not long after the All-Star break. Many insiders worried that Stoudemire’s return would inhibit the Suns defense. Before his injury, Stoudemire was not known as a great one-on-one defender, and questions lingered about his mobility, but the Suns style appears to be an excellent fit. Thomas has played a reduced role this season and even went out with an injury that will sideline him until mid-February, yet so far the Suns defense has continued at a high level.

While the adage that defense wins championships is a tad overrated (Memphis never won any titles during the Fratello era), it’s true that scoring decreases in playoff games. So the Suns will need another way to win beyond outscoring opponents. It appears for now that they’ve found it, and this will make them that much more formidable in May and June. The last two editions of the Suns were great teams but thanks to a solid defense, this one may be historic.

mjohnson@nysun.com