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Suns General Manager Steve Kerr calling it a non-issue and saying evaluations will come at season's end did not stop the talk.

A convincing Game 4 win did nothing to quell it either.

Now, Suns players are trying to take the public heat off their coach, Mike D'Antoni.

"I've been around a lot of guys, a lot of coaches," Suns center Shaquille O'Neal said. "I think he's the right guy. He really is. He's an excellent, excellent man. He has a great relationship and a great rapport with the players. It's our job to make him look good. They've been looking good the last few years before I got here. They just could never get over the hump but there are a lot of teams that have never got over the hump.

"Mike D is the excellent guy for the job. Luckily, I've been on four championship teams with some great Hall of Fame coaches. I've got to put Mike D in that category. It's never the coach. It's always the players."

O'Neal's theme about the players is similar to that of another past MVP.

"We win as a team," Suns guard Steve Nash said. "We lose as a team. It's near-sighted to put all the blame on him. We've all got to share responsibility in our success and our failures. Look, we've got about 10 plays that could've gone the other way and we would've won Game 1 and he would've been a genius. The truth is never as extreme as it's made out to be. It's always, I think, somewhere in the middle."

Forward Grant Hill said more should be made of the improvement after a huge shift in philosophy with O'Neal.

"I don't think he gets enough credit for the adjustment he's made on the fly," Hill said. "We've changed a lot. We've changed our philosophy, our style of play, our identity with the trade for Shaq. Irrespective of what happens the rest of the way, this team, if we keep it all together, will be better with a training camp."

Hill likely out

Boris Diaw will start again Tuesday, though Hill is not a definite to sit out again with his lower abdominal and groin strain.

D'Antoni said, "I don't think he can play," but Hill is holding out hope. The only problem is he said it felt worse Monday than when he had similar rest between Games 1 and 2.

"It's nice to get out there but you also don't want to be disruptive," Hill said. "You want to make sure the team is prepared without. I think we made good adjustments . . . We'll see where we are come game time."

Hill said diminishing returns of improvement are a concern.

"I'm just a thoroughbred who wants to run," he said. "Whenever the season is over with, hopefully later than sooner, we'll try to figure out what's going on."

Shaq bites

O'Neal on Game 4's Hack-a-Shaq: "I just find it quite funny that when you're up 20 that you do it. It still shows me that I'm the most feared 36-year-old guy on the planet. But I would never do that. I would rather just play somebody and beat them."