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Without looking at the newspaper, I dare you to guess who’s leading the NBA’s Pacific Division with an 11-2 record. Sacramento you say? Wrong. The Lakers? You can’t be serious. How can you expect a team that banished Shaq to South Beach to be in first place in any division? Ok, I’ll give you a hint: which team plays in the ‘Valley of the Sun?’ Yes that’s right – the Phoenix Suns.

While on the surface the fact that the Suns are playing .846 ball is surprising, a closer look at how they’ve done it reveals why they’re currently on a seven-game winning streak. Through games of 11/27, Phoenix was averaging a league-best 106.4 points per game on 47.0% shooting from the floor, while holding their opponents to 94.7 points per game on 41.8% shooting. There aren’t any magic crystal balls or difficult rocket science formulas here – the Suns are simply doing it on both ends of the floor. Yes, they're actually guarding people. With rangy defenders like Shawn Marion, Joe Johnson, and Quentin Richardson contesting every outside shot, opponents are canning 3’s at an anemic 30.8% clip. If the opposition is fortunate enough to get past the perimeter, Phoenix merely funnels the penetration into the anchor of their interior defense, namely Amare Stoudemire. The result? And Stoudemire, who recently told InsideHoops.com that he worked a lot on defense all summer and continues to try to improve at it, is doing the defensive job. The ever-roaming Marion assists in the shot-rejection brigade by averaging 2 blocked shots as well. As a team, the Suns average nearly 7 blocks per game.

Speaking of Stoudemire, the 6-10 forward-turned-center is having an MVP-like season, putting up 26 points, grabbing 9.1 rebounds, and shooting 56.2% from the floor each night. He’s demonstrating Kevin McHale-like qualities on the low-block that are unstoppable. However Stoudemire is far from being a one-man show. The aforementioned Marion, though undersized by power forward standards at 6-7, is deceptively quick and possesses a vertical leap any high-jumper would be proud of. It’s this explosive energy that allows him to average 20.3 points, a ridiculously impressive 12.3 rebounds, and 1.62 steals a game.

Small forward Quentin Richardson, obtained in the off season from the Los Angeles Clippers, is scoring 11.3 points, pulling down six boards, and making 1.54 steals each outing.

The 6-7 silky-shooting Johnson is posting 15.5 points, 4.6 rebounds, and shooting an astounding 52.6% from beyond the arc.

Point guard Steve Nash, who left the Dallas Mavericks last summer, orchestrates the offense to perfection as evidenced by his league-leading 11.2 assists per game. To keep the defense honest, he averages 15.7 points a game on 56.3% shooting from the floor, while getting 1.15 steals per game.

Off the bench Phoenix brings hard-nosed 6-6 guard Casey Jacobsen, 7-0 shot-blocker Steven Hunter, bruiser Jake Voskuhl, and 6-3 Brazilian Leandro Barbosa.

The season is barely a month old, but if the Suns can continue to perform at this level throughout the balance of the season, the Pacific Division championship will be shining brightly in the Valley of the Sun.