But flying home to face New Orleans Thursday night -- the dark horse pick of many to reach the NBA Finals this year? "That one got my attention right away," Kerr said.

Last year, the Suns won in Seattle on opening night and then flew home to a 119-98 ambush at the hands of the Lakers the next night. The Hornets won't be as rested -- they played in Golden State Wednesday and also had a two-hour flight in front of them -- but the Suns figure to struggle in back-to-backs with thee of their top six players on limited minutes.

The Suns bounced back quickly last year, winning nine of the next 10 after the Lakers debacle. But Phoenix stumbled to a 1-5 start in 2006-07 (with losses to the Lakers, Spurs, Dallas and Utah) and were 2-3 after five games in 2005-06. You have to go back to 2004-05, when the Suns won their first four games and shocked the NBA with an incredible 31-4 start, to find a year that opened with back-to-back wins.

"There's no question we're not a finished product and going to get better down the road," Kerr said. "So if we were to start out slowly, I wouldn't be panicked. It's such a long season. But if we stumble early, we'll be more exposed because of the changes and people will be writing our obituary.

"As long as we focus on the process of getting better, we'll be fine."

SUNS 103, SPURS 98: Score one for the new coach -- with a big assist from Old Faithful.

Terry Porter played nine players at least 14 minutes, and even went 10 deep for another nine. His defense held the Spurs to 16 points in the first quarter and got the better of San Antonio down the stretch. The set offense Phoenix has drilled on for a month produced shots for a wide variety of players.

But when push came to shove -- as it always does against the Spurs -- the Suns went back to their tried-and-true methods and ran Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire on the pick-and-roll until a season-opening win went up on the board.

The Suns survived another round of "Hack-A-Shaq" -- rendered less effective when Shaquille O'Neal hit five of eight second-quarter free throws as part of a 15-point, 13-rebound night. They survived 64 combined points from Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, who threw in 32 each. They even survived a game-tying, three-point attempt by -- you'll never guess who -- in the final seconds.

Unlike Duncan's dramatic basket in Game 1 of last year's playoffs, his three-point attempt was a line drive and never had much of a chance, marking the first time in Duncan's 12 seasons that the Spurs lost a season-opener.