Instead, it is meaningless. The only thing being lit is a candle for the idea that Two-Time Most Valuable Player Steve Nash might be playing his final game in Phoenix tonight with free agency available to him in July.

Even with Nash at the helm, the Suns missed the playoffs in two consecutive seasons for the first time since 1988 by losing 100-88 Tuesday night at Utah.

The Jazz (35-30) clinched the Western Conference’s eighth and final playoff seed by snapping a seven-game losing streak to Phoenix and holding the Suns to 40.5 percent shooting with 15 turnovers. The Suns will miss the playoffs for the third time in four years and are left to play out the schedule tonight against San Antonio, the West’s top seed who likely will use stars lightly or not at all tonight.

The Suns (33-32) rallied from a 12-19 start for an 18-8 stretch but are closing with five losses in their past eight games.

The Suns had to fight from behind nearly all night in Utah because of a sloppy first half. They were already missing Channing Frye, who was present but out due to Saturday’s shoulder subluxation, and then Grant Hill’s comeback was cut short after a brief first-quarter appearance.

“We didn’t deserve it tonight,” Nash said. “Without Channing and Grant, it was just too much to ask.” Hill had a good day of testing out his sore right knee after 10 days out of action and getting it drained twice but missed three shots and had it iced after three minutes of play.

Frye’s replacement, rookie Markieff Morris, made his first start since late January and continued a season-long fouling trend. He committed four fouls in his first 19 minutes, keeping up the pace that had him and Robin Lopez tied for the ninth most fouls per 48 minutes (7.0) in the NBA. Morris, Nash, Jared Dudley also each went 0 for 3 on 3-pointers.

The problems up front were further complicated by center Marcin Gortat, who made his first shot from the perimeter and then had his next five shots in the lane blocked and missed his final seven shots in all. “You can’t afford to not play well in a game like this,” Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. “They did a good job overall on screen-and-rolls. They took Marcin out of the game. We have to shoot the ball better from the perimeter. They outplayed us.”

In the past 11 days, Gortat has posted shooting games of 1 for 8 at Utah, 2 for 13 against Oklahoma City and 3 for 12 at San Antonio.

Coyotes goalie Mike Smith stopped two shots without his stick during a power play in the third period, but Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook put a rebound past him with 14.2 seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime.

Hanzal barely nicked Adrian Aucoin’s shot on a redirect in overtime to give the Coyotes a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Game 2 is Saturday night in Arizona.

Jonathan Toews also scored for Chicago in his first game back from a concussion.

Smith stopped 43 shots for the Coyotes.

Phoenix reached the apex of its run in the desert this season, earning its first division title in 33 years as an NHL franchise.

Without an owner for the third straight season and no true star players, the Coyotes got by on grit and great goaltending from Smith, winning their final five games to take the Pacific Division crown. A nice accomplishment, though the carrot for the players was the home-ice advantage that came with it.

For a team that hadn’t won a playoff series since 1987 — nine years before they moved from Winnipeg to Arizona — they were happy for any advantage they could get.

Nash, who turned 38 in February, also told ESPN.com in a phone interview before Tuesday night’s game in Sacramento he intends to “sign for three more years this summer” and play beyond his 40th birthday when he either inks a new deal to stay with the Suns or finds a new team via free agency.

“It’s been my best year physically from start to finish in a long time,” Nash said. “Other than a little tweak (last week) against San Antonio, my back’s been pretty close to 100 percent.”

Nash has missed only four games this season for the Suns (26-26) and is averaging 12.7 points and 11.3 assists. The two-time former MVP was named an All-Star in February for the eighth time in his 16-year career.

Captain for the day, Tim Brown said Smith’s advice had been brief and to the point.

“He spoke about not letting emotions get to you too much, just sticking to your plan and ticking over and doing what you do really well,” Brown said.

A few words of pre-match wisdom from All Blacks centre and Hurricanes captain Conrad Smith played a key part in Wellington Phoenix’s 3-2 elimination semi-final A-League win over Sydney FC on Friday.

Captain for the day, Tim Brown said Smith’s advice had been brief and to the point.

“He spoke about not letting emotions get to you too much, just sticking to your plan and ticking over and doing what you do really well,” Brown said.

A crowd in excess of 20,000 is expected to pour through the gates for what would be Brown’s last game of competitive football should the Phoenix lose to Sydney FC.

“Browny, I don’t think you can take away the fact that he’s been here, a foundation player, a real heart on the sleeve guy who’s really built this club with a lot of people,” Herbert said.

“He’s been a strong sort of leader behind all that so I think it’s only natural that there will be a strong passion from all the players and staff [tonight] in support of Tim.

“He has made a massive decision in his life and we understand and respect that but there will certainly be something about Browny [tonight].”

The Phoenix are hoping that passion and emotion will spark a better performance than they showed in back-to-back losses against Melbourne Victory and Central Coast Mariners.

Sydney are a dangerous opponent, haven’t lost for a month and have had the pressure valve released by beating Newcastle on Sunday and squeaking into the playoffs.

“Our away form has been good this season,” said Sydney captain Terry McFlynn.

“There’s a strong belief in the group, confidence is at an all-time high this season so we’ll keep believing in what we’re doing, as we have all season, and may that continue.”

The Phoenix are at full strength for tonight’s game and are expected to name an unchanged XI from the side that lost 2-1 to the Mariners last Sunday.

The Spurs improved to 12-2 in their past 14 road games, continuing to look more the part of a Western Conference challenger to Oklahoma City than the 10th-place Suns look like a playoff qualifier. The Suns fared well against an elite team before folding in the fourth quarter again, losing 107-100 at US Airways Center.

Despite pressure from the clubs, Football Federation Australia, which runs the A-League, will continue to pocket all the revenue from ticket sales in the finals series this season.

“We make a little bit out of some corporate hospitality that we can sell, but with a five-day turnaround it is difficult,” said Phoenix head of marketing David Dome. “That’s all that we get out of it.”

Dome said “who gets what” was an ongoing discussion between the clubs and the FFA.

“It’s certainly something that a lot of the clubs have been agitating for, a bit of a revamp about how revenue is split. And certainly our owners have expressed a desire that we revisit that with the FFA as well.”

While there is no financial gain to be made, Dome said the club still had plenty of incentive to try to attract a bumper crowd “because it helps the boys get across the line”.

The FFA pay for the marketing and operational costs of all finals games, with the Phoenix facilitating events such as yesterday’s players versus fans Playstation battle.

“We give them some thoughts about what they should do but at the end of the day they make their own decisions about how they want to promote the game,” Dome said.

“There’s no doubt that we would probably do it differently if we were in charge … we want a big crowd there to give the boys every possible chance,” he said.

After strong presales last week the Phoenix had also hoped for a crowd of 20,000 at Sunday’s regular season finale against Central Coast but only 9802 fronted.

Dome admitted many punters had instead opted for day three of the cricket test at the Basin Reserve and “decided to stay there rather than leave halfway through the last session”.

“Two seasons ago we had 24,000 to the first playoff in the semifinals. This time around it’s Friday night at 8 o’clock so it’s not quite as family and child-friendly as we would like.”

Ifill has been in bed all week with the flu and Lia has a minor groin problem. While the Phoenix can still finish third and improve their finals prospects, Herbert is taking a cautious approach with two of his most experienced players.

Third-placed Perth host Melbourne Victory tonight and afterwards the fourth-placed Phoenix will know exactly what they need to do to finish ahead of the Glory.

“The Perth game will probably dictate what the outcome could be [tomorrow]. We’ve got one or two niggles,” Herbert said.

“I don’t really want to risk too many leading into the big game the following Friday.”

Herbert said if Ifill had to play tomorrow he “absolutely” could and “if we need to we will”.

“But when you’re in bed all week I suppose you’re a little bit lethargic maybe, coming in on Sunday.

“But we’ll see, we’ve got a little bit of time to go yet.”

Daniel has recovered surprisingly quickly from his ankle injury and is in the selection frame for Friday while Leo Bertos, who came off the bench in the 3-0 loss to the Victory, will “probably start” tomorrow after impressing at training.

“There’s probably a few selection dilemmas but not a bad time to have them.”

The Phoenix are privately unimpressed at having to host their first finals match on a Friday, with just a five-day turnaround from the Mariners.

Herbert cryptically said: “I suppose you don’t get too much of a throw of the dice on that”, but league leaders Central Coast won’t have much sympathy for the Phoenix given they are themselves backing up from Wednesday’s Asian Champions League fixture.

Aside from settling up third and fourth place, tomorrow’s game at Westpac Stadium will be the 100th Phoenix appearance for skipper Andrew Durante. The reliable defender joined the Phoenix after a man-of-the-match performance for champions Newcastle in the 2008 grand final.

“A few people obviously thought it was pretty crazy coming from the team that just won it to the team that came last,” Durante said. “But I had several conversations with Ricki and Terry [Serepisos] over that time and I had a good feeling about it. I felt like I wanted to come over here and help change the club and create what it is now. I feel I’ve played a part in that.”

Even if the Phoenix finish fourth behind Perth it is crucial they put in a decent shift against the league leaders tomorrow.

They were badly outplayed by the Mariners just over a month ago so are keen to reinforce their finals credentials.

“We want to build momentum going into the finals game, we don’t want to come off two losses and then have to play on Friday and try and pick ourselves up again,” Durante said. “The result’s one thing but I think the performance is key this Sunday.”

Meanwhile, Herbert shot down reports in Australia that continue to link the Phoenix with young Gold Coast striker Golgol Mebrahtu. “No, no idea, never spoken to him,” Herbert said.

If the Perth Glory lose to the Melbourne Victory this weekend, the Phoenix would only need to draw with the Central Coast Mariners at home on Sunday to finish in third place ahead of Perth.

A Perth draw and a Wellington win would also be enough to give the Phoenix third.

The Mariners and Brisbane Roar have locked up the top two places, with this weekend’s results determining who will finish first.

There is a battle for the final two playoff spots, with the Melbourne Heart, Newcastle Jets and Sydney FC all still in contention.

Regardless of the final placing, the Phoenix will kick-off their playoff campaign at 8pm at Westpac Stadium next Friday.

“Night games under lights are fantastic, especially when there is a big crowd,” said coach Ricki Herbert.

“The last time we played at home in the finals around 60,000 fans watched our matches against Perth and Newcastle and

will tell you what thrillers they were.
“There is nothing quite like finals football and I can’t wait for it to start.”

The Phoenix finish their regular season this Sunday against the Mariners at Westpac Stadium. Kick-off is at 4pm.

Japan’s Miyazato, owner of seven LPGA Tour titles, birdied three in a row from the 14th and had six birdies overall in a bogey–free round that gave her a 14–under total of 202. “Definitely, it was more difficult than yesterday,” Miyazato said of the breezy weather at Wildfire Golf Club.