The Suns (31-24) had their three-game winning streak snapped Sunday, 128-108 to visiting Boston. It was the first time in four games that Phoenix did not reach 140 points.

"We've got a lot of work to do," Steve Nash said Sunday after posting a double-double with 19 points and 11 assists.

Playing without Amare Stoudemire for the second straight game - he had surgery Friday on the partially detached retina in his right eye - the Suns fell to 3-1 under Gentry, despite the absence of Kevin Garnett (strained right knee).

"First of all, that is a really good basketball team with or without Kevin Garnett," said Gentry, who replaced Terry Porter on Feb. 16. "You can see they don't have a whole lot of weaknesses."

In their first three games under Gentry, Phoenix returned to its seven-seconds-and-shoot pace, averaging 140.7 points in two wins over the Los Angeles Clippers and one over Oklahoma City.

This production is in stark contrast to the 104.4 points the Suns averaged under Porter. Phoenix may have hit a low point with its former coach on Jan. 23 when it lost 98-76 at Charlotte. It marked the fewest points the Suns had scored in a game since a 105-76 loss at San Antonio on March 27, 2004.

"I haven't seen them not scoring the ball like that," Charlotte's Raja Bell said after defeating his former teammates. "We probably caught them on the right night - and we were firing on all cylinders."

Bell and Boris Diaw return to Phoenix on Tuesday for their first game since they were traded on Dec. 10 as the Suns acquired Jason Richardson from the Bobcats. Bell has missed eight games with the Bobcats due to groin injuries, but he's averaging 13.0 points and 3.8 rebounds since the deal.

Diaw is scoring 14.4 points per game with Charlotte, including a season-high-tying 26 points in the Bobcats' Jan. 23 win.

Richardson's production has spiked since Gentry took over. Richardson is averaging 24.0 points and shooting 66.7 percent from the field in three games under the Suns' new coach. He scored 16.7 points per game with Porter on the bench.

In the first game against his former Bobcat teammates, Richardson had just eight points while Bell did a nice job defending him.

Charlotte (22-34) arrives in Phoenix after opening its five-game road trip with a 99-78 loss to Houston on Sunday. The Bobcats dropped their second straight overall - and sixth in a row on the road - as they hit just 36.0 percent from the field.

"Our offense was awful," said Charlotte coach Larry Brown, whose team committed 21 turnovers. "We just turned it over so many times, that it puts so much pressure on your defense."

Charlotte is averaging 18.5 turnovers per game in its last two games. It can't afford another sloppy game against a Suns team shooting 57.5 percent in its last four contests.

The Bobcats are 0-4 in Phoenix.