Phoenix Suns fire coach Porter

His replacement is assistant coach Alvin Gentry.

PHOENIX (AP) — Terry Porter is out as coach of the Phoenix Suns. The failed effort to tame the Suns’ offense went out the door with him.

The sputtering Suns fired Porter just four months into his first season as Phoenix coach and replaced him with assistant coach Alvin Gentry. Gentry promptly promised a return to the style so successful under Porter’s predecessor, Mike D’Antoni.

“We are who we are and I think we have to go back to trying to establish a breakneck pace like we’ve had in the past,” Gentry said at a news conference Monday announcing his promotion.

Phoenix (28-23) lost five of eight going into the All-Star break and trails Utah by one game for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West.

“We have enough talent that we should not be on the outside looking in right now,” Gentry said.

The Suns’ Grant Hill was with the Detroit Pistons when Gentry replaced the fired Doug Collins there.

“Considering the circumstances, considering what we’ve been through, he’s probably the perfect person to take over at this time,” Hill said after Monday’s practice.

Gentry said the team needs to revert to the game that brought out the best in Steve Nash. Nash, twice the league MVP with the Suns, called the coaching change “a difficult part of our business,” but he welcomed the decision to go back to the high-octane game.

“That’s a pretty natural thing for me and for our group, just kind of pick the pace up a little bit and open up avenues for our guys to excel,” Nash said.

Gentry and Nash both said Shaquille O’Neal showed late last season he can be effective in a running system.

“The last 18 games we were 15-3 and we averaged 112 points a game with him in our lineup,” Gentry said. “There’s no reason — you saw him yesterday [in the All-Star Game] — why we can’t run with him.”

But the transition won’t happen overnight, Nash said.

“We’ve got to get in shape, we’ve got to get that mentality back,” he said.