Phoenix ? Frank Johnson was fired Wednesday as coach of the Phoenix Suns, a young team with high expectations that is off to an 8-13 start and has lost six of its last seven games.

The Suns promoted lead assistant Mike D’Antoni, a former player and highly successful coach in Italy who coached the Denver Nuggets in the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season.

“There’s been something amiss all year, in my opinion,” Suns owner Jerry Colangelo said. “The more I saw on the floor, the more I disliked what I saw as it related to body language, communication or lack of same.”

D’Antoni, under contract through next season, promised to immediately try to boost the tempo, beginning with the next game tonight at home against New Orleans.

“It should be exciting the first couple of nights. Balls should be flying around. We’ll try not to hurt anybody,” D’Antoni said. “But hopefully it will make it exciting, anyway.”

D’Antoni, 52, has dual citizenship in Italy and the United States. A point guard at Marshall, he played one season for the Kansas City-Omaha Kings before spending 13 seasons with Milan of the Italian League.

Bryan Colangelo, the owner’s son and president of the Suns’ basketball operations, accompanied the team on its four-game trip to the East. He watched Phoenix blow a 22-point early lead in Orlando Monday night and lose to a Magic team that had dropped 19 straight.

Tuesday night, the Suns looked unmotivated in a 92-72 loss at Miami.

On the long plane ride home, the younger Colangelo said, he began seriously thinking about a coaching change.

“Reflecting back to a few things that I was observing on the road trip, and just reflecting back over the past several weeks and months, it became pretty apparent,” he said.

Johnson spent 10 years in the Suns organization as a player, community relations official and coach. Known as “Fourth-Quarter Frank” for his shooting ability, he was a key reserve on the 1993 team that reached the NBA Finals.

Johnson replaced Scott Skiles as the Suns’ head coach late in the 2001-02 season, going 11-20 the rest of the way.

Last season, Johnson guided the team to a 44-38 record and a surprising playoff berth.