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Suns’ reserves hardly given chance to get off bench vs. Lakers
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Suns guard Sean Singletary drives the lane past the Lakers' Trevor Ariza Nov. 20 at US Airways Center. Singletary and the rest of the Suns' bench played very limited minutes against L.A.
Ralph Freso, Tribune
Before the season, Suns coach Terry Porter promised to go to a deeper rotation.
So one of the question marks going into the Suns’ first game against the Los Angeles Lakers this season was how their remodeled bench would match up with a bench widely regarded as one of the best in the league.
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For the most part, that question remained unanswered after Thursday’s 105-92 loss.
Besides the first half and garbage minutes, the Suns bench didn’t get a chance to show what it had. The Suns’ starters played a total of 167 minutes, 41 seconds. The bench played just a total of 70:19.
Take out minutes played by Louis Amundson, Goran Dragic and Robin Lopez, who all came in after the Lakers had the game well in hand, and that total goes down to 60:07 for the rest of the reserves: Boris Diaw, Grant Hill and Sean Singletary.
Those three led the Suns on a 13-2 run in the second quarter after the Lakers went on a 14-0 run.
However, those minutes would be the last meaningful playing time the three would get. Porter left his starters in the game even when the Lakers went to their bench.
Los Angeles’ bench ended up outscoring the Suns’ bench 43-30.
“They’re really deep,” Singletary said of the Lakers’ reserves. “Not necessarily the talent level, but they come with a lot of energy.”
Although not on display Thursday, Singletary believes the Suns’ bench can reach the same value.
“Definitely (we can become that); they’ve played under Phil Jackson and have run the same offense for a long time,” Singletary said. “We’ve got a new offense and a new coach, so it’s just going to take time to become acclimated.”
This first major test for the bench came without usual sixth man Leandro Barbosa, who is still in Brazil due to the recent death of his mother.
“We could always use a veteran player to score, but we had opportunities,” Singletary said. “I don’t think you can really measure it at this point in the season.”
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