Suns Bench Better than Advertised
By Joe Gilmartin, Suns.com
Posted: Jan. 9, 2005
This just in from the Rich-Get-Richer Department: The Suns, who needed another weapon like a centipede needs another leg, have found another weapon.
Actually, coach Mike D'Antoni says Stephen Hunter has been there all the time. He just couldn’t find ways to deploy him. That was then and this is now. Hunter, who is not only seven-feet tall but has a wingspan that seems to stretch from sideline to sideline, is giving the Suns an intimidating inside defensive presence at one end of the court and yet another inside option at the other.
Sunday night’s line pretty much tells the story of what he brings to the table -- 5-for-5 from the field, five rebounds and four blocked shots in just 15 minutes. That’s 10 fewer minutes than he’s been getting lately, but that was only because the Suns led the Pacers by 40 points most of the way.
Hunter has 43 blocks on the year, which if you go BPMPs (blocks per minutes played) puts him in the top five in the league in that department. And no matter how you figure it, he gives D’Antoni another way to go lineup wise.
Actually, the Suns' rout of the Pacers gave the coach an opportunity to show off his whole bench, which basically backed up what he’s been insisting all along, namely that although we haven’t seen all that much of it, this team really has a very good bench.
Hunter and Maciej Lampe led the Pine Patrol with 10 points apiece, Casey Jacobsen chipped in with nine and Leonardo Barbosa had three assists and a pair of three-pointers in his first home appearance since his bout with chicken pox. Jake Voskuhl also had some nice minutes.
Of course, while the bench was impressive, the starters were positively awesome. Granted, that’s basically a “call me when there’s something new” item. After all, when you are 30-4 you pretty much always “awesome.” But the thing is, they are not usually this awesome this long. Normally they let teams up for air at some point and in many games give them so much air early they actually get the notion they have a chance.
But not Sunday, as they hit the dazed Pacers with a 29-7 lick right out of the chute -- and then they really got hot. If this had been a fight it would have been stopped in that first round.
This was the Suns' sixth straight win and 26th in its last 28 games. And in many ways it was its most impressive showing yet, not just offensively but defensively. The Suns' overall record looks like a typo. I mean, 30-4? Come on. Nobody without a Jordan or a Kareem or a Wilt, is 30-4. And certainly nobody who was 12-22 after 34 games last year.
The scary thing is they are starting to make it look so easy it’s almost as though they are in a league of their own.
The bottom line: Wow!!!!
