Boris Diaw To Start On Thursday

From the first day of training camp — even though his team is loaded with new players — Mike D’Antoni has stuck with the same five starters.

The Suns coach felt that group had the right combination of shooters and defenders to give the team its best chance for a good start.

But after two close losses the Suns feel they should have won, and after being outrebounded by 44 in the last two games, D’Antoni is ready to experiment with bench players Boris Diaw and Leandro Barbosa as he seeks better overall chemistry from his 10-man rotation.

He will start the process Thursday, inserting Diaw as a starter for James Jones against the Detroit Pistons and moving Shawn Marion back to the small forward spot. Diaw played a key role (14 points, six rebounds in 27 minutes) in Saturday’s win in Utah and came up a rebound short of a triple-double (11 points, nine rebounds, 11 assists) in Sunday’s 118-117 heartbreaking loss at the hands of Sacramento.

The move will give the Suns a bigger lineup against the physical Pistons and free up Marion to guard Tayshaun Prince on the perimeter. But it is also designed to give the Suns a better start.

"It’s not what James Jones didn’t do, and if we try LB (Barbosa) as a starter it won’t be what Raja Bell didn’t do," D’Antoni said. "It won’t change their roles or minutes . . . the first unit has just been a little stagnant for whatever reason. It might just be that they’ve only had four games together, but we’re going to try some things. If we come back to it, we come back. No big deal."

For more coverage of Phoenix sports, be sure to visit eastvalleytribune.com

"We should be 4-0 — at worst 3-1," D’Antoni said. "Overall we’re pretty happy. We have some areas that we have to tighten up but we know that. We should win a lot of games."

Diaw, who a month ago was fighting to be part of the Phoenix rotation, has turned into an effective and necessary player for the Suns. He has the strength to defend power forwards and get on the boards, then act both as a playmaker and inside player who can create his own shot on the other end — something the Suns sorely miss without Amaré Stoudemire.

"I don’t know if I like (guarding big men). They are pretty strong, but I try to use my quickness on offense to get around them," said Diaw, who is averaging 8.5 points, 6.3 assists and 4.8 rebounds in his 24 minutes a game. "The starting five is going to try to pick it up, but we have nine or 10 players so I don’t think it really matters who starts. The important thing is to be on the court at the end."

Diaw has been doing that already. Now, D’Antoni wants to see what else he can do.

BONUS SHOTS: D’Antoni said he’s not concerned about the slow start of center Kurt Thomas, who has scored in double figures the last three games but had only two rebounds in 22 minutes before fouling out against the Kings.

"Kurt had a little touch of the flu last week, but he’s shot the ball much better and I think he’ll be fine," he said. "It takes everyone a little while to adjust" (to the Suns’ relentless style.)

"The same thing happened to Q (Quentin Richardson) last year, and he settled in. We’ll have a lot of patience with Kurt." . . .

The Suns have been outrebounded 127-83 in the last two games, something that has D’Antoni’s attention but not his focus.

"You’re never happy when you get beat by 20 on the boards," he said. "But last year, we (were outrebounded) 45 times by 20 or more and we won like 38 of those games. We’ll try to get better there, but we know that’s not our strength. Playing this way, it will never be our strength,

"We have to get loose balls, be more diligent and finish people off."

COPYRIGHT 2005, EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE. Used with permission.