Lakers-Suns Game Four: The Bench Shall Rise

In the first half, Phoenix's bench goes crazy Broadway style, with 11 points for Channing Frye as the Lazarus moment of the playoffs. Kobe Bryant, Ron Artest and Lamar Odom all play well, but the Suns still lead by nine at the half, 64-55. The bench is +40, and ye gads, this is not the script that was expected. Reggie Miller talks about his important it is that Steve Nash is getting rest, and if the games are happening every day. How about it just being important to win games, you big-eared maroon? The Suns are allowed to win a game without Nash being the key to it...

Kenny Smith makes the nice touch that Fisher's lack of penetration and pure point nature is making the Phoenix zone more effective... and it's also making Kobe enter Hero Mode early, which is why, along with Pau Gasol's foul trouble, the Lakers are showing weakness. But whether or not the Suns win this game or this series, we're seeing why the Celtics are going to win the Finals. And why Phoenix just might be a worse matchup for them. But enough of the dreaming.

The third starts with Kobe stuffing Lopez in the paint, and a Jason Richardson miss. Bryant gets J-Rich in the air for the shooting foul and makes both, and it's kind of unfair that a man with his gifts also has such a high basketball IQ. Only the first goes down, but Nash turns it, and Artest finishes at the cup for a quick 3-0 start. Lopez and Amare Stoudemire bully the board in, but Kobe gets it right back to cut the lead to six. Amare goes baseline beautifully on Gasol for the make, and Gasol answers on Lopez. Not exactly a defensive clinic going on here, though to be fair, these are highly skilled teams. Fisher with a foul, then an Amare finish as Phil Jackson tears Andrew Bynum a new one for leaving Gasol out to dry. Well, OK, but that's clearly a matter of Philip not being able to yell at his star big man, really. Eight point game as we go to commerce.

Bryant's straightaway three is money. Yeesh. He's got to get tired at some point, right? Hill's 3 misses, and Bryant hits from the corner arc, and as Marv Albert says, "Uh oh." Gasol with a block as the Lakers begin to feel it and get their crowd going. Nash with a great steal and save on Bynum, trapped on the baseline. Richardson misses on the other end, but Stoudemire boards and gets a Bynum foul. He only makes the second, and it's the first time he's gotten to the line tonight. Telling. Three point game goes to one as Testy misses, but Gasol finishes. Fisher fouls Nash as Kobe mouths off. Stoudemire off the pick and roll gyrates to the cup and misses, but that's a Testy foul, and Amar'e makes both this time. 3 point game.

Bryant is unbelievably smooth, but misses from mid-range. Hill at the end of the clock misses, but Lopez outfights Bynum and Gasol twice for the tip. Kobe's catch and heave three misses and looks gassy, but the Lakers board and get a Hill foul. Gasol misses from mid-range, and the lead is five. Nash's 3 misses, but Amar'e has the board, and Bynum is officially useless right now. I'd be thinking about DJ Mbenge if I were Coach Philip. Stoudemire misses both, which doesn't help. Frye in as Bryant misses from the baseline, and he's suddenly cold, but Stoudemire is called for the foul before the shot. Odom in for Bynum, and Kobe feeds Gasol for a stuff. Three point game again.

Nash to the runner and gets Fisher's third foul, and that's two points from the line. Kobe misses again, but Nash turns it coming back, and Bryant has the make coming back. Fisher hits Nash in the face again, and if this were hockey, I'm pretty sure that someone would be swinging at him by now. Nash makes him pay with two more at the line, and that's Fisher's fourth. Odom misses from three, and Bryant gets away with a foul on Jared Dudley's attempt at the o-board. Lake Show getting chippy here. Stoudemire tries to prove a point, but misses the stuff, and Odom cuts it to three on the other end as bodies hit the floor. Stoudemire is on the end line on the next possession as the home team looks a little shaky, and Bryant goes baseline for the make that's just money. The Suns nearly turn it on a Nash to Amar'e try, but Kobe can't keep it, and we go to commerce with the Suns up one with 2:53 left in the third.

Amar'e shakes and scores over Gasol. Bryant again from the arc, and it's 81-all; he's got 31, with 6 threes. Stoudemire answers for the lead. Bryant feeds Odom for a lay up as the Suns over commit. Frye's three spins out. Testy's three for the lead doesn't go, but the Suns stooge the board, and Gasol gets to the lane. Can't make mistakes against the Lake Show when Kobe's like this. Frye's second foul, and Gasol's make, give the Lakers their first lead in forever, at 84-83, and Bryant takes a seat for the end of the quarter.

Amar'e misses, but Dudley forces a jump ball on good hustle. Goran Dragic is fouled by Jordan Farmar off the tip, and two makes turns the game back to the Suns. The Lakers get the o-board to get the final shot, but it stays out, and Frye's heave misses as TNT fellates him for not caring about his shooting percentage. Honestly, Channing Frye's shooting percentage is way beyond help at this point. The third ends with the Suns up 85-84, and yet again in this series, the fourth quarter will decide things. (And the lesson of that is... that the Lakers aren't *that* much better than the Suns.)

Kobe turns it to start the fourth, as his minutes are elevated against the Suns bench players. Frye misses off a Dragic dish, but Louis Asmundson gets the board... leading to Dragic getting stuffed. Farmar hits a three in a bad possession, and the Lakers take the lead again. Barbosa answers from just inside, and it's 87-all. Not a great possession either. Farmar misses, and Frye boards, with Dudley feeding Asmundson down low for the layup. Kobe misses and howls at the ref, but Phoenix misses on the other end. Shannon Brown misses, and Dragic embarrasses Kobe in the open court, but Barbosa can't hit the corner three; that would have been a massive moment. Phoenix gets the ball back as the Lakers can't keep it in bounds, and if nothing else right now, the Suns are treading water while Nash sits and Kobe sweats. Dammit, now TNT has me thinking about Nash's minutes, too.

Barbosa ends a bad possession by getting a foul. Phoenix is 0 for 8 from the arc in the second, and Dragic gets a Bynum foul; if Bynum were a fight, it would be stopped on cuts. Frye nails a three at the buzzer, and that's immense; 5 point lead and a live crowd. Frye's fourth three of the night. Brown to the rack misses, but Bynum finishes and flushes to stop the run. Barbosa begins another run with a corner three, and the lead is six as the bench is getting it done. Farmar's three misses, and Dragic feeds Dudley for another corner three as Arizona explodes. Wow, wow, wow; nine point game with a 9-2 run in much less than a minute, with Bryant on the pine. Who knew a bench could have this much impact in a playoff season where the games happen every other equinox?

Kobe returns. Fisher's three misses, and Dudley with the board. Dudley misses from the arc on the other end, but Asmundson boards; the Suns wind up with a shot clock violation off a block. We're at the 5:50 mark with the bench players staying in, because Alvin Gentry is smart. Frye blocks Fisher, who traveled but got away with it, and on the other end, Dragic feeds Asmundson, who gets to the line on Odom's third. The Suns keep leaving points on the table from the line, but at least he makes the second. Ten point game with five minutes left.

Odom misses in traffic and looks out of control, but he's able to get the board and go to the line. Doug Collins points out how Bryant and Gasol aren't taking the shots right now, and the fact that the Lakers still don't looks good against a zone is kind of amazing. Odom misses the second, and Asmundson boards. Barbosa hits, and the lead is now 11. Gasol is erased with no call, and Dragic runs clock, spins, ends Fisher's career and finishes at the cup with his off hand with a ballet pirouette finish. Holy Mother of God. That made me laugh out loud; wow. Fisher recovers with a long make late in the clock, and Barbosa runs time, but turns it to Kobe, who feeds Testy for a layup. Gentry calls time to bring in his starters, and have they ever done a job tonight. We are three minutes away from a tie series, and it's all thanks to a bunch of guys that aren't household names in their own household. Suns 103, Lakers 94.

Nash misses from the arc, and the Suns take a defensive three; that doesn't help. Bryant's first point of the fourth (!) cuts it to 8 as Amar'e returns. Testy's three misses, but Stoudemire blows his assignment on Gasol, who flushes to cut it to six. Nash misses, but Stoudemire boards and will go to the line... and, agonizingly, blows the first. That's nine free throws missed by a good shooting team; unconscionably. Gentry goes with all starters as Amar'e hits the second; 7 point game with two minutes left. Odom misses from the arc, and Nash boards. Advantage, Suns Zone. Stoudemire is too quick for Gasol in the half court, and he's going back to the line. This time, he makes both, and the lead goes back to nine with 98 seconds left.

Kobe in Hero Mode, somehow on Nash, and he makes and goes to the line. That's insane. Kobe misses the free throw, then commits a foul on Richardson in transition. Can J-Rich put it away at the line? Two makes says yes, and the lead is 9 again.

Testy's three off a Kobe pass misses, and the crowd can smell it. Nash runs clock, Hill connects, and Phil Jackson takes a timeout to rub his the Laker noses in it. Short of complete brain lock and missed free throws, Phoenix is going back to Los Angeles with the series tied, and it's going to be a best of three to see who goes to the finals.

TNT flashes the graphic that the Suns bench has 54 points tonight, and that Phoenix is up 13 on free throw attempts. Don't expect that last point to evade Jackson's notice in the post game. Kobe slices to the cup for the make. Nine point game as Gentry calls time. Nash gets the inbounds and runs away from Testy for a few seconds before getting fouled, then makes both. It's nice to have a 94% free throw shooter at point, really. Odom finally hits a three, about a half hour too late, but the Lakers can't keep Nash from the inbounds pass, and he's going back to the line for two makes. Ten point game, 34.3 left. Kobe gets a deuce, and the inbounds pass this time goes long to Stoudemire. Fisher fouls him, and the big man gets one. Gasol misses, Hill boards, and the Lakers concede.

Ladies and gentlemen, we've got a series, and if Coach Philip is to be believed, this means that the series hasn't started yet, since the home team hasn't lost. In other news, Coach Philip talks a lot of nonsense, and hasn't gotten his bench to show up tonight, or his team to do a thing against a zone. Can't say it hasn't been fun to watch...

Oh, and here's the Dragic play. It just keeps getting funnier the more you watch it.