Suns bench and timely shots help beat Sacramento

The Phoenix Suns’ bench helped solidify the 96-88 win
against the lowly Sacramento Kings Sunday.

The Suns were down double-digits by halftime for the
fourth game in a row, but in the third quarter they tied
it up and even gained a small advantage. Early in the
fourth, the Kings were trying to retake the lead when the
bench, along with starter Jared Dudley, broke the game
open.

Sebastian Telfair and Dudley were both trading baskets
with Sacramento before Shannon Brown knocked down
consecutive shots from behind the arc, followed by another
three-point dagger from Dudley, which pushed the Suns’
lead to 11 with 7:45 to go in the game.

Phoenix’s lead was cut to three with three-and-a-half
minutes to go, but that’s when the Suns’ starters began to
make buckets from everywhere. Steve Nash and Channing Frye
made shots from behind the line, then Grant Hill and
Dudley drained three mid-range jumpers. These baskets iced
the game by ballooning the lead to eight with less than a
minute to go.

Brown paced the bench’s effort with 13 points in 21
minutes. The Phoenix reserves helped seal the Kings’ fate
with their timely scoring despite only scoring 30 points
for the game.

Phoenix has now won five of their last six and three in a
row since the All-Star break.

This recent surge has put the Suns in position to strike
for a playoff berth in the coming games. Phoenix has a 17-
20 record and is now three-and-a-half games back from
seventh and eighth place Houston and Denver. The Western
Conference is tightly bunched with teams 3-12 all within
six games of each other in the loss column. This logjam
could possibly open the door for the Suns to fight their
way back into playoff contention.

The Suns have a telling stretch of games on the horizon
with a game against the Thunder in Oklahoma City
Wednesday, followed by home games against Dallas, Memphis,
Minnesota and Utah.

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