Suns coach balances practice time with rest

The Phoenix Suns returned to the US Airways Center Tuesday
morning for shoot around before hosting the San Antonio
Spurs later in the evening. The team is also returning
from a road trip in which they played four games in six
days, going 2-2 against the Heat, Magic, Pacers and Cavs.

Practices have been few and far between for the Suns this
season with the compact schedule. They’ve had just ten
days without a game scheduled so far in the month of
March, and Monday was one of those days…so does head coach
Alvin Gentry schedule practice, or give his guys the day
off? That is the balancing act he’s been handling this
year.

“I mean, we come in and we’re getting ready to play back
to back games,” he said. “You know is it worth coming in
and having a two hour practice and then have to play
[Tuesday night], get on a plane and then play in LA
[Wednesday] night.”

At the end of the day, Gentry will defer to the experts.

“I talked to the trainers and I talked to the medical
staff. They just thought that it would be much more
beneficial for us to have the day off. So I try to listen
to those guys. I mean, they got a pretty good record.
We’ve had four missed games this year due to injury, so
they have a tendency to know what they’re talking about.”

The Suns have played eight games in the last 12 days.
Gentry also said that he thinks his team seems to respond
better when they get a little more rest. We’ll see if
that rest pays off Tuesday night against the Spurs.

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