Suns Bench Continues to Showcase Strength
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It was another dominant win for the Phoenix Suns against the San Antonio Spurs in 133-95 fashion.
Phoenix's stars shined bright on Sunday afternoon, but behind the typical performances of Deandre Ayton/Devin Booker was another dominant run by a Suns bench forced into more action than usual.
With Cam Johnson, Chris Paul and Torrey Craig out of action, the Suns saw the likes of Dario Saric and Josh Okogie fill some of those voids rather well.
Saric’s tragic ending to the 2020-21 NBA season is well documented after an ACL tear and missing all of last year, too. He’s been back in action since the beginning of the 2022 season and made his second start of the year against the Spurs, recording a season-high 17 points.
It was a bold choice for Suns head coach Monty Williams to start two big men in Ayton/Saric, explaining his decision by saying, “Not many bigs can say they have all of the skills that Dario has. It’s just taken him a while to get his legs underneath him, and we’ve had other guts just playing a little bit better.”
Williams elaborated, “But to see him out there playing instinctual basketball gives all of us a lot of confidence that he’s on his way.”
Okogie finished with nine points, 11 rebounds, and four assists after taking a hard hit early in the game. He tied career highs in rebounds/assists and kept his energy high throughout the entire game.
Saric and Okogie are just the latest members of the Suns bench to feature in a Suns win, as guys such as Cameron Payne, Damion Lee, Jock Landale, Bismack Biyombo and Duane Washington have made their impact in spots throughout the season.
What was once considered a weak spot has been a reliable strength in the face of adversity.
The Suns have been able to win even while being thinned out with the best record in the Western Conference and third in the NBA behind the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks. Phoenix’s bench is currently tied for fourth in the league with the Celtics at +2.1 in the plus/minus, respectively.
It looks as though Phoenix will only get stronger going forward with CP3 back soon and Johnson expected to be back by February. The biggest test of the season so far will come on Wednesday when Boston comes to Phoenix.
