Are Suns Too Top Heavy?

Needing a win before the series went back to LA, the Phoenix Suns were able to level their first-round series with the Los Angeles Clippers in a 123-109 victory on Tuesday.

In front of a packed Footprint Center, every Suns starter had at least 14 points in the win. Phoenix overcame an early 13 point deficit to ensure a Game 5 would happen back in the Valley no matter what.

As previously mentioned in the intro, the Suns' starters showed up in nearly every way Phoenix needed them to.

Devin Booker finally asserted himself in the scoring department with 38 points. Kevin Durant was actively involved early and got much better looks. Chris Paul shook off an early off-night and bounced back in a major way. Torrey Craig (more on him later) continued to hold his end of the bargain with 17 points and Deandre Ayton kept the Suns in the game early on with his consistent buckets shooting near the rim.

However, the Suns don't exactly have a strong bench to roll out. They mostly deployed three players in the rotation as Durant (44) and Booker (45) each played significant minutes.

Bismack Biyombo came in and blocked three shots while also snagging five rebounds and scoring six points in 15 minutes. Josh Okogie played similar minutes and scored seven points.

Yet that's about as far as Phoenix's bench extends. Landry Shamet again got some nice cardio in with zero points in 14 minutes, and it's clear that the Suns are missing backup point guard Cameron Payne perhaps a bit more than some anticipated.

It's playoff time, so role players won't exactly get an opportunity to shine in extensive spurts. Hefty minutes from starters are expected moving forward, but as the Suns dig just a bit deeper and deeper into the postseason, bench production becomes more coveted.

The lack of depth beyond the starting lineup was a major concern for Phoenix before the playoffs began. The Clippers' bench has managed to outproduce them in both games thus far, and as the series digs its heels deeper into the ground, that supplemental play could be the difference between advancing to the next round and going home.

The Suns were able to snag a victory in Game 2 after shooting an astounding 58.8% from the field, which also included 41.7% from three-point land. It's not a difficult concept to grasp: Their shots didn't fall in Game 1, and they indeed came through last night.

Can Phoenix copy that extremely high shooting percentage for three more games? They certainly have the star power to move through Los Angeles.

Yet when you look at previous championship squads, you see the contributions they received off the bench. You see the production brought from rotational players to keep the momentum while starters got their rest.

It doesn't appear the Suns have those legitimate secondary pieces like previous teams did.