Suns Bench Shines as Thunder Silenced

Playing back-to-back home games is better than back-to-back on the road, as the Phoenix Suns and Oklahoma City Thunder discovered Friday night in Phoenix.

The Suns, behind some inspired bench play, took down the Thunder 118-111.  Tyler Ulis, Leandro Barbosa and Alan Williams each scored 14 points off the bench – a career-high for Ulis.   The Suns reserves scored 55 points – just 7 ahead of Russell Westbrook’s 48.

The night before Phoenix won at home beating the Charlotte Hornets while Oklahoma City had to fly early this morning into the valley after a close loss in Portland.

Westbrook fell just one assist short of his 31st triple double of the season which would have tied him with Wilt Chamberlain.  Fortunately his 48 points, 17 rebounds and 9 assists just weren’t enough.  Westbrook took 30 shots against Phoenix a night after taking 36 at Portland.  And his right elbow didn’t even look tired.

But the real story was the Suns bench.  Ulis was a +17 while he was on the floor at point guard and is starting to show his skills running a team as floor general.  His two man game with Williams continues to stand out night after night.  Ulis had 7 assists – most of them to Williams.  He would have had 8 after a beautiful pass to Williams between the legs of the Thunder’s Steven Adams.  But Williams blew the wide open layup.  It was the only blemish Williams had in another strong outing.  The Phoenix-native had 13 rebounds and 3 blocked shots to go with his 14 points.  Suns Center Alex Len is still starting.  But Len played only 13 minutes to Williams’ 30.

Phoenix started the night shooting like blind men in a snowstorm.  They were 3 for their first 17 field goal attempts.  But they caught fire in the second quarter going 20 for 30 to take a 55-58 lead into the half.

The spark actually came on the defensive end from none other than high-flying Derrick Jones Jr.  Once he came in, Jones Jr. really got under Westbrook’s skin. But it was painful.  Crowding Westbrook at the top of the lane, Jones Jr. took a Westbrook elbow to the face, and down he went.  Yet only a few seconds later the Suns 19-year old rookie took it upon himself to pressure Westbrook on a side in-bounds play in front of the Suns bench.  Westbrook took exception to the rough treatment and tried to shove Jones Jr. out of the way.

Showing grit the Suns are becoming known for, Jones Jr. pushed right back.  The two were separated and both were issued pointless technical fouls.  But the play seemed to spark Phoenix which found its hustle on the defense to start a nice run.

With Williams in early foul trouble, the Suns went small with Marquese Chriss (6’10” and still growing is small?) at center.  Ulis, Chriss and Jones Jr. took over the game.  Ulis had 12 points off the bench in 13 first half minutes.  He was 5 of 6 from the floor, showing great balance getting shots up over taller players.

And Jones Jr. put an exclamation point on his first half with a flying slam dunk off a Barbosa miss.

With the Suns up 87-79 at the end of the 3rd quarter, everyone in the building knew what was coming.  With 8:34 left in the game, Westbrook re-entered the contest.

From then on it was the Suns against the league’s scoring leader as Westbrook turned his teammates into bystanders on offense.  He chucked up shots from all over the floor, but most of his damage was done from the free-throw line, where he was 17 of 18 for the night.  Still, he showed incredible endurance in the second of a back-to-back road game.

Some careless and scary turnovers by the Suns late in the game helped OKC climb to within 5.  It was 113 to 108 Phoenix with less than 30 seconds left. But that was as close as the Thunder would climb as the Suns used timely defense and their own free throws to seal the win.

As the clock ran down the Big Sauce Alan Williams shouted over to Suns radio announcer Al McCoy that the win for for him.  McCoy had his name added to the Suns Ring of Honor at Halftime.  Williams grew up in Phoenix listening to McCoy call Suns games for years – so the gesture was more than appropriate.  After the game every Suns player and coach came over to shake McCoy’s hand.

The 20-42 Suns next host the Boston Celtics in Phoenix Sunday afternoon.

This team isn’t going to the playoffs  – but they are becoming very fun to watch.