Alvin Gentry is a coach that insists on getting his key guys (Amar’e and Nash) rest during the start of the fourth quarter, so bench play has been a very important aspect of this series so far, especially in game 2 last night.  With 9:30 left in the game and with Steve Nash already sitting out, Gentry took out Amar’e and replaced him with Channing Frye.  The Suns lineup was as follows:

• Goran Dragic
• Leandro Barbosa
• Jared Dudley
• Grant Hill
• Channing Frye

The Spurs countered with a small lineup of their own, but this 5 shooter lineup from the Suns presents a ton of problems for the Spurs on the defensive end, most notably, who is Tim Duncan going to cover?

Besides the issue of who Tim Duncan is going to cover, this small lineup places the Spurs defenders in positions they aren’t used to:

Here, the Suns run a pick and roll with the PF Grant Hill setting a screen for Goran Dragic.  Manu Ginobili was the guy covering Hill, so he is the hedge man.  Manu probably isn’t the off-ball defender on the screen and roll a ton, and his experience shows here.  He hedges way too hard, and once Dragic makes the pass to Hill the Spurs are forced to rotate as the Suns work the ball around until they eventually get a bucket.  That all comes from Ginobili’s poor hedge.

After this possession, the Suns went ahead and attacked Tim Duncan, who was struggling on defense without a true big man to cover.  The Spurs started him out on Channing Frye, but Frye’s ability to stretch the court was too much for Tim Duncan:

There is not a lot to this play, but Frye and Dudley exchange sending Frye out behind the three point line. Duncan isn’t too familiar with chasing shooters off the three point line, and he hesitates for just a second. That hesitation allows for Frye to get off a clean look, one he knocks down.

After that three, the Spurs call a timeout.  During that timeout, Coach Pop decides to try and hide Duncan on the defensive end by putting him on Grant Hill.  Out of the 5 guys on the court, Hill is the worst three point shooter, so Pop was banking on the fact that Hill wouldn’t be running around on the perimeter.  The Suns recognize this and go straight to the mismatch.

You don’t see the Suns running a ton of ISO plays because they don’t have a lot of guys who can go one on one off the dribble (They are far more effective with a screen and roll leading to a drive and kick).  However, the mismatch here is too great to ignore, so the Suns go right after it.  Both times, they get the ball to Grant Hill on the wing and then just clear out for him, giving Hill space to work.  Duncan doesn’t have the footspeed of hill, so when he starts to attack the basket, Duncan has to back up and give him space.  When he does that, Grant Hill is able to knock down the jumper both times.

Attacking with small ball allowed the Suns to get their two best players some rest (I think Nash got a 22 minute rest in real time), while still being able to score some points.  They stretched out a 3 point lead to 6, and while it doesn’t sound like much, in a game this close three points is a big deal.

With this working so well for the Suns, you know you are going to see it in game 3.  So how can the Spurs counter this?  Well, their first option is to take out Duncan and replace him with Matt Bonner or DeJuan Blair (Bonner is an outside guy who would be comfortable playing far away from the basket, and Blair seems mobile enough to chase Frye off the three point line).  However, they are going to want to keep Duncan in, and if they do, they need to get it to Duncan every single time on the offensive end.  The Spurs need to punish the Suns for putting a lineup like this out.  I feel like the Spurs didn’t really attack the Suns inside when this lineup was out there in game 2.  Finally, the Spurs can play a little zone against this small-ball lineup.  A 3-2 zone with Duncan and Manu patrolling the middle could work, if anything it could break the Suns rhythm.