National Basketball Association

Up-to-the-minute Suns clock Nuggets

Published Nov. 27, 2014 1:23 a.m. ET

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PHOENIX -- There are nights when the Suns' playing-time puzzle works itself out.

One of those glorious opportunities for statistical advancement occurred during Wednesday's entertaining, 120-112 triumph over the back-to-back challenged Denver Nuggets.

Before getting into some of the particulars, let's check in with Phoenix coach Jeff Hornacek regarding his abiding philosophy of deciding who is going to play when.

"It's the same statement for 82 games and the playoffs, if we're in it," Hornacek said. "The guys playing well ... we'll stay that route, probably ... depending on the minutes. We've done it all year, we did it last year ... if the team is playing well at the end, we'll let 'em finish it out."

That means those who prefer the comfort of a set rotation -- regardless of performance, opponent, etc. -- need to look elsewhere. With a seeming overload of players capable of occupying every perimeter role on a basketball court, the Suns could receive big production from a different player every night.

We'll have more on that in a jiffy.

Anyway, thanks to the bum ankle of Isaiah Thomas, the Suns (10-6) were obliged to survive 48 minutes Wednesday with only two card-carrying point guards.

Having rookie Tyler Ennis inactive, Goran Dragic carrying four personal fouls in the third quarter and Eric Bledsoe retreating to the locker room after a nasty spill, the Suns almost ran out of PGs. Imagine that.

But in a fashion similar to their first season as DragonBlade, Eric Bledsoe (who returned and was strong in the fourth quarter) teamed up with Goran Dragic to make 14 of 23 field goal attempts, score 41 points, hand out 14 assists and record five steals.

But they were not the evening's command performers.

That show -- much as he was during the 2013-14 Phoenix uprising -- was Gerald Green, who also has felt the occasional squeeze on minutes. Although he's put up crazy numbers while running with Thomas, Green went cuckoo against Denver, supplying the Suns with 24 points, including six of their 13 3-pointers.

Hornacek has little choice but to reward the players bringing it on a particular night, because nobody has demonstrated the capacity to register as an elite offensive player.

"We're working on that," Hornacek said of identifying a go-to employee. "We've got a couple of guys that are making strides toward that."

Until someone of certifiable star ilk clearly is established, Phoenix will rely on offense by committee.

"It's good to have balance," said Hornacek, whose team began the night fourth among NBA teams in per-game average, but only 11th in offensive efficiency. "Teams can't really ... who are they going to focus on? If you have one guy, teams can do different things, trap and do this and that and, all of a sudden you're in trouble.

"This way, the way we play, it's one guy one night ... they take that away, hopefully another guy is able to pick it up. I think it's good ... it'd be nice to have one go-to guy to say, 'hey, we need a bucket,' things aren't going well, give it to him and he scores 90 percent of the time."

OK, so there are times when Green provides such a lethal component ... and times when he's a runaway train.

He was electrifying on Wednesday, especially so in a 9-point third quarter that included a wicked, reverse windmill dunk on a baseline, out-of-bounds play that began with 1.4 seconds on the shot clock. A couple of minutes later, Green answered his own corkscrew 3-pointer by catching a Bledsoe lob with his head at penthouse level and bending the rim again.

Riding shotgun for the high-wire act was DragonBlade, whose individual parts played off of each other comfortably and excelled at running the offense when working solo.

Bledsoe was a brutally-efficient 6-of-10 shooting (including 2 of 3 from deep) for his 21 points, and slick with the ball, handing out 10 dimes against only 3 turnovers.

Dragic provided 20 points on only 13 field-goal attempts (he made 8) and was credited with 4 assists.

They also combined to play over 53 minutes.

For one night, at least, shuffling the minutes was easy.

"You're trying to decide," Hornacek said, "obviously with Eric and Goran, two great players that, you know, if you put the two of them with Isaiah and Gerald, then there's not going to be enough minutes for those guys.

"So we try to get Isaiah in there earlier in the first quarter, around the four-minute mark or so. If we're going really well, we'll keep the two guards in there. But, you know, we want to try to get him (Thomas) in a little bit there so the other guys can go and get rest those first four minutes of the second quarter and be ready for the rest of it."

Dragic, who -- with Thomas on board -- is required to play more off the ball even when Bledsoe is resting, found his sweet spots against Denver. But he'll have to readjust once Isaiah returns.

"We look at the analytic numbers," Hornacek said of his starting guards. "Their usage rates are a little lower than last year, but the big difference for Goran, when he came back in and Eric wasn't in there, he came back as the point guard.

"Now you try to do a little 50-50 with Isaiah -- whoever gets the ball goes. We want to be a good team and take another step ... you've gotta sacrifice for that."

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