"The Suns are back but for how long?????" by Ronald Carthen

Kobe Bryant and the Lakers were ready to head back to Los Angeles to finish this series and move on to the NBA Finals, but now the Suns are ready to steal the spotlight. The Suns defeated the Lakers 115-106 in Game 4 of the series even it at 2-2.

The amazing thing was Amar'e Stoudimire and Steve Nash weren't even the stars of the show, it was the famous Suns bench. The bench outscored the Lakers bench 54-20 on 20-of-32 shooting and 9-of-20 from three-point range. In the second quarter, they scored 30 of the team's 41 points to lead the Lakers 64-55 at the half. In the fourth quarter, they exploded against the Lakers. When the Suns up 89-87 with 8:22 remaining in the game, the bench continued to light a fire on LA. Channing Frye, Leandro Barbosa, and Jared Dudley shot the Suns three consecutive three-pointers that sparked an 18-3 run and I knew the Lakers were threw. The Suns reserves played almost the first nine minutes of the quarter and humiliated the Laker starters. I even enjoyed that spin move that Goran Dragic did to Derek Fisher, who's struggling on defense in the playoffs.

It's about time that Channing Frye showed up in this series. Frye only scored a total of four points on 1-of-20 shooting in the first three games of this series. Last night he drop 14 points coming off the bench. 12 of 14 points came from beyond the arc (4-of-8 from three-point range).

Amar'e Stoudimire has impress me in the last couple of games. He drop 21 points on 7-of-14 shooting and he continues to be physical in the paint and not scared to draw fouls, but let's be honest some of those touch fouls were horrible.

Steve Nash is one tough Canadien after just having nose surgery and going back on the court. The man isn't even playing with a facemask and he's keeping his team in contention. He drop 15 points but only shot 3-of-11 from the field. Thank goodness Goran Dragic stepped up in this game and gave Nash enough time to rest for Game 5 of this series.

What else can Kobe do to keep his team in contention? The man had his ninth 30-point playoff game this year with 38 points on 15-of-22 shooting and 6-of-9 from three-point range and dish 10 assists. Where was everybody else in the game? Pau Gasol had only 15 points on 6-of-14 shooting, Lamar Odom and Ron Artest was 1-of-7 from beyond the arc, and Odom drop 15 of the team's 20 bench points. Can Kobe get some help please?

The Lakers couldn't even figure out the Suns zone defense for the second game in a row. They shot 28 three-pointers and only made nine of them. The defense force the Lakers to shoot 60 three-pointers and only made 18 in the last two games. That is not their game and they better figure out what to do with the zone and how to get to the basket.

I have a feeling the Lakers will explode in Game 5 when they return home at the Staples Center. The Lakers better find a way to stop the Suns and their bench in this game or it'll be a long Game 6 for Kobe and company.