Reserves shine as Suns draw level

PHOENIX (AP):

Channing Frye made four three-pointers for 14 points as the Phoenix Suns pulled away in the fourth quarter for the second game in a row to beat the Los Angeles Lakers 115-106 on Tuesday night and level the Western Conference finals at 2-2.

Game Five will be played tonight in Los Angeles.

The Suns reserves, considered an advantage entering the series but largely ineffective through three games, outscored their Laker counterparts 54-20. Leandro Barbosa scored 14 on 6-of-8 shooting and Jared Dudley added 11 points. Goran Dragic ran the show at point and had eight points and eight assists in 18 minutes.

Amare Stoudemire led Phoenix with 21 points. Steve Nash, playing with a broken nose, had 15 points and eight assists.

Kobe Bryant had 38 points and 10 assists as the reigning NBA champions fought back to lead briefly early in the fourth before the Suns backups stole the show.

Phoenix coach Alvin Gentry kept all five reserves in the game for almost the first nine minutes of the final quarter and they produced an 18-3 run and the Lakers never recovered.

Belief in bench

When Nash re-entered with 3:05 to play, those subs - usually playing against the Los Angeles starters - had turned an 87-85 deficit into a 103-94 lead.

"We believe in our bench," Gentry said. "Tonight they played as well as they could play."

Frye had made 1-of-21 shots in the series and missed 18 in a row when his second shot of the night, a three-pointer, finally fell to the roar of the home crowd.

Los Angeles did a much better job against the zone defence than in Game Three, but it wasn't enough.