CHARLOTTE, N.C. - When Suns center Robin Lopez played a season high 31 minutes Friday at Atlanta, he was dealing with more than the adjustment of being back in the rotation. It was how he was entrenched in the mix, a place he remained during Saturday night's game.
Lopez played more against the Hawks on Friday than he had played in the previous six January games combined.
Suns coach Alvin Gentry said he had planned to use Lopez against Indiana on Wednesday, but the Pacers dropped Roy Hibbert from the starting lineup, thus changing the matchups. Lopez was the Suns' first substitution Friday because Amar'e Stoudemire had picked up two first-quarter fouls.On Saturday night, Lopez again entered as the first substitution with Jared Dudley when the Suns were trailing 30-14 eight minutes into the game.
Lopez matched his career high with four offensive rebounds Friday night, slamming two of them back in one motion and missing on follows on the other two.
"On the offensive end, it's pretty easy for me to time it," said Lopez, who lamented "a couple stupid fouls" and his 1-for-4 free throw shooting Friday. "Defensively, I have more focus on blocking men out."
Gentry played Dragic for the last 15 minutes of Friday's tight game and Lopez for all but seven seconds of the fourth quarter, sitting Channing Frye for the final 18 minutes and Jason Richardson for all but 20 seconds of the fourth quarter.
"I don't sub on time or clock," Gentry said. "I just sub on how people are playing. If you're going well, you deserve to stay out there."
Free throws
• Stoudemire, 27, and Charlotte's Stephen Jackson, 31, each scored his 10,000th career point Saturday night. No player has reached 10,000 points faster (474 games) or at a younger age than Stoudemire. Stoudemire hit the milestone on a pull-up shot with 7:45 to go in the third quarter. Jackson played in his 637th career game Saturday.
• Gentry considers Charlotte coach Larry Brown and TNT analyst Doug Collins his mentors. He said the thing he learned from Brown that he still sees now in the Bobcats' midseason improvement is that "you have to continue to teach and try to get guys better, no matter what level they are at."
• Charlotte set a franchise record for scoring in a quarter (43) Saturday night against Phoenix and tied the club mark for a half (74). It also was the most points the Suns had surrendered in any quarter or half this season.
• Frye is in his worst four-game offensive stretch of the season. He has averaged 5.0 points in the past four games and has played fewer than 25 minutes in the past three games.
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