Monty Williams looks to improve Suns bench production for Game 2 vs. Clippers

Suns coach Monty Williams said his team's offense looked "all over the place" and "needs to be more organized" following Phoenix's first-round series-opening home loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.

That includes Phoenix's bench.

But he credited the Clippers' defensive pressure for Phoenix's second unit's lack of fluidity with just 12 field goal attempts out of the team's 82 total in L.A.'s five-point victory.

“I didn’t think we were organized enough to get those guys shots," Williams said. "The way they matched us, I thought that messed with us a little bit. We have to just run our stuff and that’s what we’re gonna talk about (on Monday). Just run our stuff, no matter how they match up, and make them play against our offense. Our offense is pretty good."

During the playoffs, most lineup rotations shrink as reserves get much less playing time compared to starters, such as Kevin Durant playing 45 minutes, Devin Booker getting 44, and Chris Paul's 38 on Sunday.

Landry Shamet (four points on 2-of-5 shooting, two rebounds and one assist) played the most off the bench in 24 minutes as their sixth man. The other five were Josh Okogie, Bismack Biyombo, Jock Landale, Ish Wainright, and Terrence Ross, who combined for a mere 10 points, nine rebounds, two assists and three blocks compared to the L.A. bench's 31 points, 16 rebounds, six assists and three steals.

L.A. had four reserves play an average of 19.5 minutes and two scored double figures (Norman Powell, 14 points; Terance Mann, 10 points) whereas Phoenix's reserves, not including Shamet, played just up to eight minutes.

“I know our defensive coverages and I can guard. I know I’m not a liability defensively," Shamet said. "Obviously, I’m frustrated I didn’t give us more offensively, but there’s a couple possessions where I go back and look at where I feel like I could’ve been aggressive to make a play instead of getting off of it quickly. I know that’s what we’re gonna need, take pressure off the big dogs (Phoenix starters) and make some plays.”

L.A. switched in its several defensive matchups for the entire game. Phoenix is known to do the same, but it didn't work out as well.

"We’re gonna start feeling different rhythms throughout the game, different matchups, when to hunt the right matchups, when to let the ball breathe and just play the right way, move the ball," Shamet said.

"I think early on in the game, we got a little stuck. We were slow because we were trying so hard to the right matchup all the time. But once we started getting stops and kind of flowing and brought the game got close, the ball went moving and we weren’t as stagnant and slow. Offensively, that’s the biggest piece. Defensively, we got a few things to bring in and probably come back in re-analyze and look at.”

Much of Phoenix's lack of bench production in Game 1 pertains to the limited minutes for five of their six guys who Williams substituted, and how Williams was looking to defend against L.A.'s best player, Kawhi Leonard.

Phoenix's bench isn't as deep and productive as L.A.'s bench offensively, led by their sixth man Norman Powell this season. But Williams plans to figure out how to optimize his bench lineups to defend against one of this season's top second units.

“The minutes are gonna go up for the guys who the guys who play a ton," Williams said. "We’re trying to match up and keep size on Kawhi as best we can, but we also have attention on Powell and (Eric) Gordon. So a lot of it was getting some defensive guys on Powell and Gordon along with Kawhi. But I think I could’ve given Terrence a longer run tonight just to give us somebody who could knock down a shot and space the floor.”

For subscribers: Rebounds, bench production come up short in Suns' Game 1 loss to Clippers

Williams decided to start the taller Torrey Craig (playoff career-high 22 points) on Leonard (38 points) instead of the 6-foot-3 Okogie for length and size matchup reasons. Okogie has started as their fifth player since Durant's return from his ankle injury on March 29 against Minnesota, but he only played seven minutes off the bench and didn't score off his single shot.

Deandre Ayton said that playing with some of Phoenix's new teammates since February is still a big adjustment, and matching up against their Pacific Division rival Clippers.

“The terminology, there’ll be times out there where we’re probably blurting out something, and our new guys out there, collectively as a team we have to just communicate the right way on what we’re doing, of what we’re trying to accomplish,' Ayton said.

"Whether it’s ATO (after timeout), side out-of-bounds (play design), something. It ain’t always gonna look pretty and I hope the people didn’t expect us to be in no damn easy walk-through. We’ve seen these dudes before and they know us like the back of their hand like we know them.”

More: The big question after Suns Game 1 loss to Clippers: Where was the effort?

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Suns look to improve bench players' offense for Game 2 vs. Clippers