<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p> Every season, the Warriors try to limit Baron Davis' playing time. Every season, injuries and insufficient backups derail those plans.</p> Will this be the season their conservation efforts finally succeed?</p> "I think so," Davis said. "I know it's going to be tough in the beginning with Stephen Jackson being out. I'm going to be called upon to play a lot more minutes.</p> "But I hope to play somewhere in that 30-, 35-minute range, sort of like Steve Nash, and be used in key stretches of the game."</p> It's an intriguing comparison, if not quite in the manner Davis intends.</p> Suns coach Mike D'Antoni adheres to a strict substitution pattern, taking out Nash before the end of the first and third quarters to maximize his rest time between periods.</p> The two-time MVP still averaged 35.3 minutes per game last season - a number extraordinarily high for a 33-year-old with a balky back.</p> The Warriors and Suns share the same challenge: Their point guards make their high-octane offenses go, and without them in the lineup, the running game isn't the same.</p> Golden State's Monta Ellis and Phoenix's Leandro Barbosa are prized talents, but both are still developing and neither is a true ballhandler.</p> The Warriors tried Keith Mc- Leod and Sarunas Jasikevicius as backup point guards. They weren't the answer. The Suns brought in Marcus Banks to spot Nash. That didn't work, either.</p> This season, the Warriors will lean on the combination of Ellis, 10-year veteran Troy Hudson, and point forwards Jackson and Matt Barnes to give Davis some rest. Davis, 28, believes that will be sufficient.</p> "Last year, I had to play so much just because there was really nobody to back me up and nobody to play the '2' once Jason Richardson got hurt. We couldn't really rely on a lot of guys," Davis said. "But this year, we have so many guys we can rely on that the pressure's not on me to play 40 minutes."</div></p> Source: SF Gate</p>
