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When judging whether one team is better than another, much is made of the top three or four players on each squad. And when you're comparing a good team to a lousy team, that's a very adequate way to do it. Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker of the Spurs are better than Baron Davis, Dan Dickau and P.J. Brown of New Orleans, so the Spurs must be better than the Hornets.

But as the recent struggles of the Suns and Wizards have shown, when the top few players match-up reasonably close, you look beyond them to the extras to find out who are the true contenders for the NBA Title every year.

So often, the race for the top regular season record in the NBA comes down to a couple of games. The Pacers beat out Minnesota by three games last year, the Spurs and Mavs tied with 60 wins in 2003, and the Kings beat out a group of teams by three wins in 2002.

Last year, Indy brought Al Harrington, Jon Bender and Kenny Anderson off their bench, and the teams before that all went eight or nine players deep as well. This season, Phoenix and Washington, both chasing the top spot in the league, couldn't maintain the loss of one player without a complete collapse.

Both the Suns and Wizards have made marvelous turnarounds from last season, and the frailty of that surge has now been exposed. These teams, who both missed the playoffs by a wide margin last season, recently lost just one player, but when that one did go out, the lack of depth, the top-heaviness showed, as both teams have hit a bad funk.

Phoenix, after losing their catalyst Steve Nash, hasn't even won a game, and only one game (vs Washington) was close. Phoenix has no bench. Leandro Barbosa, who played three of the games in Nash's place before getting hurt, totaled four assists in those three contests (Nash averages 11 assists per game). In the loss to Washington, the entire Phoenix bench shot 0-for-2 for no points. Fortunately for the Suns, Nash is about to return to action.

In Washington, the loss of Larry Hughes to an elbow injury resulted in similar problems for the Wizards. Washington made a big turnaround from last year, and they also proved how fragile they are by looking absolutly awful in the two games without Larry Hughes. Granted, those two games were in San Antonio and Dallas, but they weren't close, as the Wizards lost by an average of 22.5 ppg.

The loss of just one player for these teams who made giant turnarounds from last year may separate the title contenders from the pretenders. And it's not about the first or second man on the team. It's about the entire rotation. The guys that can fill in when a star gets in foul trouble or suffers an injury. Those common playoff occurences when somebody just commits two bad fouls early, and is forced to sit.

Detroit proved last year in the Finals that even when Rasheed Wallace got in trouble vs. the Lakers, they could go to Corliss Williamson or Darvin Ham, and get good production. The Lakers, however, when losing Karl Malone, had nobody solid to go to, and because they only had three or four good players, couldn't keep up with a ferocious Pistons team.

This year, the Spurs, Sonics, Pistons and Pacers have shown, with talent and playing time, that they can go that deep into their bench and still win games. History has proven that it's the top two or three players that get you deep into the playoffs, but it's the team who can handle the adversity of losing a star to foul trouble or a minor injury that wins the title. Phoenix, Miami, Washington and Sacramento certainly have the starting five and one or two players off the bench that can play, but they just don't have the depth to handle that adversity that somehow always finds its way to every team at some point in the playoffs.

Look for the Spurs, Sonics, Pistons and Pacers to last longer than all the others, because they're not just a starting five. This year's title contenders will be decided by the likes of Steve Nash, Tim Duncan, Ray Allen, D'Wyane Wade and Chris Webber. But the champion may be decided by players like Vladimir Radmanovic, Beno Udrich, Antonio McDyess and Fred Jones, who can give you 10 or 15 good minutes off the bench, allowing thieir team to remain close in a very important playoff game. A game that could have slipped away if those playing weren't at least adiquate players.

I love feedback. E-mail me at gurt14@comcast.net with your questions or comments.