BRA - Barbosa scoops Sixth Man Award

PHOENIX (NBA) - Brazilian international Leandro Barbosa, the lightning-quick reserve guard of the Phoenix Suns, won the NBA Sixth Man Award in a landslide on Monday.

The announcement came one day after Barbosa scored 15 of his 26 points in a five-minute stretch of the second half to help the Suns rally for a 95-87 home victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in the opener of their Western Conference first-round series.

The performance came after balloting among media members had been tabulated but served as a reminder of what the South American had done all season for the Suns, who led the NBA in scoring at 110.2 points per game.

The end result spoke volumes of the overall perception of Barbosa, who received 578 total points and 101 of a possible 127 first-place votes to easily edge San Antonio's Argentinian Manu Ginobili.

He also received 24 second-place votes and one third-place vote from a panel of 127 sportswriters and broadcasters.

Barbosa, who played for his country at last year's FIBA World Championship in Japan, became the fourth Sun to win the award, joining Eddie Johnson (1989), Danny Manning (1998) and Rodney Rogers (2000).

In his fourth season, Barbosa averaged 18.1 points in 80 games this season. In 62 contests as a reserve, he averaged 17.6 points in 30.8 minutes. No substitute scored more points per game than Barbosa, who also shot 48% from the field, 43% from the arc and averaged 4.0 assists overall.

Ginobili was a distant second with 18 first-place votes and a total of 269 points, a whopping 309 behind Barbosa. An All-Star two years ago, Ginobili averaged 16.7 points in 39 games off the bench for the Spurs. The swingman also averaged 4.4 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.4 steals.

Ginobili started for most of the first half of the season and played in 75 games overall, barely meeting the requirement of coming off the bench in at least half of his games.

Dallas Mavericks guard Jerry Stackhouse finished third with seven first-place votes and 210 points. Stackhouse averaged 11.6 points in 59 games off the bench for the league's best team. A career 19-point scorer, Stackhouse has been a reserve since arriving in Dallas three seasons ago.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Stackhouse, Barbosa and Ginobili played for the teams that finished with the three top records this season.

New York Knicks forward David Lee finished fourth with 22 total points while Philadelphia 76ers sharpshooter Kyle Korver was fifth with 19 points - including the last first-place vote.

FIBA