Around the Suns - A Go On My Suns! blog - Week 4

Join us as we review the highs and lows of the last week, as well as previewing the week ahead.

Week 4: 10-16 November

Week Record: 3-1

Overall Record: 8-6. 8th in the Western Conference.

Games Played and Results:

W - 121 - 98 Vs New Orleans Pelicans

W - 123 - 114 Vs Dallas Mavericks

W - 133 - 98 Vs Indiana Pacers

L - 122 - 124 Vs Atlanta Hawks

Centre of The Sun

Another positive week for the Suns. The team stretched their win streak to 5 games thanks to some low to mid competition and sticking to their foundational make-up of hustle plays and 3-point shooting.

Grayson had the game of his career against the Pelicans (more detail on it later), but it was so well deserved and a great culmination of the work he's put in and the way he's been playing thus far. He's having an incredible season, sporting career highs in points, assists and steals. It's a real shame he picked up an injury during the 2nd quarter against Pacers and missed the Hawks game. We hope he isn't out for too long.

Jordan Goodwin has been great this week and gets our Scorching Sun section this week. There's more below, but his hustle has been unsurprisingly excellent. What has surprised me though is the level of shot making he now has in his bag. He's a much better player than the Jordan we had 2 seasons ago.

The Dallas and Indiana games were really never in doubt thanks to a combination of all the above and we looked strong going into Sunday against the Hawks. The streak however did come to an end against the Atlanta, as the Suns gave up a 20-point lead in the forth quarter, which they'd built on a big run in the third. The Hawks got a second wind in the quarter where they out-hustled the Suns and forced many costly turnovers and some silly, rushed decisions down the stretch. Credit to the Hawks for their play, but I was shuddering while watching, as the forth quarter performance brought back the horrible memories of the Suns' collapses in games the last couple of years.

Lets end this bit on a high. Although it came in our loss, this sequence from Collin and Jordan completely sums up this team so far this season.

Other Suns Stuff

G-League

The Suns had 3 days off, a first this season, so they sent Khaman Maluach and Rasheer Fleming to Tempe to play a game for the G-League affiliate Valley Suns.

Rasheer had himself a good game with 23 points and 9 rebounds. Khaman on the other hand, going by the highlights, didn't look anything special. I was hoping he'd play there and dominate, but he only managed 9 points and 3 rebounds. He also fouled out.

New Signing

The Suns have signed guard Jamaree Bouyea from the Austin Spurs to a two-way contract. The Suns already had 3 two-way players, so had to release CJ Huntley to complete the signing.

There's been no word from the Suns so far on the motivation behind the move.

Superstar Watch (Season stats):

Devin Booker - 28.4 Points, 4.1 Rebounds, 7.0 Assists, 0.8 Steals, 49.5 FG%, 34.1 3PT FG% & 4.0 Turnovers

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Scorching Suns:

Jordan Goodwin

Jordan's been simply fantastic and is playing the best basketball of his career. The box scores really can't show his true value to this team, but when he's on the court he is EVERYWHERE at both ends of the floor.

Honestly, if you are a loose ball somewhere in the world, look out because you're about to be snatched by Jordan Goodwin.

Shout-out to Jordan Ott for giving Goodwin the confidence and free rein to go out on the court and be himself.

His stats for the week:

10.3 Points, 6.8 Rebounds, 3.3 Assists, 1.5 Steals, 51.5 FG% & 54.5 3PT FG%.

Struggling Suns:

Royce O'Neale

I feel bad putting Royce here and his stats haven't been terrible, being propped up by the Pelicans and Mavs games, but he's done a disappearing act in the last 2 games and only shot 2 of 8 from 3 in those games. I think if Grayson hadn't been missing, this wouldn't have been so bad, but because of that, the bad performances have been magnified, as we essentially lost both our 2 main 3-point shooters in those 2 games.

Royce will bounce back, he always does and we've experienced this up and down shooting from him through his whole time on the team.

His stats for the week:

8.8 Points, 5.0 Rebounds, 2.5 Assists, 0.5 Steals, 0.3 Blocks, 41.4 FG% & 45.0 3PT FG%

Stat Line(s) of the Week:

Grayson Allen Vs New Orleans Pelicans

Grayson had the game of his career with 42 points. Not only was it a points career high, but his 10 3-pointers were also a career high, but not only a high for him, but also a Suns franchise record, knocking himself off the top spot, where he'd netted 9 on 3 previous occasions.

Game stat line:

42 Points, 2 Rebounds, 4 Assists 3 Steals, 12/17 FGs (70.6%) & 10/15 3PT FGs (66.7%)

Dillon Brooks Vs Indiana Pacers

On the face of it, his game against the Hawks was the better overall box score, but I couldn't put it above the Pacers game due to the higher shooting percentage and the swagger he was giving the Pacers.

This was Dillon's first 30-point game as Sun and he was on one from the get-go in this one. He was full Dillon the Villain.

Game stat line:

32 Points, 1 Rebound, 1 Steal, 12/18 FGs (66.7%) & 3/7 3PT FGs (42.9%)

Oso Ighodaro Vs Indiana Pacers

Oso had the game of his career, netting a career high 17 points, 3 steals and a season high 7 rebounds and 3 blocks.

His efforts caused a crazy +/- stat of +52.

For those not into advanced stats, +/- is a metric which is the point differential when a player is on or off the court. Oso's +52 means that the Suns were outscoring the Pacers by 52 points when he was on the court. And that is the 3rd highest +/- in NBA history!

Game stat line:

17 Points, 7 Rebounds, 3 Steals, 3 Blocks & 7/9 FGs (77.8%).

Honourable Mention:

Dillon Brooks Vs Atlanta Hawks

I didn't say I wasn't choosing this game, just that I couldn't put it above his Pacers outing 😜

Dillon hit the 30 mark for the 2nd game in a row for the first time in his career. It was needed with Grayson missing this game, but it's a shame it came in a loss.

Game stat line:

34 Points, 6 Rebounds, 1 Assist, 3 Steals. 14/25 FGs (56.0%) & 3/7 3PT FGs (42.9%).

Rookie Watch (Season stats):

Khaman Maluach - 7 games, 0 starts

1.9 Points, 0.9 Rebounds, 0.1 Assists, 0.0 Steals, 0.6 Blocks, 42.9 FG%, 0.0 3PT FG% & 0.7 Turnovers

Rasheer Fleming - 7 games, 0 starts

1.7 Points, 0.9 Rebounds, 0.3 Assists, 0.1 Steals, 0.1 Blocks, 33.3 FG%, 22.2 3PT FG% & 0.1 Turnovers

Koby Brea - 1 game

4.0 Points, 0.0 Rebounds, 1.0 Assists, 0.0 Steals, 0.0 Blocks, 50.0 FG%, 0.0 3PT FG% & 0.0 Turnovers

Upcoming Games:

After a couple of weeks of some easier competition, this week begins a stretch which will really show what our team is made of. Between now and Christmas the schedule is brutal, with the only rest from Playoff calibre teams is this week at Portland and next week at Sacramento.

Anyway, about this week. Portland have built a tough defensive reputation, so will not be an easy game. If Grayson is back from injury (which we still have no word of) I think we'll be fine, but without him we're going to need another good performance from Dillon and a bounce-back game from Royce.

With 2 back-to-back runs to the Western Conference Finals, the Wolves are once again one of the elite teams in the West. Anthony Edwards missed a few games, but he is back to his usual antics. Their supporting cast is still good and on paper they are way ahead of us.

The Spurs announced on Sunday that Wemby will miss 2-3 weeks with a calf strain. This is a blow for the Spurs, but a plus for the Suns, as a game that for me looked like a loss, is now looking like a win. I know we beat them at full strength a few weeks back, but they would have got Wemby more involved this time out.

Prediction:

I'm going with a win against the Blazers, loss to the T-Wolves and a win against the Spurs.

Predictions League:

Here are the league standings after week 4.

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