Around the Suns - Weekly Roundup - Week 1

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

Week 1: 21-27 October 2024

Week Record: 2-1

Overall Record: 2-1. 3rd in the Western Conference.

Games Played and Results:

W - 116 - 113 Vs LA Clippers OT

L - 116 - 123 Vs Los Angeles Lakers

W - 114 - 102 Vs Dallas Mavericks

Centre of The Sun

Welcome back to Around the Suns! The Go On My Suns! Weekly Roundup article.

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Week 1 of the new NBA season is in the books and it feels like we've had a season's worth of ups and downs already.

We won our first game, ruining the debut of the Clippers new home, the Intuit Dome, in a game where Durant forced overtime.

This was followed by the Suns having a scorching start against the Lakers from 3, building a 22-point lead, only to lose focus all over the court with turnovers and bone-headed plays, to lose.

Then we had the home opener against the reigning Western Conference champs where, despite most of the game being close, never felt like ours to lose. Luka dropped 40 on us (of course), but KD led us to victory.

On top of all this, Okogie is yet to suit up due to a strained calf, Grayson missed our last 2 games for personal reason, Beal missed the Mavs game with a sore elbow, Book is struggling to find his rhythm, fans already want Nurk to be traded and Bol Bol doesn't seem anywhere near cracking the rotation.

Phew! I'm tired after all that, so on to the rest of the article.

Superstar Watch (Season stats):

Devin Booker - 19.7 Points, 2.7 Rebounds, 5.0 Assists, 1.0 Steals, 42.9 FG%, 43.5 3PT FG% & 2.3 Turnovers

Kevin Durant - 28.7 Points, 6.7 Rebounds, 2.7 Assists, 1.3 Steals, 1.0 Blocks, 52.7 FG%, 50.0 3PT FG% & 3.7 Turnovers

Bradley Beal - 19.5 Points, 2.0 Rebounds, 5.0 Assists, 1.5 Steals, 1.0 Blocks, 50.0 FG%, 58.3 3PT FG% & 2.0 Turnovers

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Scorching Suns:

Kevin Durant

This could have been written at any point over the last season and a half, but KD has been our most consistent and efficient scorer this week. It felt like every shot he took went in, especially in crunch time, forcing overtime and scoring 11 points in the 4th quarter against Dallas. Letting Luka know he's too small to guard him is a personal highlight 😁

His stats for the week:

28.7 Points, 6.7 Rebounds, 2.7 Assists, 1.3 Steals, 1.0 Blocks, 52.7 FG% & 50.0 3PT FG%

Honourable Mention:

I don't usually do an honourable mention in this section, but I wanted to shout-out Ryan Dunn for how he's shot the ball. It's been well publicised that he wasn't a good shooter coming out of college. We saw amazing shooting in Pre-season, but he's carried this over to the Regular season by shooting 46% on 4 attempts per game.

Struggling Suns:

Devin Booker

Although the shooting numbers look fine, especially from 3, if you've watched our games this week, you'll have noticed something is slightly off with Book. It seems like he's not been able to get into a rhythm. He's had moments where the Book we know is there, but then we've had large stretches where he's disappeared or has been trying to force the offense through iso-ball.

This isn't all on him, the coaching staff need to assess how teams have been playing him and try to work out better ways to get him involved.

I'm not concerned at all, I'm confident we'll see a "Book game" very soon and this "struggling" is in comparison to the levels that Book has already set himself.

His stats for the week:

19.7 Points, 2.7 Rebounds, 5.0 Assists, 1.0 Steals, 42.9 FG%, 43.5 3PT FG% & 2.3 Turnovers

Stat Line(s) of the Week:

Kevin Durant vs Los Angeles Lakers

KD did everything he could trying to keep us in this game, after letting our lead evaporate, but his best game of the week unfortunately came in a loss.

Game stat line:

30 Points, 4 Rebounds, 6 Assists, 1 Block, 11/17 FGs (64.7%) & 2/3 3PT FGs (66.7%).

Bradley Beal vs LA Clippers

Brad looked great in the season opener. Here's hoping that once he's back from injury, we'll have this version of him for the rest of the season.

Game stat line:

24 Points, 3 Rebounds, 1 Assist, 1 Steal, 1 Block, 8/12 FGs (66.7%) & 4/6 3PT FGs (66.7%).

Honourable Mention:

Tyus Jones vs LA Clippers

Tyus gets a mention for his regular season debut against the Clippers, for doing exactly what he was brought in to do - rack up assists and look after the ball.

According to the Suns he has the most assists in a Suns debut, without a turnover.

He also had 0 turnover and 7 assists against the Mavs, meaning he had just 2 turnovers, to 19 assists all week!

Game stat line:

11 Points, 2 Rebounds, 8 Assists, 2 Steals, 1 Block, 5/10 FGs (50.0%), 1/5 3PT FGs (20.0%) & 0 Turnovers.

Rookie Watch (Season stats):

Ryan Dunn - 3 games, 1 start

8.0 Points, 2.0 Rebounds, 1.0 Assists, 0.0 Steals, 0.3 Blocks, 50.0 FG%, 46.2 3PT FG% & 0.3 Turnovers

Oso Igodharo - 3 games

0.7 Points, 2.7 Rebounds, 0.0 Assists, 0.0 Steals, 0.3 Blocks, 50.00 FG%, 0.0 3PT FG% (0 attempts) & 0.7 Turnovers

Jalen Bridges - 0 games

Upcoming Games:

Another 3 game slate this week and both LA teams for the 2nd week in a row.

Here are the UK tip-off times:

The Lakers, who beat us last week, currently hold the best record in the league at 3-0. Anthony Davis is playing as well as he has in years and could cause problems for us again. He dropped 35 on us last week, as the Suns gave up a 22 point lead. We didn't really have an answer for him.

Game 2 is another re-match back in the brand new Intuit Dome vs the Clippers. They're still without Kawhi Leonard, but they still almost had us, with KD and Harden leading the way in the 17th and 16th season, respectively.

Our last game is against the Blazers, who are not expected to do much again this season. The story here is Ayton returning the Phoenix again, but I think we as fans have got to the point where we don't really care - unless you're the teenagers on X, wishing we had him back 🤭

Prediction:

I'm unsure how the LA games will go, with both games being close last week. Looking at how we performed against the Mavs, we seem to be finding a rhythm, though.

I'm going to go for 3 wins this week.

Predictions League:

The Go On My Suns! Prediction League is back for it's 4th season.

I'm delighted to say this is the most people we've ever had participate and the group chat has been popping off with plenty of banter.

Here's how everyone did to kick things off.

Other Suns Stuff:

KD 29,000 points - 8th All-Time NBA

Against the Mavs, on a 3-point make, KD became just the 8th player in NBA history to reach 29,000 points!

A banner for Al

As I'm sure you're all aware, we lost the Suns Legendary play-by-play host Al McCoy in the Summer.

Along with the player wearing an "AL" patch on their jerseys all season, the team also raised him into the rafters before our home opener.

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