Around the Suns - Weekly Roundup - Week 17

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

Week 17: 10-16 February

Week Record: 0-2

Overall Record: 26-28. 11th in the Western Conference.

Games Played and Results:

L - 112 - 119 Vs Memphis Grizzlies

L - 111 - 119 Vs Houston Rockets

Centre of The Sun

With injuries piling up and the Suns not performing even when they are fully healthy, Coach Bud has started to experiment with the line-ups.

Since last week Bol Bol has been playing solid minutes. His showings earned him his 1st starts as a Sun against Memphis and Houston, which was also an attempt from Bud to match some of their size. He hasn't been a sensation, but he has brought a different dynamic to the team. Fans have loved his effort plays, big dunks and plentiful blocks. He finished the 2 games averaging 16.5 points, 9.0 rebounds and 3 blocks.

Kevin Durant returned from injury and as usual looked like he hadn't missed any time at all. Across our 2 games he averaged 35 points on 67% shooting, just incredible.

Unfortunately, Bol and KD's play didn't lead to wins. Now, that isn't to say that the team played badly, because they didn't. The effort was there and we had some really good runs to putting pressure on Memphis, cutting a 19-point lead down to 3 in the closing minutes, then holding the lead for most of the 1st and 3rd quarters in Houston, but with us playing G-League players, we just didn't have enough.

One nice thing to celebrate was Durant passing the 30,000 career points against Memphis. He's only the 8th player in NBA history to hit that mark and joins LeBron James as the only active players at over 30,000.

Other Suns Stuff

All-Star Weekend

As always after All-Star weekend the whole internet set up camp to complain about how bad it was and how it used to be better.

My personal opinion is that the NBA are trying too hard to chase rating on something that is supposed to be fun. There were too many "skits" in what seemed like a terrible attempt to get parts clipped and shared online. I also don't care how many celebrities are at the game watching, I just want to see the best players on the court having fun.

I felt underwhelmed this year with the tournament format and found it weird that we had non-All-Star rookies and sophomores playing against All-Stars on Sunday night, when players like Booker, Sabonis, Maxey, etc all got snubbed. Has the NBA actually asked the players what they think? Probably not.

My personal preference is just a straight East vs West game. I don't care that there's no defence or that the players supposedly "don't care". It's meant to be a break from the serious stuff, so let the mess around and chuck deep 3's and try stupid alley-oop passes.

I thought the dunk contest was fun, Mac McClung really is awesome and considering myself a "shooter" I always enjoy the 3-point Contest. The Spurs getting disqualified was hilarious and is the most Chris Paul thing ever.

Royce's Points Milestone

Congratulations to Royce O'Neale for passing 4,000 career points.

Superstar Watch (Season stats):

Devin Booker - 26.2 Points, 4.0 Rebounds, 6.7 Assists, 1.0 Steals, 45.3 FG%, 33.9 3PT FG% & 2.7 Turnovers

Kevin Durant - 27.3 Points, 6.0 Rebounds, 4.2 Assists, 0.9 Steals, 1.4 Blocks, 53.2 FG%, 40.4 3PT FG% & 3.1 Turnovers

Bradley Beal - 17.4 Points, 3.4 Rebounds, 3.4 Assists, 1.1 Steals, 0.6 Blocks, 49.5 FG%, 40.1 3PT FG% & 2.0 Turnovers

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Scorching Suns:

Kevin Durant

KD returned from injury and was a scoring machine. He had to be with Beal still out and Book missing the Rockets game

His stats for the week:

35.5 Points, 4.0 Rebounds, 6.0 Assists, 1.5 Steals, 2.5 Blocks, 67.5 FG% & 55.6 3PT FG%

Struggling Suns:

TyTy Washington

This might be mean and like I said earlier, I understand what Bud is trying to do, but TyTy has not looked good. Yes, he brings energy, but does he really deserve minutes over Monte Morris?

His stats for the week:

6.5 Points, 3.5 Rebounds, 3.0 Assists, 27.8 FG% & 11.1 3PT FG%

Stat Line(s) of the Week:

Kevin Durant vs Houston Rockets

Game stat line:

37 Points, 5 Rebounds, 9 Assists, 2 Steals, 15/22 FGs (68.2%) & 2/5 3PT FGs (40.0%).

Bol Bol vs Memphis Grizzlies

Game stat line:

18 Points, 14 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 2 Steals, 4 Blocks, 7/16 FGs (43.8%) & 3/10 3PT FGs (30.0%).

Rookie Watch (Season stats):

Ryan Dunn - 49 games, 28 starts

6.5 Points, 3.3 Rebounds, 0.9 Assists, 0.4 Steals, 0.6 Blocks, 44.2 FG%, 31.0 3PT FG% & 0.4 Turnovers

Congrats to Ryan for being part of the winning Rising Stars team. The win meant he got to play on Sunday against the real All-Stars.

Oso Igodharo - 41 games, 2 starts

3.5 Points, 3.2 Rebounds, 1.0 Assists, 0.4 Steals, 0.4 Blocks, 57.4 FG%, 0.0 3PT FG% (1 attempt) & 0.6 Turnovers

Jalen Bridges - 5 games

0.8 Points, 0.6 Rebounds, 0.0 Assists, 0.0 Steals, 0.0 Blocks, 25.0 FG%, 25.0 3PT FG% & 0.8 Turnovers

Upcoming Games:

Here are the UK tip-off times:

The road trip that started before the All-Star break continues and we're visiting teams that all made changes a the trade deadline. We re-start visiting the revamped San Antonio Spurs, having added De'Aaron Fox for basically nothing before the trade deadline. The Bulls on the other hand sold at the deadline sending Zach LaVine to Sacramento for future picks and bit players. The Raptors added a key piece in Brandon Ingram (Temu KD) to assist Scottie Barnes with the scoring load. He is injured and expected to miss a few more weeks.

The Spurs are currently 1 position and 3 games behind us in the standings and are still working Fox into the fold, losing 3 of their 5 games since he arrived. One thing to consider is that this will be Fox's 1st home game since joining the team, so I'm sure they will show up for this one.

The Bulls have lost 7 of their last 10 games and are on a 4-game losing streak and I expect that to be 5 games when they face us, as they have the Knicks before us.

The Raptors have only won 17 games this season, but 8 of their wins have come in their last 16 games. They're a long team, which is usually bad for us, but I think we'll be ok.

As of writing, I have seen no injury updates on Book or Beal, so not sure where they're at. I'm hoping the break will have given them time to get healthy.

Prediction:

I think we will lose to the Spurs, but get wins in Chicago and Toronto.

Predictions League:

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