Phoenix Suns - Weekly Roundup - Week 12
- Matt Elvy
- Mar 15, 2021
- 5 min read
Join us as we review the highs and lows of the last week, as well as previewing the week ahead.
Week 12: 8 March - 14 March 2021
Week Record: 1-1
Overall Record: 25-12. 2nd in Western Conference
Games Played and Results:
W - 127 - 121 Vs Portland Trail Blazers
L - 111 - 122 Vs Indiana Pacers
It was another short week for the Suns following the All-Star break, with only 2 games in week 12.
Phoenix began the start to the 2nd half of the season with a win over the Trail Blazers. The win extended their winning streak, which started before the break, to 5 games. It was a close game, but the Suns pulled out the win thanks to great defensive and offensive execution down the stretch, which included multiple double digit come backs throughout the game. A 35 point night from Devin Booker helped as well of course.
The second game of the week was a loss to the Indiana Pacers. The Suns were outplayed and out hustled all the way through this one. Phoenix were sloppy with the ball allowing 19 Indiana points off 16 turnovers - Booker personally contributed 6 of those.
It was an off shooting night for our All-Star guards as well, as they combined for only 11 of 30 from the field. Book had 20 points, but it took him 20 shots to reach that number (it took him only 21 shots to reach 35 points vs Portland).
Overall no one particularly played well or stepped up (although Saric did have an efficient 17 points off the bench, but that wasn't enough) and in all honesty Indiana deserved the win.
My biggest concern is that to me the Pacers have a team shaped very similar to the Lakers, a team we will need to beat in the Playoffs. Hear me out - both teams have large frontcourts that consist of a versatile star big and both have great scoring/playmaking guards and wings. The Lakers have a Hall of Fame one of those. The match-up showed our need for another lengthy big coming off the bench and Indiana potentially showed other teams how they can exploit our lack in that area.
Today's the start of a new week, so we learn and move on.
Superstar Watch:
Booker - 25.1 Points, 3.7 Rebounds, 4.6 Assists, 0.8 Steals, 49.7 FG%, 36.2 3PT FG%, 3.5 Turnovers
Chris Paul - 15.8 Points, 4.7 Rebounds, 8.8 Assists, 1.2 Steals 47.9 FG%, 39.0 3PT FG%, 2.4 Turnovers
Scorching Suns:
Mikal Bridges
I could have chosen a couple of guys, but I wanted to show Mikal some love.
Bridges continues to give the Suns the fantastic defensive presence he has all season, but over the 2 games this week he also contributed efficiently and filled the boxscore, even in defeat.
He did a great job against Damian Lillard - you can see an example of that here, thanks to Kellan Olsen.
For the week Mikal averaged:
16 Points, 2 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 1 Steal, 0.5 Block, 63.5 FG% & 42.9 3PT FG%
Struggling Suns:
Deandre Ayton
What on earth is going on? I mentioned last week that Dario took Ayton's minutes in the 4th against the Lakers, well that trend continued. Against both Portland and Indiana, Ayton did not see the court at all in the 4th quarter.
I asked this question over on the Phoenix Fans App (You can join us over on the app here)
Ayton hasn't been out and out bad this week, well no particular event stands out as on overtly damning event.
He still had a good shooting % with 66.7% over the 2 games, but maybe a lack of effort is to blame. He only had 4 rebounds against Portland and allowed Enes Kanter to gather 6 offensive boards in the game. Against Indiana he seemed to be doing pretty well with 14 points and 12 rebounds, but I saw that someone pointed out on Twitter that after being blocked by Turner, he slowly jogged up the court allowing a fast break score, then didn't see the floor again.
As I said above "he's such a confusing player". All these recent happenings, along with trade rumours circulating, with mainly bigs on the market, is the writing on the wall?
Stat Line of the Week:
Devin Booker Vs Portland Trail Blazers
Book had 35 points against Portland on a very efficient 57% and 60% from 3.
The 30+ point outing gave Book the 100th 30 point game of his career, as he increased his lead on the Suns all-time list for that achievement.
For the game his full stat line was:
35 Points, 5 Rebounds, 8 Assists, 12/21 FG (57.1%) and 3/5 3PT FG (60%)
Rookie Watch:
Jalen Smith - 0 game this week.
No floor time at all for Smith this past week.
Season Stats
11 Games, 5.2 mpg, 1.5 Points, 1.0 Rebounds, 0.2 Assists, 0.2 Blocks, 36.8 FG%
Upcoming Games:
We have 4 games this week.
Our first game of the week is tonight (Monday) against the Grizzlies. The season series stands at one apiece right now, so this team does have the capability to pick up the win, however we always bounce back very well following a loss and I expect tonight to be no different.
Next up is Minnesota on back-to-back nights. For me these are the most important games of the week. We need to make sure we are picking up wins against the lower teams in the league, to ensure we keep up with the other Western Conference powerhouses.
Speaking of which we have our 2nd match-up in as many weeks against the Lakers. LA are still without Anthony Davis and a couple of other key cogs, but with LeBron James leading the team you can never count them out.
Let's hope that the referees don't want to take centre stage again in this one.
Any Other Business:
Booker has 100th 30-Point Game of his Career
As mentioned above Booker scored 35 points in the win against Portland last week. In the process he notched the 9th game this season of over 30-points and also the 100th of his career - congratulations to you Mr Booker (I'm sure you'll be reading this).
Suns Interested in Drummond?
A Sherrod Blakely wrote an article for Bleacher Report (so maybe take it with a pinch of salt) the other day, listing what moves Executives around the league think some contenders will make at the trade deadline.
He had the following to say about Phoenix:
"Phoenix has been one of the NBA's most surprising teams, but league executives believe the Suns are a big man away from being a legit threat in the West.
That's why they anticipate the Suns will make a run at Cleveland's Andre Drummond."
"The addition of Drummond would be the one move that would strike fear in most if not all of the NBA's top-shelf teams. Adding him means he would have picked the Suns over the Lakers in a buyout scenario. The value in that can't be understated. It also gives Phoenix the kind of defensive interior presence that will cause problems for the better teams in the West.
And while Drummond is not a stretch big, the Suns have 7-footer Frank Kaminsky (41.9 percent from three-point range) and Sixth Man of the Year candidate Dario Saric (37.7 percent on threes this season) to fill that role. Phoenix needs an additional banger in paint, a role Drummond fills, which would only continue the real-time rise of the Phoenix Suns."
Go On My Suns!
This past Friday we held our 2nd Go On My Suns! Instagram Live show. No one was available to guest this time round, so I went solo with a mailbag episode.
You can catch the replay on our Instagram page - make sure you're following to be notified when we go live.
This coming week we hope to have another guest, so come over and join us. We'll be back this Friday at 7PM (UK time).
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