Phoenix Suns - Weekly Roundup - Week 20
- Matt Elvy
- May 10, 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 20: 3 May - 9 May 2021
Week Record: 2-2
Overall Record: 48-20. 2nd in Western Conference & NBA.
Games Played and Results:
W - 134 - 118 Vs Cleveland Cavaliers
L - 103 - 135 Vs Atlanta Hawks
W - 128 - 105 Vs New York Knicks
L - 110 - 123 Vs LA Lakers
Last week I predicted a loss to either the Hawks or Lakers - but not both!
Ok, so the loss to Atlanta was what Matt Alcock has coined "a schedule loss", as it was the 2nd of a back-to-back after going to overtime against Cleveland and not arriving in to Atlanta till the early hours of the morning.
Sunday night against the Lakers shows how great of a player Anthony Davis is. it also shows how foul trouble can get in to Deandre Ayton's head, therefore stopping him from being aggressive. To save me typing it all again, here are my thoughts:
It also didn't help that Booker and Chris Paul had poor games (by their standards). It's rare that all 3 guys have a bad game, so I'm no more worried about the Lakers than I previously was - which to be fair, I was quite worried anyway.
The win in Cleveland, as we know, went to overtime. The Suns were fairly underwhelming throughout the game, but completely flipped the switch in overtime, holding the Cavs to 4 points and only 1 field goal. It was the 2nd largest overtime victory in NBA history (17 points).
The New York game got chippy, with tempers flaring from both teams. Phoenix, with Chris Paul leading the way, seemed to thrive in that environment. Taj Gibson pushed CP3 to the ground in transition and after that, Suns took off and secured the win.
Superstar Watch:
Booker - 25.5 Points, 4.2 Rebounds, 4.4 Assists, 0.8 Steals, 48.5 FG%, 34.0 3PT FG%, 3.1 Turnovers
Chris Paul - 16.2 Points, 4.5 Rebounds, 8.9 Assists, 1.4 Steals 49.2 FG%, 39.3 3PT FG%, 2.2 Turnovers
Scorching Suns:
Mikal Bridges
What I love about Mikal Bridges is that he does everything well. Every time you look at the box score, he's filled pretty much every box on there.
This past week was no different:
At times he's looked like the best player on the court, taking over in many stretches this week, most notably vs Cleveland and New York. He was also our most solid player in the losses to the Hawks and Lakers.
For the week he averaged 17.8 points on 61.9 FG%, 66.7 3PT FG%, 3.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.8 blocks
Honourable Mention:
Cameron Payne
Payne is the heart and soul of the bench and maybe even the team. He always brings 100% effort and has been a revelation backing up CP3 and Book this year.
In 13 mins this past week, he's averaged 13.3 points, shooting 64.3% from 3 and 61.3% overall.
Struggling Suns:
Dario Saric
Another down week for Dario. I want him to succeed so badly and he definitely needs the confidence boost.
He only played 9 minutes per game this past week, struggling with the size and athletic ability of opposing bigs. In his limited time he averaged 2.8 points, shooting 33% and added 1.8 rebounds.
Stat Line of the Week:
Deandre Ayton Vs New York
On an otherwise quiet week for the big man, he used his size in this game to power himself to some big numbers. He was great, as has become the norm now, on defense, but here he had the offense to match.
Game stat line:
26 Points, 15 Rebounds, 1 Assist, 1 Steal, 1 Block, 10/14 FGs (71.4%) 6/6 FT.
Honourable mentions:
Chris Paul Vs Cleveland Cavaliers
23 Points, 6 Rebounds, 16 Assists, 4 Steals, 2 Blocks, 0 Turnovers, 8/16 FGs (50.0%) 2/3 3PT FGs (66.7%).
Rookie Watch:
Jalen Smith - 2 games this week.
Smith played 1 minute in the win over Cleveland, picking up 1 foul. He then played the final 8 minutes of the Atlanta game, scoring 6 points and grabbing 2 rebounds.
Season Stats
25 Games, 4.1 mpg, 1.5 Points, 0.9 Rebounds, 0.1 Assists, 0.1 Blocks, 0.1 Steals, 44.1 FG%
Ty-Shon Alexander - 3 games this week.
Ty-Shon appeared in 3 games this week. He amassed a total of 2 rebounds and 2 assists across the 3 games (8 minutes total).
Season Stats
14 Games, 3.0 mpg, 0.4 Points, 0.5 Rebounds, 0.3 Assists, 0.1 Blocks, 18.2 FG%
Upcoming Games:
We have 4 games this week.
The final 4 games of the season.
None of these last 4 are slated to be particularly easy, but if we have our seeding spot locked up, with no way of going higher or dropping down, I can see Monty resting some of our guys in one of the San Antonio games.
The Warriors (35-33) are currently in the 8th position and would be facing the Lakers in the Play-in, to determine the 7th seed, so this could be a preview of a potential 1st round match-up for us. Steph Curry is playing at an MVP-like level and is averaging 36 points over his last 9 games.
Unless something bad happens, Portland (39-29) looks to take the 6th seed in the West avoiding the Play-in game. They're 7-3 over their last 10 games and have a fairly easy night tonight against Houston, so they could be sporting a 4 game win streak when we face them. Lillard is currently on a hot streak averaging just under 32 points, along with 9 assists. This is the Suns' final game of the regular season at home, so I hope they put on a good, winning show for the home crowd.
The Spurs (32-35) seem to be trending in the wrong direction at the wrong time of the year, going 4-6 in their last 10 games. Last time we played them, we played terribly and San Antonio picked up the W. As always you can never count out a Popovich coached team and this week will be no different, especially if we do rest some players as I predicted earlier.
I'm predicting that we go 3-1 this week. I'm going to stick to my prediction that we rest some players, so we'll lose one to the Spurs.
Any Other Business:
Power Rankings
NBA.com has just published their Weekly Power Rankings and despite going 2-2 this week, they have only dropped 1 spot, going from 1st down to 2nd.
Go On My Suns!
This past Friday Matt Alcock (@postup323) and I sat down and spoke about the race for the 1st seed in the West, how the play-in impacts the Suns and who we'd like and not like to see in the 1st round of the Playoffs.
You can catch up on here on Instagram.
Thanks for your continued support with this little venture and we should be back again this Friday with a another guest at 7pm (UK time).
You can catch the all the replays on our Instagram page - make sure you're following to be notified when we go live.
Thank you for reading. Please like, comment below what you think and share on social media.
To make sure you never miss a post, you can also subscribe to us.
You can also use the code 'SUNSFANSUK' on The Throwback Store to receive a 10% discount on any order you make.
Comments