Phoenix Suns - Weekly Roundup - Week 3
- Matt Elvy
- Nov 7, 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 3: 1 - 7 November 2021
Week Record: 3-0
Overall Record: 5-3. 4th in Western Conference.
Games Played and Results:
W - 112 - 100 Vs New Orleans Pelicans
W - 123 - 111 Vs Houston Rockets
W - 121 - 117 Vs Atlanta Hawks
We've finally started to find our groove, winning all 3 games this past week, taking our win streak to 4.
Against the Pelicans and Hawks we were missing Deandre Ayton with a leg injury. He returned against the Rockets, but only shot 47%, despite attempting 17 shots - 5 more than his previous season high of 12.
We got off to slow starts in the 1st 2 games, trailing at halftime in both and only leading by 1 against the Hawks. The Hawks then pulled ahead by 12 in the 3rd. So as I said, we've started to find our groove, but we certainly aren't on the level that we need to be, to get to the heights we were at last season.
Even though we've been challenged the team as pulled out the wins, in impressive style, with CP3 taking over in the 4th vs the Pelicans, with 12 points and 6 assists in the 4th. It was Booker's turn in the 3rd quarter against of the Rockets game, scoring 16 and then Shamet backed him up in the 4th, hitting 2 of 3 3's. Against the Hawks, Booker once again controlled the 3rd, with 11 points. Then in the 4th CP3 took his turn, shooting 3 of 3 for 10 points and dished 5 assists. Shamet added 2 3-pointers again and contributed 9 points.
Superstar Watch (Season stats):
Booker - 24.5 Points, 5.8 Rebounds, 5.1 Assists, 1.0 Steals, 44.4 FG%, 35.8 3PT FG%, 2.9 Turnovers
Chris Paul - 12.9 Points, 4.6 Rebounds, 12.1 Assists, 2.3 Steals 47.3 FG%, 36.8 3PT FG%, 2.5 Turnovers
Scorching Suns:
Devin Booker
Booker picked up his shooting numbers this week, with shooting percentages of 49.2% on FGs and 44.4% from 3. He also had a box score +/- of +7.3, after being a -3.8 for the 1st 5 games of the season.
@theivpointplay on Twitter also had this cool stat about Book:
Click the images to go to the tweets.
Frank Kaminsky
In Ayton's absence against the Pelicans and Hawks (is he scared of birds?!), Kaminsky saw minutes for only the 2nd time this season and performed awesomely. Including the Rockets game, where he only saw 5 minutes, with DA back in the line-up, he averaged 21 minutes, 11.7 points, 3 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.7 steals, shooting 65% overall from the field and 60% from 3.
Landry Shamet
Shamet has finally started to find his shooting stroke (we'll ignore the Pelicans game).
Over the last 2 games of the week, he shot 50% from 3 and 53.3% overall, for 15.5 points. He also averaged 3 assists.
Struggling Suns:
Abdel Nader
Nader seems like a hard working guy, but why is he still getting minutes. He's an ok defender, but on offensive he's a massive minus. He can't shoot, so always has to drive to the rim. The problem is, he can't put the ball through the hoop when he gets there.
I think Monty sees him as the replacement for Torrey Craig, but he is nowhere near the level of player Craig is, which, let's be honest, isn't exactly high.
For the week he's averaged 1.3 points and 1.3 rebounds, on 16.7% shooting. Seriously, why is he getting minutes?
Stat Line of the Week:
Chris Paul Vs New Orleans Pelicans
Needing only 8 assists to jump to places, in to 3rd, on the all-time NBA assist list, CP3 blew this number out the water, dropping 18 dimes in the win. As usual he also contributed with efficient mid-range jumpers, hardly missing.
Game stat line:
14 Points, 7 Rebounds, 18 Assists, 1 Steal, 1 Block, 6/8 FGs (75%).
Honourable mentions:
Devin Booker Vs Atlanta Hawks
Game stat line:
38 Points, 6 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 2 Steals, 1 Block, 14/21 FGs (66.7%), 5/9 3PT FGs (55.6).
Upcoming Games:
We have 4 games this week.
The only home game this coming week is Wednesday against the Blazers.
After picking up losses to the Kings and Blazers over the last couple of weeks I can see the team wanting to show their dominance against these 2 and will come out firing and the Rockets are, well the Rockets. A young, fun team that plays hard, but like last week we will ultimately pick up the win.
The game that I see being our toughest is the Grizzlies game. Having a player like Ja Morant and a pretty well built team around him, you can't guarantee a win. They have some skilled bigs in Adams and Jaren Jackson Jr, so will need Ayton to be healthy for this one. They're also playing well so far this season, sporting a 5-4 record at the time of writing.
I'm possibly being a bit too over-optimistic, but I'm going to say we win all of these games. We should hopefully get Ayton back full-time, by the time we play Memphis, which is the game I think he's most needed.
Predictions League:
Any Other Business:
CP3 moving up the Assist Rankings
Just as we knew he would, Paul passed Mark Jackson and Steve Nash to go 3rd on the all-time NBA assist list. He did it in impressive fashion as well, notching 18 dimes against the Pelicans.
Sarver
The story that we were all waiting for finally go published by ESPN. The story can be read here. The story has multiple accounts from current and ex-employees of the Suns, with allegations of racism and misogyny within the organisation, but especially from Robert Sarver.
Sarver has of course denied pretty much all of the allegations, and why wouldn't he, it's all he said/she said right now. He did admit to kacking or "pantsing" as it says in the article, a 25 year old ex-employee in front of around 60 other employees.
For me, if he's the sort of person that is happy to do that to someone, he is definitely capable of being blatantly sexist, but apparently, according to him, that isn't the case.
The NBA are now conducting a full investigation in to the allegations and some have compared this to the Donald Sterling situation. The problem is, there was hard evidence against him, but that isn't the case in the Sarver situation.
As much as we all want #SarverOut, I'm worried that there won't be enough hard evidence for that dream to come true.
Anyway, let's all take a moment to think about all the employees that he's abused over the years and commend them for the bravery to come forward in this appalling piece of news.
I retweeted a lot of tweets with statements from different parties involved, etc, so checkout my feed.
Go On My Suns!
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