So Much Suns News!
- Matt Elvy
- Mar 3, 2021
- 3 min read
Awards, competition participation and winning in LA
Over the last 24 hours, there has been so much Suns news that I need to get it all in one place, so here we go.
Player of the Month
After winning the Player of the Week award twice through out the month of February, Devin Booker has won the Western Conference Player of the Month award for February.
Book averaged 27.9 points, 4.5 assists on 52.3 FG% and 39.5% from 3, leading the Suns to a 12-3 record for the month.
This is the first Player of the Month award of his career and the first time a Phoenix player has won the award since Amare Stoudemire, all the way back in 2010.
All-Star Weekend
Last night on TNT on NBA, the league announced the participants for the Dunk Contest, 3-Point Contest and Skills Challenge.
Chris Paul will compete in the Skills Challenge and Devin Booker will compete in the 3-Point Contest.
This is Chris Paul's 5th time participating in the Skills Challenge in what he hopes can be 5th time's the charm, as he is yet to win the competition.
Booker won the 3-Point Contest in 2018 and holds the record for the highest score in a round.
Win Vs Lakers
In a game where the refs were determined to be the focal point of a nationally televised game, the Suns come out on top against the short-handed Lakers.
Devin Booker was the best player on the floor throughout the first 2 and a half quarters, amassing 17 points on 7/12 shooting, 6 assists, 3 steals and 3 rebounds. Then the refs decided they wanted to sway the out come of the game.
Book received a technical foul after arguing against a foul called on Deandre Ayton. The same sequence he picked up a 2nd technical foul for seemingly passing the ball to the 3rd ref too strongly?
After the game the refs were questioned about the call and had the following to say:
The refs were very technical happy in this game, also handing one apiece to Lakers' coach Frank Vogel and forward Lebron James.
The ejection didn't faze the rest of the team, they showed how far this team has come in that sense and moved on to keep themselves in the game.
“a big-time character win”
Dario Saric came up huge in the game with 21 points. He took all of Ayton's minutes in the 4th and was the focal point of the offense throughout the quarter, He had 10 points and 2 assists in the period, using his big body to score downlow and move the ball to find the open man. Saric and Bridges connected multiple times while on the floor together, leading to easy buckets for each of them. He played 26 minutes in the game, up from the 18 that he's averaged on the season.
The team as a whole turned up for this game. Despite a couple of games where they averaged less than 30% from 3, they finished this one shooting 55% from downtown. They were also able to take advantage at the free throw line, making 22 of their 25 attempts.
Monty Williams described the game as, “a big-time character win”. He wasn't wrong. Not only did they deal with the Booker ejection, but CP3 struggled in this one shooting only 1 of 4 for 8 points, as previously mentioned Ayton did not see the floor at all in the 4th quarter and Lebron James shot 66% for 38 points.
Our wings were fantastic in this game. Mikal Bridges had 19 points, Jae Crowder had 15 and Cam Johnson added 9 points off the bench. The 3 of them combined for 14/23 FGs and 10/15 from 3.
The win give the Suns a 23-11 record. This win and the Clippers' loss to the Celtics means that the Suns now sit with the 2nd best record in the NBA, bettered only by the Utah Jazz.
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