Suns Now 2-0 to Start Eastern Road Trip
- Matt Elvy
- Apr 22, 2021
- 3 min read
The Suns defeat the 76ers 116 - 113.
Playing the 76ers has become a game I've looked forward to the last couple of seasons. It started as a way of measuring how far Deandre Ayton's game had progressed, facing the best big man in the league, then the added story line of Booker vs Simmons (there's a girl involved, if you aren't aware) and now at this point in the season, it's 2 teams with title aspirations, going head-to-head.
We unfortunately didn't have the Booker and Simmons match-up here, with Ben sitting this one out. Booker had scored at least 30 points in 7 straight against the Sixers, again we didn't get that last night, but this game was still hugely fun to watch, especially as the Sixers didn't seem to need Simmons to defend Book - more on that later.
The game was close throughout, with the largest lead being 10 by the Sixers in the 1st quarter and Phoenix managing a 9 point lead mid-way through the forth. There were 13 lead changes in this one and the teams tied the score 12 times as well.
Joel Embiid was amazing for Philadelphia, putting up 38 points and 17 rebounds. The Suns did as good of a job as you can against him, forcing him to commit 8 turnovers. Deandre Ayton did a great job on Embiid, showing he can defend MVP calibre players for the 2nd game in a row, but the Suns game plan wasn't to leave DA on an island against him. When ever they could they threw extra bodies at Embiid. If DA got switched out on to another player, mob mentality took over. As you can see in this screen grab - All Eyes on Embiid.
This one led to Crowder getting a block on the big man.
While we're talking about defense, we have to acknowledge Matisse Thybulle. As I mentioned above, the 76ers didn't need Simmons to defend Book, as Thybulle did a great job on him for most of the game, holding him to 11 points over the 1st 3 quarters. Though he wasn't scoring as well as usual, Book still amassed 7 assists in the game. The scoring problems went away in the 4th quarter though. In the last 2 minutes of the game the All-Star had multiple big shots to keep the Sixers' final charge at bey, scoring 8 points down the stretch. The cherry on top was this lovely piece of clock manipulation, which looked to put the game away.
Embiid had other ideas though. After this he hit a 3, this was followed by another by Korkmaz. Then the Sixers began to foul the Suns to manage the clock. With Paul at the free throw line with less than a second to go, he unintentionally missed the 2nd one and Embiid, almost sent the game to overtime with a full court heave.
With Booker struggling most of the night Chris Paul led the Suns in the scoring department with 28 points. CP3 was big in the 4th keeping us ahead of the Sixers with 10 points in the period. He also had 8 assists and ANOTHER game of 0 turnovers. Mikal Bridges also picked up the slack with 18 points. He wasn't able to hit 3's at the same clip as the other night, so used his slashing skills to get to the rim, finishing through traffic all night. Mikal did his thing on defense as usual, with 2 steals and 2 blocks.
Ayton was quiet on offense, which isn't surprising, with the task he had with Embiid. He had 10 points on 8 shots, but did add 2 steals and 2 blocks.
Our next game is tonight against the Boston Celtics, so a hugely tough back-to-back to be on.
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