Suns Shine Bright in the Mecca
- Matt Elvy
- Apr 27, 2021
- 3 min read
The Suns defeated the New York Knicks on the road 118 - 110, ending the Knicks' 9-game winning streak.
In the final game of their eastern road trip and 2nd night of a back-to-back, the Suns defeated the red hot New York Knicks, who were boasting a 9-game winning streak. The win also snapped another streak - a 2-game losing streak for the Suns, meaning they finished 3-2 on this extremely tough trip on the East Coast.
The game started a bit shaky and looked as though, for the 3rd game in a row an opposing player was going to explode offensively on us. In the 1st quarter Reggie Bullock was perfect from the field hitting all 4 of hit shots, included 3 3-pointers. Luckily that didn't happen here, as he struggled with foul trouble the rest of the night.
The Suns did struggle to gain control throughout the night and didn't tie the game or take the lead till the 3rd quarter. The Knicks leaked out to a 15 point lead twice and 13 point lead once in the 2nd. From then we slowly closed the gap over the next couple of quarters, with Devin Booker and Mikal Bridges taking over in the 3rd.
Bridges, who has struggled to find his 3-point shot on this road trip dominated the last 5 minutes of the 3rd, helping the Suns go in to the 4th quarter with the game tied. He had 11 points in the quarter shooting 2 of 3 from downtown and 4 of 5 overall. He finished the game with 21 points.
Booker was great all night, topping 30 points for the 2nd night in a row. He had 33 in this one and boy did we need all of them. With most of the team continuing their recent shooting struggles, Booker shouldered the load with 20 points in the 1st half. His fantastic night continued in the 3rd as he, along with the aforementioned Bridges, was on top form. Book had 10 points in the period, including 6 points in the 1st 3 minutes, cutting New York's 7 point lead down to 2.
Apart from Book the team was cold in the 1st half, only connecting on 31.2% of their 3's. The 2nd half was a different story however, as the group found their rhythm, hitting 50% from downtown. Bridges and Johnson made 3 each and CP3 hit 2.
Chris Paul - "Point God". Thanks to Book and Bridges efforts in the 3rd CP3 was able to show why he's starting to gain traction in the MVP conversation. He decided that the Suns were going to win this one and simply took over down the stretch, scoring 7 points in the last 2 minutes. My words won't be able to do his work any justice, so here's his highlights:
He finished with 20 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 blocks.
Torrey Craig had his 1st start as a Suns and his task was to try and slow All-Star forward Julius Randle down and he did a pretty good job. Craig and the Suns didn't let Randle be the complete focal point of the Knicks' offense and he finished shooting 6 of 17 for 18 points. I can see Craig becoming more of a fixture in the starting line-up when Crowder isn't available, as he can be used in similar defensive match-ups and once again the Cam Johnson as a starter experiment failed again. He always seems far most comfortable coming off the bench.
The the road trip now behind them, the Suns head home with the Clippers next on the schedule. We've already list the tiebreaker with them, but I can see us taking the win.
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