Why the Phoenix Suns were FINALLY able to get a win and some momentum against the Houston Rockets
Listen there’s a lot to go over there was a lot of good stuff that we saw tonight still a couple things we can clean up obviously but uh this was a good step in the right direction finally they needed it man welcome to the 4040 clubs there you go baby all and flex
Baby one and0 let’s keep it going no this was this was much needed man and this was fun this was actually probably the most fun I’ve seen from this basketball team this year they looked like they had some life that bench looked like they had energy everybody
Was engaged from beginning to end and these are glimpses we were looking for this is this is a nice bounce back a second night where we got some production besides Devin and Kevin and that rolls over from the Dallas game and so now we got a little bit of a pattern
Yeah let’s see if we can keep this up you know I think one of the cool things that that I’m G to take away from this game is that Devon and Kevin didn’t feel like they forced anything at all that’s right like they didn’t they didn’t try
To force the issue they didn’t try to force the scoring but you know we’ll get into all that here in a little bit let’s just go ahead and kind of reset what happened in the game in the first quarter obviously both teams kind of started off a little slow then they
Started getting it going and really uh ironically speaking Eric Gordon got the first bucket of the game on the driving layup and then they were Off to the Races uh the Suns went up by six in that first quarter to to go into the second
They were up 30 to 24 and then in the second quarter is really when when things started to to kind of take off a little bit more uh azuk I just felt like really brought a lot of energy had some great uh solid minutes there uh got some
Dunks played with aggression played with some tenacity I thought he was the spark in the second quarter uh and it was kind of you know it kind of went back and forth but EG in that second quarter had a f a fantastic uh 14-point effort on
Those threes really take him up by 18 in that second going into half and then coming out of the half obviously um you know listen Eric Gordon had uh seven threes tonight which is I think it’s his 18th time time having at least seven or
More threes in a game wow which is ninth all time in the NBA W uh it was fantastic in the third quarter it it they they kind of kept pace yeah nothing too dramatic either way they actually extended the lead by 20 going into the fourth and in the fourth they kind of
Played with their food a little bit but towards the end uh we were pretty much on triple double watch and then Kevin Durant obviously gets that last board with about two minutes and 30 seconds left to go on the game to get himself a triple double his first as a phoenix son
So it was uh it was a tremendous effort from start to finish I thought this was one of the more complete games of the Season yeah and I think when I say complete games I mean in totality um from the starters to some of the guys on
The bench uh even guys like Sabin Lee coming in and providing Some solid minutes they just got some juice today yeah you nailed it they came out in the first quarter and kind of set the tone it was a little slow the second quarter is where they really started to get some
Momentum and started to feel themselves I’m really proud of auk man I mean that kid is tough that kid brings the energy you saw the dunk with the flex right those are the things that this team was missing and he added that in Spades and
Then Eric Gorton for a guy that you know he came out publicly a couple days ago and said hey I need to be more involved I’m a scorer I’m a shooter I’ve been doing this a long time um this was the kind of game that makes you feel like
Okay you you backed up what you were saying this is a very good sign thought I thought Grayson was really good listen I I don’t have a complaint with anyone today Sabin coming off to you got two two-way guys that came in here and play good basketball so message yeah exactly
Seriously serious message Drew Eubanks and Jordan Goodwin I mean you you basically and UDA and KD B right these are guys that aren’t seeing the floor right now and I like it I like that Frank went to that now my challenge to Frank going forward would be don’t mess around give these
Guys you know give these guys more minutes because they’ve earned it you said something interesting in a Dallas game and coming off 11-11 double double against Sacramento you don’t see anything from Mauk four minutes you got four minutes now tonight that guy earned some more minutes when we play on uh
Charlotte on Friday I look to see both of those guys him and sa to get more minutes so great effort across the board and this is exactly what the doctor order for his basketball team yeah absolutely you know I I really thought you know Devon Booker is probably
Somebody we’re not going to talk too much about tonight so we’ll go ahead and throw him in right now because we’re gonna get to the other guys that really stood out but Devon Booker had a really kind of quiet game yeah um there was times out there where you didn’t even
Notice he was on the court which is not a great thing to say about one of your star players but it also was a a positive sign that he wasn’t trying to force too much he wasn’t trying to get his he wasn’t trying to make some crazy
Passes he just kind of let the game come to him and and actually because of that by default Kevin Durant that’s right ended up being the the the facilitator right and I mean k KD I think he had like something like 13 assists uh in the third quarter like he he was just
Phenomenal tonight and and again when we’re talking about a team I I said in the pregame sometimes you have to go back to basics and I felt like today was a basic game like hey guys let’s not try to do too much we can’t we can’t make up
For all the losses that we just had in one game right so let’s just calm cool collected basketball and carry on and I thought that’s exactly what they did it was and it was Hey listen the the the numbers speak for themselves right you know what this felt like you you know in
Baseball when you’re when you’re down four or five runs you can’t go up there and try to hit a grand slam with the F right and and it felt like it was It was kind of snowballing and that’s what they did today they got singles today they got doubles today right they didn’t
Swing for the fences they just kept that composure said we’re just going to keep playing our game and keeping it simple book had 20 20 points seven assists four rebounds he looked invisible sometimes like there was times in the game I’m like book doesn’t even look like he’s on
The court but I will say this by default Kevin stepped up and had a tremendous triple double Eric Gordon his shots Grayson Allen his shots it also felt a little bit like like uh Houston was daring them saying we’re going to take book Away We dare y’all to do this whole
Game and they did it now that carries over so now the next guy Report with a team like Charlotte they’re going to say okay we got to get a little close on EG we got to get a little close on Grayson that’ll open the door for Devon and I
Think that’s what we need we need guys to start playing better and then you’ll see Devon’s game kind of open up by default as well no I like that I like that listen going back to his point Grayson all with 16 points Eric Gordon with 27 points OAB buuk with 11 like if
You’ have told me that before the game I’d have felt pretty good about a son’s win not knowing what Devin Booker and Kevin Durant were going to do we saw this movie a little bit the other night uh with Grayson Allen having as many points as he did uh but the the other
Two weren’t able to step up enough to really help him out tonight I thought that they did a great job of just keeping pace and I think that’s the one other thing that we miss we’re missing this year versus last year is that last year because of Chris Paul and Devin
Booker and how methodical and efficient they were and even da down low uh from time to time and male um they were able to keep pace so even even if the threes weren’t dropping they would hit a bucket mid-range to kind of keep the pace going make sure that you didn’t lose total
Chaos right and or you didn’t create total chaos and this game I felt like KD and book just knew when to step up to hit that crucial jumper to keep pace and keep it going that that’s a great point because that’s what CP brought for us stability right when things would go
Down if we were up 10 and it would get to six he found that little elbow jumper let’s get it back to eight right you saw KD do that a lot tonight every time they try to Chip Away KD hit a timely bucket that what I saw today that I liked was
Uh awareness of what the what was going on in the game how how far they were up and they never let it kind of get out of control it was that one time where they were up 12 I think Houston got it back down to five that was to towards the end
Of the second quarter and they got a little bit frustrated but then they got it they you know they got it back in order hit a couple shots and got the lead back to where they wanted to be so offensive awareness and defensive awareness was very good throughout the
Whole 48 minutes today and that’s something they’ve been lacking like all double digits halfway through the second quarter and they never look back correct um so that that was great
After the Phoenix sun took home a win against the Houston Rockets, the PHNX Suns podcast breaks down the performances of Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and the entire team.
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