Phoenix Suns Big Three Leads Balanced, Clean Home Win Over Magic

Phoenix Suns Big Three Leads Balanced, Clean Home Win Over Magic

The Phoenix Suns rang in the new year with a big win over the Orlando Magic on today’s episode of lockon suns we’ll break down how balance was the key to getting a third straight W let’s go you are locked on suns your daily Phoenix Suns podcast part of the locked

On podcast Network your team every day We are back this is locked on Phoenix Suns we are part of the locked on podcast Network I’m your host Brendan clean a credential media member covering the Suns for the past seven seasons a writer at suns.com and the host of the just basketball show wherever you get

Your podcast a big thank you for making lockon Suns your first listen to start off 2024 welcome in if you’re finding us for the first time hit follow hit subscribe we are free and a available on all podcast platforms including YouTube so just hit that button get a new show

In your feed every Monday through Friday become an every dayer get locked on to the Phoenix Suns right along with me all season long Today’s Show brought to you by the FanDuel Sportsbook make every moment more right now new customers get $150 in bonus Bets with any winning $5

Money line bet that’s 150 bucks straight to your account if your team wins visit fanduel.com lockon to get started all right the Phoenix Suns won 112 to 107 we are going to start with our moment of the game as we always do which started right after the Orlando Magic

Went up one point in the fourth quarter at the 9 minute and 26 second Mark the suns are better than the magic even with a surprisingly strong season for Orlando so far they are a below 500 Road team and they are a young team and they just aren’t quite up to Snuff

Versus Phoenix and we saw the Suns prove that sometimes that is what you have to do and that is the best way to analyze what happened the rest of the way from that Gary Harris go-ahead three-pointer on the Suns got 11 sorry 13 of 17 points the

Rest of the way that they scored were scored or assisted by Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal all right and that’s that’s important for a few reasons one it’s your best players taking over and again Palo Bano and and France Vagner are going to be a very good Duo for a

Very long time but in this particular game they their threes did not go in and they just didn’t get enough from the rest of their Supporting Cast to win this game the sun’s best players were able to make it happen right you had uh a couple of turnovers in this stretch for the

Magic the rest of the way only two but it starts to add up some missed threes as I mentioned meanwhile the Suns executed the other part of it that’s important there though is who did not contribute to the scoring and that was Devon Booker I’m not saying it’s good that Booker didn’t

Score as much in the fourth quarter but what I’m saying is you saw the balance and the unpredictability that this offense can have now that all three guys are healthy there were a few possessions Midway through this fourth quarter where Booker looked like he was settling into

Some of the bad habits that we’ve seen at times this year bringing the ball up very slowly settling for we’ll call them iffy shots you know just contested jumpers again late in the clock because of the lack of pace and not attacking mismatches not getting downhill not you know really making the defense

Rotate he backs off goes into more of an initiator mode the other two guys step up and there you go Durant in the beginning of the fourth quarter had a couple of other moments where he was forcing things himself he gets it right and figures it

Out and closes this game for this team and Beal also I would would say there were times throughout the second half despite a strong first half from him where you saw I I wouldn’t say you know it’s it’s hard not to use like an overly strong description like they forgot about him

Or they were ignoring him I wouldn’t even say it was all that Intense or that purposeful definitely but the reality was Beal wasn’t as involved at times in that in that second half until this stretch right he scored the next two buckets right after that Harris 3 and then sat

For three and a half minutes and then made another mid-range jumper that Booker assisted on as soon as he checked back in around that three minute Mark so his aggressiveness was on full display six of those final 17 points were him and he only played for half the time remaining in the game

So sometimes the suns are going to face teams where they just pull it out because they have the talent and that’s uh basic analysis that is surely not everything that happened in this game and we will get into some of what else happened in this game but it’s pretty impressive to say

That about facing an Orlando Magic Squad that is more than proven themselves this season already a physical big magic team that the Suns easily could have struggled with but stayed out of foul trouble stayed aggressive stayed poised and purposeful with their offense and found a way

To push the right buttons and get a win with their three best guys all scoring 20 plus pretty efficiently I would say very efficiently book just had a little bit of an inefficient night and with two turnovers combined between the three of them that’s how you overcome some things and use

Your talent to win if any one of those three players had a bad night that doesn’t happen but they all figured out how to be effective together and playing off of one another and taking a back seat when they needed to this is the type of game that I don’t

Think I would have expected that we could have seen with so little time under their belt together this is a great sign going forward of a starting point being such a high level already let’s talk about how the Suns played a clean game and what I mean

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Magic let’s talk about how they won a clean game for for the first time in a while you could say the first time all season the magic are a team that win on the margins a lot of nights they tend to at their best get to the

Line both of their best players get to the line they get offensive rebounds they they play really big in this game we saw them play Wendell Carter and Mo and mo vogner together in the first half now I don’t know about the offensive uh I don’t know if that’s the greatest idea

On the offensive end but it makes them formidable from a size standpoint for sure they force a lot of turnovers and they have a great bench so yes they have Paulo they have frons they stagger those two quite a bit those two can go off they combined for 55 16 and

13 tonight on only five turnovers but you know both of them took a lot of shots didn’t get to the line much so that starts to cut away at the margins a little bit makes it even more important for them to nail all the other stuff and

They didn’t and that’s a huge credit to the Suns that’s how the Suns played a clean game Orlando only had nine offensive rebounds really only Goa baz their starting center was able to make a real impact there and he was in foul trouble you also saw them turn the ball over themselves

16 excuse me 16 times and the sun’s only turned it over six times the Suns got to the line 19 times all from their starters the magic only got to the line 12 times from a sun standpoint we know the fourth quarter has been a real struggle for

Them now I do think the magic you could make the case went a little bit cold okay um I wouldn’t argue with you there I think that they were two of like eight or nine from three missed a bunch inside the ark you’re not going to hear an argument from me that the

Suns caught a break a little bit but I mentioned the balance of Their Stars I mentioned seizing that game and and balancing out uh figuring it out and and they didn’t just get lucky but they did catch a break maybe that’s the same thing but we know fourth quarters have

Been a struggle they won the fourth quarter the best thing you can say I I guess about the fourth quarter for Phoenix tonight is they did not beat themselves I believe that they did not turn the ball over one time in the fourth quarter and I

Believe the magic did not get a single offensive Rebound in the second half Kevin Ray said that at one point I don’t know if it held until the very very end of the game I believe it did though cuz I’m not seeing one pop up when I look at the

Play byplay so all of that together is a an incredible example of the Suns overcoming their own mistakes cleaning up what has been a complete travesty for them at times this year which is turnovers and lack of execution and lack of aggressiveness in the fourth quarter just playing like they want to be

Anywhere else frankly I know it might feel uh a bad time to bring that up but I’m bringing it up to say that they are now not suffering from those same things the suns are on the right track because they’re winning three straight they are also on the right track because

They are simply not making the same mistakes that they did earlier in the year let’s look a little bit deeper the second half featured a bigger bounceback in the bench lineups Durant in the first half was only a plus4 by the end of the game he’s

A plus n Chim metu had a big second half with a couple of nice plays and some rebounding moments I thought the minutes where the Suns went small with metu at the five again against uh Carter at the five went better in the second half in the first half the Suns tried to

Play the small lineup with metu against the huge lineups that Orlando was putting out there that was a recipe for disaster part of that is the early immediate foul that Goa got called for to start the second half out after we already had three fouls and he basically

Didn’t play much the rest of the way but part of it again was metu making those plays again that is cleaning things up over the course of a game credit that to the coaching staff to metu to the other guys out there in those small lineups whatever you want to

Do I would also say that the fact that the Suns outside of that one Gary Harris moment you can be upset that the Suns sort of coughed away a double digit lead they were up 133 after the first quarter they were even up nine after the at a

Halftime then they were only up two going into the fourth sure I get that that might have felt a little bit like deja vu but the thing I would say there is they didn’t give up a lead they didn’t turn it into you know magic up five right

So they were able to still play comfortably is what it really felt like to me clean right you can allow another team to make a run nobody’s saying you can’t and of course the magic are a good team they’re going to make a run they have good players they have microwave

Scores like fron like Cole Anthony Wendell Carter got hot okay you know Gary Harris is a microwave guy too he didn’t really do it tonight but what you can’t do is go from dominating to just falling apart and the Suns didn’t do that they played a much cleaner

Game so whether it’s the box score and some of the things that the Suns have not been able to get out of their own way with like turnovers and rebounds or just the mentality and mindset to stack up successively solid stretches and improve over the course of

The game correct things over the course of the game the Suns passed every test tonight beating a good team by five at home where all of your best guys play well it it’s tough to ask for more than that and they did it because they played clean next let’s talk about the rotation

What Frank vogle went to tonight and some more of the stats behind the sun’s big win next first Today’s Show brought to you by prize picks prize picks has come in they have fixed daily fantasy sports and with the basketball season here you can now pick combo projections across football and basketball from

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On NBA is the way to get that deposit match prize picks daily fantasy sports Made Easy let’s close out the show the Phoenix Suns again winners 112 107 a few few last things to hit on here before we get out and celebrate 2024 bench mob Vibe check this is where

We look at the rotation and it was different once again tonight only nine guys but effectively more like only seven guys really played Savin Lee did not get minutes tonight so that was a difference from the past couple of games honestly kind of felt like you could have tried him against Cole Anthony

But okay whatever Cole Anthony only played 18 minutes so aogi was out there against him for a little bit of that and they won anyway but okay just something to note lee does have a purpose and Anthony’s the type of guy you might want to see him against but fine and then uh

Soogi only played Seven as I mentioned and then azuki only played eight the asabuki thing was interesting because it just felt like you know a reminder that he’s a young player I mean I know he’s not that that young he’s been in the league a little while inexperience is

Always the better word I think with some of these guys where like metu Bates Diop Etc Eubanks it’s like they’re not really young anymore but they’re inexperienced Goodwin would belong in there too so I think it was one of those games for azuki it’s like yeah I think he could

Have an impact against a I guess like okay bad and Vagner they Ed and Carter they use those guys as triple handoff initiat they use them as floor spacers so maybe even though they’re big asabuki having to be on the perimeter doesn’t make a ton of sense you would say the

Same thing about nurkic but at least with the center with the backup center spot it seemed like vogle just liked metu even if he was giving up some size at least to be more mobile and be able to switch or blow up something on the perimeter or you know close out for a

Contest or some of those types of things fair enough but asabuki I think could have made an impact it’s just a a weird night for him and then you had Eric Gordon who didn’t do much of anything um he had some nice drive and kick moments

He was at least you know part of the good pace and everything else he had a nice uh defensive moment against uh Palo banero in the fourth quarter but weird night for him after he had been so hot recently but you know it’s a veteran guy who is very predicated on his threes

Going in so there’s going to be some nights like like this from Gordon where he doesn’t make a huge impact again you want to talk about clean and reasons the Suns won in spite of some inconsistencies they were eight of 27 from deep in this game but and they

Still won but back to the the rotation the Suns played Seven guys they had to play Booker and Durant 38 minutes or 37 and 38 a piece and then Beal played 35 so the minutes liit you know kind of off for him Fogle said at shootaround this morning that Beal is

Feeling great so check that box it seems like he’s back to normal uh for now right so I’m not even taking an issue with anything I obviously think Sabin Lee okay maybe he could have played a little more maybe in a different version of the game asabuki but I’m just

Pointing it out I’m just drawing your attention to it as we kind of chart forward because it sounds like nir little has something that flares up after games is what Frank vogle said he kind of compared it to a tendonitis type of situation that doesn’t sound great maybe he’s out for

Maybe they just try to rest him for a prolonged stretch but you know he was inconsistent all year as well and it’s not like he makes or breaks this team so effectively you’re looking at a full Sun’s rotation a fully healthy Suns team right now and this is what the rotation

Is for the time being I think the seven guys who played legitimate minutes right now those are the only locks night tonight maybe Sabin Lee or Jordan Goodwin do play next game in place of aogi or alongside of kogi maybe at some point if asabuki has it doesn’t prove to

Be consistent enough do they try Eubanks again I personally don’t think they should we don’t know do wat na or bade stop ever get another look what has to happen for for them to you know maybe a night where Gordon sits you could see one of them playing but for now I think

It’s those seven I think the 8910 are aogi asabuki and Lee it’s just going to be matchup based last thing here I wanted to go back actually to the Friday game as well as tonight’s game to look at something because cleaning the glass which is a really good stat site that I

Use for a lot of the numbers that I Shar share with you guys on the show wasn’t updating the sun’s uh the the Suns Hornet stats from the other night but this is a trend as far as let’s do a box score odity that has continued for a while and

I pointed it out the first game that I noticed it but it’s worth continuing to look at the suns are running off of misses a ton lately so in that game against Charlotte they ran on almost 40% of Charlotte’s missed shots right so again there’s tiar

To running in transition in the NBA in basketball you can run off of turnovers that you create Steals and blocks that’s easy everybody runs off of that because it’s a fast break most of the time then there is this part of it the one I’m talking about running off of Misses when

The opponent misses a shot you try to turn that into a transition opportunity that’s what the Suns did almost 40% of the time on on Friday and almost 30% of the time tonight in both situations they were pretty good scoring off of those tonight they were actually even better in terms

Of converting those opportunities the last tier which doesn’t get measured at least on cleaning the glass I’m not sure if it gets measured anywhere I think it does I don’t have access to that is running off of maid shots so this is like Sacramento and you know the 7

Seconds or less Suns teams in in NBA history that have been super crazy about pushing Tempo they will take the ball out of the net inbound it and get transition looks that way but even the Suns focusing on running off of Misses can get them pretty far it is not something teams are

Typically ready for it is a way to take advantage of the multiple ball handlers frankly sometimes five ball handlers that the Suns have five Playmakers Five Guys who can be comfortable when the ball lands with them it’s a great way to take advantage of that and it is another

Way I know this might be like too deep but it is another way that the Suns can punish teams who try to take a lot of Threes against them right um tonight it felt like in the first half Orlando might be in for another big shooting

Night just like we’ve seen a lot of teams have against the Suns lately it didn’t end up panning out that way but if teams feel like they can do that against the Suns and obviously some of how the suns are defending is going to allow those threes although a lot of

It’s still miscues and mistakes frankly but hey if that’s going to happen and we know that part of our defense is a little bit leaky or creates opportunities for opponents to take advantage of why don’t we flip that back on them yet again and run when they miss

Those shots and missed threes are the best shots to run on and give the team a green light to say hey if there’s a a Clank off the back back the back of the rim that you can try to go get a dunk

Out of or a open three out of go for it and it feels like that’s been the coaching staff’s message lately and it’s working so I wanted to point that Trend out hopefully they continue it because I think it’s smart and it can be a weapon

For them but that will wrap us up for the day don’t forget to hit follow or subscribe whever you’re finding locked on suns today get a new show in your feet every single Monday through Friday be coming every day or get locked onto the Suns right along with me all season

Long we will be back Monday night uh might be recording with Brandon dwas might not we’ll have to see where he can fit in this week lots of games lots of home games and a win streak to add on to so it should be fun enjoy it I’ll talk to you then

Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal looked like longtime teammates in the Phoenix Suns win over the Orlando Magic heading into the new year.

Brendon Kleen of @justbasketballfans breaks down the balance and smarts the Suns showed in the W plus how Phoenix cleaned up miscues to avoid a collapse. Then, a closer look at the rotation and the Suns’ transition play.

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