Why the Phoenix Suns blew out the Dallas Mavericks
By Adam Maynes
The Phoenix Suns opened the 2018-19 season with their best opening night in many years (29, to be exact). This team does not look like the team of the past three seasons.
The Phoenix Suns appear to truly be on the rise.
Sure, they faced a short-handed Dallas Mavericks team who only won three more games than Phoenix last season, but the Suns came out swinging, passing, shooting, and looking like they are a brand new team.
Igor Kokoskov called for Phoenix to shoot an average of 30 3’s a game this season. They averaged 27 last year, a franchise-high.
In one outing, they have pushed the average by 7 with an incredible shooting night against Dallas.
Phoenix shot 19-34 from beyond the arc, opening by the team’s most prolific 3-point shooter, and closed out by the team’s best.
Oh, and their 19 3’s? Yeah, an NBA record for most 3’s made on opening night in NBA history.
Trevor Ariza started off the game with several to open the team’s hot shooting (finishing with 5-9) with 2-3 in the first quarter, and 2-3 again in the second. Then he passed his shooting off to his two new wing men who last season were absolutely awful at shooting from the outside, but who tonight were on fire.
For the Phoenix Suns to average at least 30 a game, they are going to have to make a good percentage to allow for such shooting to happen with regularity.
If T.J. Warren and Josh Jackson finish 3-4 every night (they won’t, but if they can be counted on to hit a couple every game), this team really will be able to drain enough to warrant continuing to reach Kokoskov’s shooting goal.
Then, with 7:02 remaining in the fourth, when the Dallas Mavericks had cut the Suns lead to 94-90, Devin Booker decided to remind the NBA that this is his house, and single-handedly out scored the entire Mavericks team the rest of the way:
Devin Booker: 17
Dallas Mavericks: 10
Booker became as hot as a neutron star, burning from the outside, and draining 3-pointer after 3-pointer over his hard-working defenders, time and again.
Book finished 5-9 from beyond the arc, a whopping four in the final few minutes of crunch time to put the game away for the energized Suns.
Phoenix will not be a 55.3% 3-point shooting team all season, only the Golden State Warriors even average at, or around, 40%.
But if the Suns are going to average 30 3’s in a game, opening night had to have given both the players and the coaching staff a lot of hope that it can be a successful scoring strategy all season long.
43.2% of Phoenix’s made field goals were from beyond the arc.
And after one game, the Suns truly do appear to recognize that it is Time to Rise.