Phoenix Suns: Deandre Ayton shoots a lot of 3s…in NBA2K

The Phoenix Suns have two representatives in the NBA2K Players Tournament and Deandre Ayton was first to show off his skills Friday night when he took Zach LaVine of the Chicago Bulls.

The Phoenix Suns have been ahead of their time during this pandemic, as they are the only team utilizing NBA2K as a fill-in for real-life sports. Now that the NBA has officially jumped on board the bandwagon the Suns started, it is no surprise two Suns players were chosen in the field of 16 to compete in a players-only tournament.

Deandre Ayton was the first to grace our television sets with something that resembles live sports when he took on Zach LaVine of the Chicago Bulls.

Before this season started, Deandre Ayton said he planned on shooting more 3s. That led to a great debate about whether he should or should not partake in behind-the-arc bombs. After watching him Friday, that quote may have just come after a several hour session of him playing NBA2K because there, that’s all he shoots.

It was kind of like that time he went around the world in warmups before a game:

He picked the right team for the strategy. Ayton selected the Houston Rockets while LaVine, for some reason, picked the Miami Heat. Derrick Jones Jr., who actually plays on the Heat, didn’t even pick them when he faced off against Kevin Durant in the game prior.

LaVine admitted he hadn’t played 2K in a while and it showed. Still, because Ayton insisted on passing up easy drives to the basket and layups in favor of 3-point attempts, the game remained close until the third quarter when Ayton finally started making those 3s with a little more consistency.

“I live and die by the 3!” Ayton exclaimed after missing several in a row, where if the context wasn’t known you would think we had morphed into a parallel universe where everyone picked the strangest hill to die upon.

It is the kind of universe where I would say, “I will run 10 miles a day if it kills me!”

Like most of these 2K sessions, the most interesting parts of the game were the conversations between the players. Some of the best exchanges included:

• In reference to the game between Phoenix Suns and the Chicago Bulls, both players emphatically complained that the ball was too inflated. I don’t know why, but it made me laugh. That seems like a very fixable problem at the time.
• About that same game: Ayton: “You caught me last game, bro. They called timeout after that, I was like yo, I think Zach just dunked on me.” (I love that he wasn’t sure)LaVine: “Aye man, you a big dude, you’re supposed to get dunked on every once in a while.”
• Ayton claims he likes playing at Madison Square Garden in New York the best, and LaVine really liked the old Sacramento Kings building. Why? Because it felt like a barn.
• Ayton asked LaVine who would win a dunk contest, him or Derrick Jones. Jr., to which LaVine said it would be close now, but during his first two years in the league, there was no one that was being him. He’s probably right.

In the end, and most importantly, Deandre Ayton won the game 57-41 and advanced to the Elite 8 where he will face Trae Young, who (not unlike real life) scored the most points by far of anyone in the first round with 101. Ayton is going to have to do better than the 57 he posted against LaVine.

And stop shooting so many 3s!

Devin Booker is up next on Sunday when he squares off against Michael Porter Jr.