Phoenix Suns: The 7 best things from their amazing win over the Clips

4. Fresh Rubio is the best Rubio

Kind of like a bunch of cilantro, Rubio is at his best when he is fresh. Between the NBA and Rubio’s commitment to heading up his Spanish National Team, Rubio has essentially been playing nonstop, year-round competitive basketball since he was 12.

Really though, after winning the FIBA World Cup last summer and flying straight to Phoenix, there was no time for recharging his batteries, and near the end of the pre-hiatus regular season, you could tell there were games where he was simply tired.

Of course, I’m assuming it was basketball fatigue and not the fact that he became a father for the first time and was subject to several sleepless nights.

Regardless, the hiatus gave Rubio a much-needed break and he has played like the MVP he is in the bubble. Against the Clippers, his assists were down (only four), but his scoring was up. Rubio has been much more aggressive driving the ball and looking to score and against LA, it led to 18 points.

He is also knocking down the 3 like never before. I know it is a small sample size, but Rubio is shooting 60% from behind the arc in the bubble (6-10).

Monty Williams seems to know Rubio needs to stay fresh as he still has that unique substitution pattern where Ricky comes out for about a minute late in the 4th quarter. In this game, Cam Payne (who we will get to in a minute) went to the scorer’s table to check in for him with about five minutes left. Luckily, there was no whistle for an extended period of time and Payne sat back down during the next time out.

While we can argue here and there about substitution patterns, we can all agree fresh Rubio is the best Rubio.