What word would you use to describe the Phoenix Suns’ victory over the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday afternoon?
After an emotional win over the Dallas Mavericks, there was a seed of concern the Phoenix Suns might have a bit of a letdown game against the Indiana Pacers, who ran them out of the gym back in January. You see it all the time in all sports. After a big emotional upset win, the team comes out next time and throws up a stinker.
Instead, the only seed that came out of the game was the Suns moving a little closer on coveted 9-seed in the Western Conference.
It didn’t come easy, as it was a game of streaks that notched their four-game win streak. The Suns’ starters put together the 17-0 run in the first quarter, only to see their lead disappear.
After Booker’s fifth foul with 7:18 left in the third quarter, it was the Suns’ bench that then went on a 21-0, essentially putting the victory on a silver platter and handing it back to the starters to seal the deal when they returned in the fourth.
We tweeted out, “The Suns going on a 21-0 run without Booker, Ayton, or Rubio on the floor is (fill in the blank),” and fans are still pouring in spectacular comments. So, let’s play a Pardon the Interruption-style word game and stay with the fill-in-the-blank style analysis of the many takeaways from this game.
First, let’s channel our inner Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon and address the event led to this post’s inspiration…
Going on a 21-0 run without Booker, Ayton, or Rubio on the floor was ______
BUBBLICIOUS
Credit to several of you who answered this question in our tweet by referencing your favorite 90’s fad chewing gum. There really might not be a better adjective to describe such an unexpected burst within a bubble.
Not going to lie, when Booker picked up his fifth foul and Rubio and Ayton took their scheduled breather on the bench, my confidence took a hit. I’m a strong believer in having at least one of your big three on the court at all times and frankly, the lineup of Cam Payne, Jevon Carter, Cam Johnson, Dario Saric, and Frank Kaminsky doesn’t exactly scare opponents on paper.
Luckily, they don’t play the game on paper, they play it in a bubble, and the Suns’ bench blew up all over the unsuspecting Pacers.
With 2:20 left in the third, Justin Holiday hit a 3-pointer to give the Pacers a three-point lead. Then, things got crazy. It became the Cam Payne and Dario show as the two, alone, combined for 21 straight points, almost evenly split with Payne pouring in 10 and Dario 11.
Everyone played strong defense, though, and if not for that run, the outcome of the game would have been in serious jeopardy.
Dario Saric coming in off the bench has been ______
PIVOTAL
Cam Payne has been easy to praise because he is the new face that Phoenix Suns fans have been clamoring for. Someone who can come in off the bench, score, and provide dependable point guard play.
However, not enough has been said about how well Dario Saric has played. Part of it, likely, is because there is nothing dynamic about his game, he’s been around all year, and coming off the bench feels like a demotion.
In actuality, Dario has thrived with the second unit more than he would have if he were still starting. Suns fans have been pleading for bench scoring all year, and now they have it. With Dario leading the way each game, the Suns have averaged 37.8 points off the bench, which compared to their pre-hiatus average of 30.1 (27th in the NBA), that is a significant improvement.
And just think if Jevon Carter and Frank Kaminsky’s minutes were substituted with Kelly Oubre and Aron Baynes. It is an absolute shame this team never had their full complement of players this season.
Saric is a restricted free agent this year, but if he continues to play like this, it will be hard for the Suns not to re-sign him.
Of course, the player who took Saric’s place in the starting lineup has not gone unnoticed either, so speaking of him…
Cam Johnson at the 4 has been ______
AUSPICIOUS
Cam Johnson is on the court because he is excelling at shooting the 3. That’s what he was drafted as high as he was, and what has led to a very solid rookie season. So, you know his move to the 4-spot in the starting lineup has been favorable if we can say he is playing well while only shooting 32 percent from behind the arc.
I don’t think Monty Williams or anyone else is worried about Cam’s shot. That will come back. What has been encouraging to see is that Johnson’s rebounding has exploded since moving to the power forward role in the starting lineup.
He has averaged 8.5 rebounds per game in the bubble, good for second-most on the team, compared to just 2.9 rebounds per game pre-hiatus, which ranked him 10th on the team.
The extra 10 pounds of muscle he added during quarantine has helped make him much stronger on the boards, and there is no one more excited to see it than his mom.
In an interview with the Toms on Fox Sports Arizona, Johnson talked about how his mom has been very impressed with his rebounding. Make mama proud, Cam.
The fact that Johnson can make it such that the Suns don’t lose a lot on the glass without Saric, it makes the whole team much more lethal, and even more so, when his 3-point shooting balances out with the law of averages very soon.
Deandre Ayton played a very ______ game.
DEANDRE AYTON
Yes, the word I’m using to fill in this one is an adjective that in the basketball dictionary. In fact, if you were to look up “Deandre Ayton” in said dictionary, you’d see every one of Ayton’s plays from this game.
Ayton led the team in points and rebounds, and yet, you would never realize it if you were just casually watching the game. It is not that Ayton plays soft, he just plays, I don’t know…delicate.
It is as if John Wooden was his basketball coach in a former life and engrained into his soul that dunking was an abomination of the Lord.
We groan (and will forever groan) about Ayton’s propensity to shoot the middy over making a strong move to the basket, but in this game, he didn’t even dunk when there was nothing but one small guard in the general vicinity. He even had an open run to the lane at one point and an ally oop where somehow, even though he threw the ball into the basket from above the hoop at point-blank range, his hands never touched the rim.
Maybe he has soft skin. I don’t know.
My opinions don’t always align with Eddie Johnson’s but he is right when he says that if Ayton was more vicious around the rim, he’d get a lot more easy shots because players will be shy about getting in his way the next time.
Still, the guy fills up the box score, so what are you going to do? His defense was also solid on several plays as he racked up four blocks and did very well on a few other plays where he stayed vertical, causing an errant shot.
Anyway, cheers to the big man for playing a very Deandre Ayton game. As for the Phoenix Suns’ other star…
In this game, Devin Booker played ______
EMOTIONALLY
When Devin Booker gets heated or whatever reason, it can go one of two ways. Either he can absolutely go off and prove himself one of the best players in the league, or he can make immature mistakes and play like one of the biggest boneheads in the league. There is really no in-between.
Most of the time, his frustration stems from the referees, and to be fair, Suns fans often agree. There is no way to measure this stat objectively, but I would venture to say there is no player who averages at least 25 points per game who gets more bad calls (or lack of calls) against him.
The issue Booker runs into more than Monty Williams would like to see is that he often compounds the problem with silly, legit fouls soon afterward, and there is no better example of that than this game against the Indiana Pacers.
Booker picked up four fouls in a span of two and a half minutes in the third quarter. One was an incredibly cheap offensive foul that they would never call on LeBron or Luka, and it got to his head. Instead of playing smart with four fouls, he got mad and became super aggressive.
He drove the lane hard and scored a tough deuce (the good), but then tried to draw a low-percentage charge at the top of the key, and picked up his fifth (the bad).
Maybe it was a blessing in disguise and Cam Payne and Dario Saric turned in a 21-point run, but still, when Booker gets ticked, he turns into quickly oscillating personas of Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde.
TJ Warren was _______
GARDEN-VARIETY
With all the talk about how TJ Warren is the next coming of Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Wilt Chamberlain combined, he was due for a dose of reality, and what better medicine administrator than Mikal Bridges?
Warren plummeted back to Earth with the Man of Steal guarding him most of the game. Tony Buckets only had seven buckets, leading to a mundane 16 points, three below his season average.
On this Thursday afternoon, TJ Warren was garden-variety TJ Warren.
Some fans were freaking out a little bit after his 53 points game early in the bubble, but I feel somewhat validated for imploring everyone to chill out about the former Phoenix Suns ball hog.
Overall, the Suns made this look like a garden-variety win, even though it was far from it. This marks the second time in Devin Booker’s career the Suns have won four straight and only adds to the team’s momentum going forward.
There is still work to be done, but thus far, I would call the Suns’ 4-0 start to bubble play_______
FANTASTIC.