Phoenix Suns good, bad and ugly at the Charlotte Hornets
Suns win their first overtime game of the season 101-97.
The good
Devin Booker
How did the Suns win? Devin Booker. This was his best game since the regular season resumed after All-Star weekend. The All-Star guard had 35 points and was nearly perfect from the free-throw line.
Both teams had streaky runs with Phoenix leading for most of the game. Booker shot 38% from the field which wasn’t his regular best but it was enough to win the game.
Phoenix shot 29 free throws and hit 86%. Phoenix is a great free-throw shooting team and they don’t get to the line enough. This game helped give Phoenix the edge in a close game. Free throws accounted for nearly all of the Suns’ points in overtime.
The bad
More fourth-quarter struggles
Once again Phoenix cooled down in the fourth quarter, scoring only 14 points. As their offensive firepower waned their typically reliable defense disappeared, too.
Hornets guard Devonte’ Graham took over in the fourth quarter hitting three 3-pointers and sending the game to overtime. After a long week of hard-fought games, nobody was able to halt Graham’s fourth-quarter hot streak.
The ugly
The entire game
This win was ugly. Despite the hard-fought victory, this was one of the ugliest wins for Phoenix.
In a game battered with turnovers, the Suns forced 20 turnovers onto Charlotte while committing 14 of their own. Charlotte scoring only 97 points in an overtime game in today’s NBA is rare and when you don’t put up many points you’re bound to lose.
The biggest theme was the Suns’ woeful performance 3-ball. The 3-point percentage was an abysmal 20% and the field-goal percentage was 35%. Charlotte had a better percentage from both the field and 3-point range.
Jae Crowder, a typically good 3-point shooter, would’ve been scoreless if not for a pair of free throws after a flagrant foul.