Phoenix Suns: 3 Takeaways from Awkward Victory over Sacramento Kings

With roughly seven minutes to play during the final period, the Phoenix Suns led the Sacramento Kings by 18 points, looking to iron over a crushing loss against them from two weeks ago. Believing their nights to be over, Jae Crowder, JaVale McGee, and Chris Paul watched the onslaught from the bench, cheering and dancing as their teammates blew the game open.

But five minutes later, Paul stopped dancing, and started motioning with hands for his team to calm down. McGee’s and Crowder’s smiles faded into concerning stares. With two and half minutes to play, Phoenix’s lead shrunk down to five points, with the team slipping into what looked like a nightmarish collapse.

An alley-oop toss from Paul to McGee pumped some life back into the Suns, but Sacramento kept coming. Damian Jones cleaned up a missed layup from De’Aaron Fox to cut lead again during the following possession, leaving Phoenix up 107-102.

Luckily for the Suns though, the game clock continued to sputter throughout all this back-and-forth action. Phoenix and Sacramento traded free-throw sequences for the game’s final three possessions. The horn eventually rang, announcing a 109-104 victory for the Suns, which felt peculiar given the circumstances.

Although the game resulted in a fifth straight win for the Suns, it felt like a stressful day at work, rather than the fun party it was formerly advertised as.

Missing Deandre Ayton certainly contributed to Phoenix’s troubles, but nonetheless, the flimsiness of this victory still points out larger holes which the Suns need to patch up going forward. To shed light on them, here are three takeaways from the unceremonious victory.