The 5-game Eastern road trip ended with an unpredictable loss to the Timberwolves but still remained a success with Phoenix winning four (of five) and scoring at least 115 in each of those games. The Suns actually put 122 on the Wizards, 136 on the Raptors, 121 on the Pacers and only 115 on the Knicks. With last night exception against the T-Wolves the Suns have been the better team on the court every game.
Phoenix is 16-4, third highest total in the League behind the Spurs and the Celtics, and is basically winning games because the Suns are outplaying their opponents: Nash & Co. are running faster, passing the ball around and shooting better....sounds easy eh!?
The Suns are shooting an excellent .497 from the field (.373 from 3-point and .786 on FT), their opponents just .462 .361 .708.
The Suns are dishing an amazing 27.9 assists per game, seven more than their foes, not to mention more steals (8.2 vs 7.1), less turnovers (14.1 vs 15.8) and more blocked shots (5.5 vs 3.8) per game.
Are the Suns just better than their challengers or is there a case for the Suns defense as well? Not sure, when the Suns are able to impose their high-speed rhythm to the games they become effective in chasing the ball, getting deflections (a big key in Coach D'Antoni's system) and thus generating fastbreaks and points off turnovers: that's the key to the Suns defense.
The only apparent weakness being the rebounds as the Suns have been out-STATed 45.8 to 41.9. But that deficit on the boards has actually been the results of a few bad games:
Phoenix is 16-4, third highest total in the League behind the Spurs and the Celtics, and is basically winning games because the Suns are outplaying their opponents: Nash & Co. are running faster, passing the ball around and shooting better....sounds easy eh!?
The Suns are shooting an excellent .497 from the field (.373 from 3-point and .786 on FT), their opponents just .462 .361 .708.
The Suns are dishing an amazing 27.9 assists per game, seven more than their foes, not to mention more steals (8.2 vs 7.1), less turnovers (14.1 vs 15.8) and more blocked shots (5.5 vs 3.8) per game.
Are the Suns just better than their challengers or is there a case for the Suns defense as well? Not sure, when the Suns are able to impose their high-speed rhythm to the games they become effective in chasing the ball, getting deflections (a big key in Coach D'Antoni's system) and thus generating fastbreaks and points off turnovers: that's the key to the Suns defense.
The only apparent weakness being the rebounds as the Suns have been out-STATed 45.8 to 41.9. But that deficit on the boards has actually been the results of a few bad games:
- 54-34 vs LA Lakers
- 56-40 vs Atlanta
- 47-34 vs Houston
- 55-33 vs Minnesota
The Suns lost every time they scored less then 100 points this season (0-4) and on three of those they have been outrebounded badly.
The next few games should be very interesting to check where the Suns are now. After playing Miami (4-15) on Monday Phoenix has the biggest challenge of the season so far with games in New Orleans (13-7), San Antonio (17-3) and Dallas (13-8). Those two games in Texas should be very interesting to watch.
One quick note. I hadn't realized how much Steve Nash had improved his shooting over the years until I read this great (as usual) post on The Painted Area.
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