Phx-Suns.Net

Suns Magic Number vs. -

PHO [56-14]
MEM [48-22] - 5
GSW [47-23] - 4
MIA [46-24] - 3
MIL [44-26] - 1
DAL [43-26] - 1
PHI [42-26] - 1
UTH [43-26] - 1

With the win over the Rockets, this Suns team has officially messed with Texas, going 11-0 against the teams in that state - 4-0 against Houston, 4-0 against San Antonio, and 3-0 against Dallas, with no games remaining against any of those teams.

I'd have to do some research to be sure, but I strongly suspect that no Suns team has ever accomplished that particular feat since Dallas joined the league for the 1980-81 season.

BKinSJC wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 16, 2022 10:19 pm

With the win over the Rockets, this Suns team has officially messed with Texas, going 11-0 against the teams in that state - 4-0 against Houston, 4-0 against San Antonio, and 3-0 against Dallas, with no games remaining against any of those teams.

I'd have to do some research to be sure, but I strongly suspect that no Suns team has ever accomplished that particular feat since Dallas joined the league for the 1980-81 season.

You would be correct…we’ve always lost at least once to a Texas team since Dallas joined the league. Our best showings from what I could tell:

20-21: 8-1 with our only loss to San Antonio
97-98: 10-2, of course SA beat us in the playoffs that year though.

The Rockets won the dunk contest but the Suns get the W.

I loved how DA played on offense in this one. Constantly in attack-mode, experimenting with different off the dribble moves, confident. It’s ok that he wasn’t his usual hyper efficient self. I’d rather see him sacrifice some efficiency for a more aggressive mindset. He’s been great lately.

DA played great. They all played great. They are a great team. So freaking deep.

My opinion of Holiday on the Suns at first was that his D and O are great but, he turns the ball over a lot trying to make assists. I questioned his play making abilities. I was hoping some of it was due to him not knowing the plays or players and that he would eventually figure it out. Lately he has been cutting down on to’s and had 6 assists tonight. A positive sign. My gut feeling is that Holiday is going to take away some of Shamet’s minutes when CP3 comes back.

Payne doing a great CP3 impersonation out there. Didn’t take a lot of shots, had a lot of assists. Payne and Holiday focussing on making plays.

AmareIsGod wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 16, 2022 7:57 pm

ShelC wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 16, 2022 7:39 pm

We're still struggling a bit with Holiday and Shamet, which might be why Lundberg is heading over. Holiday's shaky at point and Shamet's still not providing much offense. We'll be better with CP back and Payne on the bench but Monty might not trust Holiday in a deep playoff run should we need an extra guard.

Holiday did give us 6 assists and 0 turnovers in limited minutes. I'll take that as the 3rd string PG. Only 1 FG attempt.

Hadn't realize he had that many assists, gotta go back and watch his minutes again. Felt like he barely made an impact.

Also, this happened

Luv the quote from Monty of realizing he needs to run more sets for Mikal and DA, get them comfortable in those situations.

What I find interesting is quite a few of us said in our hopes for the season that we would like CP3 and Book's minutes scaled back and let the others get more touches.
Obviously it wasn't easy for Monty trying to get those guys to play less as he would always reference in his interviews

The CP3 and Book injuries really been a blessing in disguise
DA, Mikal, the Cams - our young core who we wanted to see do more during the regular season in preparation for when teams inevitably look to try limit the all star duo come playoffs.

I'm sure most of us are feeling a little more optimistic about these guys roles when the big games start

As a Mikal fan I was willing to accept that he would be more of a set shooter, with a kinda slow release which would make him limited at shooting 3s off curls, screens and so on

The fact he was using his length and high release on his midrange pullups was a decent enough development for me and he been getting rather consistent

This latest development I never expected though. His release as EJ been mentioning is definitely getting quicker, he hitting some catch n shoots now that he surely wasn't making far less taking before because his gather was slow. Maaaaaann, I really liking it

bajanguy008 wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 17, 2022 6:48 am

As a Mikal fan I was willing to accept that he would be more of a set shooter, with a kinda slow release which would make him limited at shooting 3s off curls, screens and so on

The fact he was using his length and high release on his midrange pullups was a decent enough development for me and he been getting rather consistent

This latest development I never expected though. His release as EJ been mentioning is definitely getting quicker, he hitting some catch n shoots now that he surely wasn't making far less taking before because his gather was slow. Maaaaaann, I really liking it

Mikal has gotten noticeably better at two specific tasks: driving to the basket for layups (often sort of an outstretched underhand layup where he utilizes his long arms), and that turnaround fadeaway shot near the FT stripe. He gets a few new baskets every game in both ways, and it helps us a lot.

Split T wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 16, 2022 9:19 pm

Just for comparison, if this were a full season here is where those numbers would stack up against the rest of the NBA:

Points: 6th (tied with DeMar)
Assists: 9th (tied with Lowry)
Steals: 1st (by a mile, next closest is Murray at 2.1 then CP at 1.9)

Total number of 50/40/90 guys that score over 20 ppg: Zero
Number of guys scoring +20 with 50% FG: Five (Giannis, LeBron, DeMar, Jokic, KAT)
Number of guys scoring +20 with 40% 3FG: KAT
Number of guys scoring +20 with 90% FT: Three (Trae, Steph, Garland)

His win % in that time is 62.5%, which is better than 25 teams in the league.