Phx-Suns.Net

Regardless of what comes next, it’s time to throw some better-late-than-never ink their way.

Historical dominance
The ESPN story that sparked the Sarver investigation was published on Nov. 4. The Suns, fewer than four months after their Finals battle against the Bucks and two weeks removed from the Deandre Ayton contract squabble that threatened to change the collective mood even before the more serious Sarver accusations emerged, were just 3-3 back then. Five months later, with coach Monty Williams, Chris Paul, Devin Booker and company having done such a wonderful job of compartmentalizing the off-court affairs and remaining cohesive all along the way, they had won 59 of their next 70 games before this recent mini-backslide that is virtually meaningless (three losses in four games).

So much for the idea that last season was anything remotely resembling a fluke.

But in terms of the gap between these Suns and the rest of the league, this is the kind of stuff that history tells us should make them the overwhelming title favorite. With two games left and an eight-game lead on the second-place Memphis Grizzlies, the Suns are in prime position to become just the eighth team since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976 to finish the regular season with a lead of at least seven games.

And how’s this for an eye-opening trend among this elite group of teams? All seven of the previous teams to finish that feat won it all. Here’s a quick look at the list…

• 2014-15 Warriors (seven games)
• 2007-08 Celtics (seven)
• 1999-00 Lakers (eight)
• 1995-96 Bulls (eight)
• 1991-92 Bulls (10)
• 1983-84 Celtics (eight)
• 1982-83 76ers (seven)

Even if Phoenix falls short of the seven-game lead threshold and leads by only five games, the historical markers bode well. In the last 20 years, four of the seven teams that had leads of at least five games over the second-best teams won the whole thing (57 percent). Overall, the team with the best regular-season record has won six of the past 20 titles (30 percent). The point being, of course, that separating yourself from the pack is often an indicator of great things to come.

A few other Suns items worth highlighting before we dive deeper into the players and coaches themselves. Just in case you still need to be convinced this is a very special team.

• With just one road game left (at Utah tonight), the Suns (31-9 on the road) aren’t far off the all-time mark (34 road wins for the 2015-16 Warriors). In case you hadn’t heard, the ability to win away from home tends to come in handy during the playoffs.

• The Suns are a league-best 47-0 when leading after three quarters, a mark that — according to the Elias Sports Bureau — will go down as the best unblemished mark of its kind in the shot clock era, so long as they don’t break the remarkable streak in these final two games (43-0 by the 2019-20 Lakers team that won it all in the bubble was the previous record; that, of course, was in a 72-game season).

• This Suns squad set a franchise record for wins by downing the Lakers on Tuesday, surpassing the 62-20 mark that was held by the 1992-93 squad that lost to Chicago in the Finals and the 2004-05 team that fell to San Antonio in the West finals.

Defense builds Bridges
If you’re looking for tangible evidence that this version of the Suns is significantly more dangerous than the one that fell in six games to the Bucks last July, look no further than their defense. They improved from sixth in defensive rating last season (110.4 points allowed per 100 possessions) to second (106.7), and the continued ascension of Mikal Bridges had everything to do with it.

The fourth-year small forward is a legitimate candidate for the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award. He’s the total package on that end, with a combination of length (7-foot-1 wingspan), instincts and versatility that allows the Suns to slow the game’s best perimeter threats — both big and small — every time out. He’s a workhorse too, having played in every game this season while leading the league in total minutes played (2,815; 35.1 per; as a funny aside, there must be something durable about those Bridges, as Charlotte’s Miles Bridges is second at 2,781).

I spoke with Mikal recently to get a better understanding of his defensive makeup. And the discussion, quite fittingly, took place just as March Madness was ramping up.

After starring at Great Valley High in Malvern, Pa., Bridges learned the value of becoming an elite defender while playing at Villanova.

“Nova, man,” he said of the place where he won national titles in 2016 and 2018. “I knew I couldn’t play my freshman year (when he redshirted) and I knew that to be on that court my next year, I had to defend. Offense was never (a priority), especially on the stacked team we had … my first year playing.

“We were so stacked that offense wasn’t really the issue. … The minutes that I had to earn were going to be on the defensive end. So Coach (Jay) Wright and all my assistant coaches just got me right and put that defense in me and knew that I had the ability.”

His offense has come around, mind you. This season, Bridges is averaging a career-high in scoring (14.3 points) while seeing a bit of a dip in his 3-point shooting from last season (42.5 percent to 37.1 percent). Ask any rival front office executive or scout in the league, and they’ll tell you the four-year, $90 million extension he signed last summer was an absolute bargain. Two-way talents like this are hard to come by in this league.

“It’s just the culture we had there (at Villanova),” Bridges said. “It’s all the little things and knowing what it takes to win, being a part of it. So when I came here, I had some things that were embedded in me in college and I knew what it took to win. I just stuck with it.”

Did he ever.

Winners work
When the Suns pulled out a close game against the Steph Curry-less Warriors in San Francisco on March 30, it was as good a sign as any that they were ready for the postseason. Draymond Green was a man on a mission that night, when it seemed as if he wanted to send a message Phoenix’s way that his storied squad wasn’t done dominating the West just yet. Jordan Poole dropped 38 points.

But with Bridges and Booker scoring 22 points apiece and Ayton turning in a 16-point, 16-rebound outing, the Suns held them off. And then, in an even better indicator of this group’s collective seriousness, they headed straight for the weight room.

Or, to be more specific, the area just outside the visitor’s locker room, where they quickly installed workout equipment and where onlookers like yours truly watched the scene unfold with great curiosity.

If you look closely in the video below, you’ll see me talking with Booker and Jae Crowder while they take a quick breather from the fascinating routine.

“Winners work, baby,” Booker and Ayton say to each other while sharing a low-five.


Now don’t get it twisted: The notion of a team working out after a game is not exactly rare.

But we don’t typically get to see those behind-the-scenes moments. To watch so many of the Suns’ core players get after it with that kind of energy — with “Nevada” from YoungBoy Never Broke Again blaring in the background while Williams tried to conduct a noisy news conference nearby — gave you a sense of how close this group has become. And yes, in case you wondered, that’s the same song they were all singing back on March 3 during a pregame karaoke session on the Footprint Center floor that went viral.

So when Crowder came my way, I asked a simple question. Why?

You just beat the Warriors in a tough game, and one might think it was time to take a breather after the win that was, at the time, their ninth in a row. Yet there was Booker, Ayton, Cameron Payne, Bridges, Bismack Biyombo, Crowder and others getting after it. Why?

“When you see him out here, it’s contagious,” Crowder said of Booker, who was approaching as we spoke.

To hear Booker tell it, the Suns have done this routine for a few years now. There’s a value, he explained, to pushing your body just a little more when it’s already quite fatigued. Not long after, when Booker got cleaned up and was joined by Paul at the podium, they discussed another dynamic that should serve them well in these weeks and (likely) months ahead: the bond between them that has apparently grown over the course of this season.

“This is the first time you all have seen it,” said Williams, who I plan on voting for as Coach of the Year. “They’ve been doing this a long time. … It looks fun, but it’s a lot of hard work.”

It’s no small thing to have your two most important players so connected on and off the floor. Yet if you hit the rewind button to last season, when the Suns’ emergence was widely seen as a surprise, there were some rival executives who wondered if this dynamic duo might devolve when it came to the personal dynamics. Instead, it seems, they’ve never been better.

“Yeah, you know, it’s bigger than basketball with us,” said Booker, who has been on the outer edges of the MVP conversation while averaging 26.7 points, five rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.1 steals. “We’ve got lifetime friendships and relationships. And that’s important. You know, I think Chris can tell you better than me, but you don’t find that in this league very often. I think that has a direct translation to our performance on the court.”

Paul, the 36-year-old who leads the league in assists (10.7 per) and who returned recently from the thumb fracture that cost him a month, knows all too well from his Clippers and Rockets days how relationships between star players can limit a team’s potential. But this time around, he said, the bond he has with Booker and all the rest of their group has continued to improve.

“It’s grown, man,” Paul said. “I’m telling you.”

Add in that Ayton (17.2 points, 10.2 rebounds per) is having another strong season, upping his game in the face of all that frustration with the franchise’s choice not to give him the max extension he wanted, and there’s really no more doubt about the Phoenix program that is clearly elite. These Suns are still rising, it seems, whether we give them the spotlight they deserve or not.