The Suns shook off early game rust (typical of any team returning from a break) to secure their 25th win of the season. That makes it five times live for Phoenix, who play a home game against the Indiana Pacers on Saturday.
It’s simply a very exciting basketball to watch, it was an absolute joy to see them win after season this season. Fighting back multiple double-digit deficits against a playoff team is not easy to do.
The Suns improve to 25-11
Finale: Suns 127 | Jackets 121
• Discuss: 35 points, 5 rebs, 8asts
• Paul: 19 points, 5 liters, 7 days
• bridge: 18 points, 4 rebs, 2asts
• Payne: 13 points, 3 rebs, 6asts
• Crowder: 13 points, 7 rebs
• Saric: 11 points, 5 rebs, 2asts
• Ayton: 11 points, 4 rebs– Inside The Sun (@_insidethesun) 12 March 2021
First half
At the start of the game, there were trade reports from Portland and Phoenix, with Damian Lillard giving a lot of defensive attention, leading to a heap of open appearances for Enes Kanter.
Mikal Bridges played his usual star (annoying) defense of the full court and made some timely cuts as usual in the transition that led to easy buckets.
Devin Booker also made this Steve Nash-like pass.
In the second quarter, the Suns were 33-30 behind, despite Cam Payne’s eight quick points on just 3 shots in five minutes in the first quarter.
The back-and-forth affair continued early in the 2nd quarter while the Suns second unit + Chris Paul fought hard in the staggering non-Booker minutes.
Portland’s hot shot from depth extended the lead to 47-37, leading to a time-out from Monty Williams.
The three-point line defense was a strong point for the Suns, but the former Blazers were 10-for-20 (50%) from deep down.
Mikal Bridges’ off-ball move was incredible, as almost all of his 16 first-half goals were a direct result of his cut, relocation or leak in the transition.
Mikal Bridges has 16 points in the first half on 8 shots, and all are a direct result of the movement without the ball.
Cut, relocate, leak out in transition. He is deadly without the basketball in his hands.
– Zone (@AZSportsZone) 12 March 2021
A very strong point near the quarter penetrated the lead in Portland in a flurry and tied at 60-60 in a game that felt like an outburst until the final 90 seconds of the second quarter.
Second half
Portland’s hot three-point shooting continued as they built up a 9-point lead largely due to Dame’s gravity creating easy looks for others.
Lillard is starting to get offensive in his rhythm, which is not ideal in a game where Portland had a comfortable lead. My key to the game in the preview was not to let Portland hang around for ‘Lady Time’, and they could not do that.
The Blazers win the 50/50 balls, push harder and slam the glass. These little plays definitely added up and were usually a strong suit for the Suns, but not tonight.
Portland extended its lead to 11, 90-79 with 3:30 left in the third quarter.
Devin Booker started to heat up slowly at the end of the third and piled up 26 points after the final period. The Suns ran another late quarter to reduce the Blazers’ lead to 4, 94-80 in fourth place.
Chris Paul played some critical plays on consecutive possessions and drained a three-pointer when it was just a two-point game, and then pulled a clever foul on Carmelo to get two free throws, and himself on a 5- 0-run passed.
Devin Booker sign in. Devin Booker scored 5 points in two possessions. The Suns’ shutters stepped in to extend the lead to ten, forcing a time frame from Terry Stotts.
Cameron Payne also had another great game, with 13 points in 20 minutes on 4-for-5 shooting with three tries and 6 assists.
There was a scary moment late in the 4th because it looks like Booker with Derrick Jones jr. Knees bump and grin in pain, but stay in the game to lock things up.
Book goes knee-to-knee on the left knee again. This is what initially gave rise to it. It had to be really painful. He went down to hold it and then limped to the couch.
– Kellan Olson (@KellanOlson) 12 March 2021
The Suns took the win, 127-121, despite a fairly disappointing start to the game, they shook off the rust.
Star of the game
Devin Booker– 35 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds on 12/21 shooting (3/5 3PFG, 8 / 8FT).
Following
Suns vs. Passes (20:00)