All the hype it was justified. It was not difficult to bet on it, after the perfect display of last season and the scrupulously sensible sense of its movements in the market: The Suns are ready to compete in the West. They haven’t started a playoffs for ten years (since 2010) … but they also haven’t started a 4-1 season since 2009. And there they are after winning in a very convincing way in Salt Lake City (95-106), a duel of aspiring to the noble zone of the West from which some inferior Jazz left scalded (now 2-2).
The Suns have won three straight games, four in total, and They closed 2020 with a 25-20 during the calendar year which is 12-1 in their last 13, since the restart in Orlando with 8-0 in the bubble and this brilliant 4-1. And the best thing is that they are winning without fireworks or explosions of their stars. No, the Monty Williams Suns They win because they are a complete, balanced, well thought out and worked team: they win because they are better than their rivals. With a very good defense and an attack with resources, this time dominating the Jazz and controlling all the attempts of an opponent who was 33-48 in the second quarter, he reacted and received an already fatal blow between the third and last quarter (70-91). Chris Paul stayed at 11 points and 8 assists and Devin Booker was good but not (for what he is) super (25 + 7). And DeAndre Ayton was soon loaded with fouls (4 points, 9 rebounds). But it didn’t matter on a fantastic day of a secondary batch in which Cameron Payne is a definitively resurrected player and in which there are four forwards to play in a thousand ways: Saric, Jae Crowder (16 + 6) and two young men of an exceptional level, Mikal Bridges (16 + 6, his usual defense and triples in key moments) and Cam Johnson, which finished with 10 points but did damage at 2-16 that left the last quarter without history.
The Jazz racked up losses and misses, with Bogdanovic denied (0/5 shooting) and inefficient Donovan Mitchell: 23 points, 23 shots. One of the best teams in the West in recent seasons, certainly the most reliable in the regular season, faces new challenges in order not to lose its privileged position (let alone go further). One of them is Phoenix Suns, a team that is much more than hype and promises. He is a very real contender to devour rivals and return, at last, and a decade later, to the West playoffs.
