Eliminated with a bang by the Mavericks last May, the Suns were keen to take their revenge at the start of this new exercise. Mission accomplished, since the teammates of Devin Booker (28 points, 9 assists) won on the wire (107-105) against Luka Doncic (35 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists), Christian Wood (25 points, 8 rebounds) and others.
A success acquired in pain, after Phoenix notably accused a maximum of 22 points behind, and marked the seal of Damion Lee (11 points), arrived this summer from the Warriors and author of all his points in the fourth quarter. With, above all, the improbable game winner 9.7 seconds from the end! Behind, Luka Doncic makes his 3-point special from 9 meters, but it’s too short and the Suns sign the “comeback” of the evening.
WHAT YOU MUST REMEMBER
— Two-faced Suns. Unrecognizable in the first half, because they were dominated in almost all aspects of the game, the Phoenix players undoubtedly believed in a remake of Game 7 last May, when they were up to 22 points behind after returning from the locker room. Except that the collective of the Arizona franchise ended up getting back in place around Devin Booker, on offense and defense, in order to stick a 19-3 in Dallas in the third quarter and revive the interest in this game.
— The Mavericks collapse in money-time. Leading by 15 points in the last quarter (93-78), after Christian Wood’s big heat stroke, Dallas nevertheless lost ground at the worst time. Leaving Phoenix to quickly catch up with Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton, Cameron Payne or Damion Lee. Unable to find the fault offensively, other than on the free throw line, Jason Kidd’s men began to get frustrated, make stupid and annoying mistakes (loss of ball, offensive faults, etc.), then finally collapse, in the warm atmosphere of the Footprint Center.
— Damion Lee, the X factor. With his friend Cameron Payne, the recent NBA champion was very prominent off the bench, mainly in the last twelve minutes. Active as possible, on each side of the floor, he did not hesitate to sacrifice himself to cause offensive faults or to punish the defense of the Mavericks with his address at 3-pts (3/5). The icing on the cake: the one who will celebrate his 30th birthday this Friday planted the winning shot, out of balance, to offer victory to his new team. A sign that everything was working out for him today…
TOPS/FLOPS
✅ Luka Doncic. After each international window, the Slovenian must undoubtedly appreciate returning to the NBA, where he has much more space to quietly cut through opposing defenses. It was seen again last night, where his offensive science caused many problems for the Suns and Mikal Bridges. Of course, not everything was perfect in his game or in his attitude, but he was still the best Texan player. Despite his (distant) failed attempt in the final seconds, for the win…
✅ Devin Booker. As a good leader, and unlike Chris Paul, the All-Star rear set the example from start to finish, in attitude, scoring, creation and sometimes even in defense. First floating in the first half, in the collective doldrums of the Suns, before continuing its momentum after the break, mainly taking advantage of the awakening of his teammates so as not to perform unnecessarily. A little revenge for “Book”, which was missed last spring.
✅ Christian Wood. What a debut from “C-Wood”, particularly attractive for his first outing with the Mavs. In particular on the offensive level, where his ability to deviate from afar, play with his back to the basket, near the circle and to sanction after screen hurt Phoenix. Of his match, we will especially remember his crazy streak, straddling the last two quarters, where he will have planted 16 points in a row, for what we thought – wrongly – to be the turning point of the game. Jason Kidd then forgot him on the bench at the end of the match…
✅ Deandre Ayton. It still doesn’t look like the joy between the Bahamian and his coach Monty Williams, not to mention the rest of his teammates, but he’s an important part of Phoenix’s success nonetheless. In double-double (18 points, 10 rebounds), he allowed his team to dominate in the paint and his presence inside helped the Suns find the opening on several occasions, when they were in the hard. in attack. Especially in the second half.
⛔ Chris Paul. Transparent from start to finish, except to carry the ball and turn the game around (9 assists), “CP3” got a hole and abandoned his teammates last night: 6 points, 1/6 on shots. Simple bad patch or do you really have to worry about it? Because it is rather unusual to see the Suns play better when their point guard is on the bench than when he is on the floor. So much so that Monty Williams decided to simply do without his All-Star for the last seven minutes of the match!
⛔ Tim Hardaway Jr.. A rather complicated evening of recovery for the clumsy “THJ” (10 points, 3/10 on shots and 1/5 at 3-pts), while the Mavericks would have needed a good contribution from him, in order to compensate for the discreet offensive performances of Dorian Finney-Smith, JaVale McGee, Josh Green or even Maxi Kleber (11 points between them). No doubt a question of rhythm, for the one who had been away from the field since last January.
THE FOLLOWING
Phoenix (1-0) : trip to Portland, in the night from Friday to Saturday (04:00).
Dallas (0-1) : Memphis reception, on the night of Saturday to Sunday (02:30).
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
