Suns tie franchise mark for wins in season
SAN FRANCISCO — Mikal Bridges had only lost 13 games total in his three years of playing college basketball at Villanova. He won two national titles, too. So Bridges was losing his mind as a rookie in 2018-19 when the Suns dropped 63 games in having their second-worst season in franchise history.
“Staying mentally tough, having some vets like Jamal Crawford, other guys like Ryan Anderson and stuff just helping me, man, and making me just stay sane,” Bridges said. “I never lost that much in my life and I’m just happy I had them to help me.”
Now Bridges is at the doorstep of helping Phoenix set the franchise record for wins.
“It was a process and man, I didn’t know we would be here this fast,” Bridges continued. “It’s unbelievable and like I said, I’m grateful to be here.”
The Suns (62-14) tied the record in Wednesday’s 107-103 comeback victory at Golden State (48-29) as Bridges and Devin Booker each scored a team-high 22 points.
Here are takeaways from the win as the Suns look to break the record Friday against Memphis (54-23), winners of six straight.
1. Seeing Draymond Green screaming in celebration to ignite a sellout crowd of 18,064 at Chase Center affected everyone in the building – except the Suns.
“We’ve just been there before,” Booker said. “You know, the antics, we understand we do have a target on our backs being the best team in the NBA. So all that comes with it, but we always preach the wear-down effect and just weather the storm. There’s going to be runs and that’s when we need each other more. That’s when we come together.”
Having the NBA’s best road record and on pace to set a league record for most road victories in a single season shows how strong-willed and strong-minded the Suns have become from going through experiences like last season and this season.
The 73-win Warriors went 34-7 on the road in 2015-16.
Phoenix is 31-6 with four road games left with the next one Friday at Memphis between the NBA’s top two teams. Even without Ja Morant (sore knee), that’s going to be a special night as the Suns look to set the franchise record for wins.
Booker talks about making statements. Both teams have a chance to make a resounding one as they very well may see each other in the Western Conference finals.
Sorry. Got sidetracked again. It happens.
The Suns were down two at the time with 5:54 left in the third when Green was shouting after Jae Crowder was called for a foul. The Warriors quickly pushed that advantage to seven when Suns coach Monty Williams called a timeout.
Five minutes and 30 seconds later, Phoenix went into the fourth up two after going on a 16-8 run.
Now, the Warriors didn’t die after eventually falling behind by five with 9:29 left in the third.
Even without Stephen Curry (foot), the Warriors still have some of that magic
left from their championship years, but not enough to top the Suns this time as their season series ends tied at 2-2.
2. In keeping with this thread, Golden State had a one-point lead with 39.8 seconds left before Booker showed a craftiness he lacked in that 2018-19 season when everybody seemingly rolled him and the Suns.
He drew a foul on Klay Thompson, who motioned to the Warriors bench, that Booker hooked his arm as he was looking to come off a rub being set by Deandre Ayton.
Booker isn’t doing that earlier in his career, especially in a close game against a very good team, and on a night he shoots 5-of-21 from the field. With that same sellout crowd going even crazier, Booker sank both free throws on a 10of-12 night from the line to put the Suns up for good, 102-101.
Then Green, who had the crowd going crazy in the third, ends up traveling coming out of a Golden State timeout with 31.2 seconds left.
That’s more like something the Suns would’ve done in what seems like forever ago with the way they’ve been winning.
Counting the Orlando bubble, Phoenix has won 121 of its last 156 regular season games.
8-0 bubble to end 2019-20 season. 51-21 in 2020-21 (shortened season). 62-14 in 2021-22.
Let that sink in a little bit along with one more thing.
The Warriors had the NBA’s best record at 27-6 after beating the Suns on Christmas. They’ve gone 21-23 since and fallen to fourth in the West behind Phoenix, Memphis and Dallas (48-29), which won the season series over them, 3-1.
3. Having Chris Paul down the stretch during his two seasons in Phoenix has certainly helped this turnaround.
Williams knows he can put the ball in Paul’s hands and nine times out of 10, the Suns are going to get the shot they want. In a close game, that’s more than half the battle.
So up one, Paul has the ball with the taller, more athletic Andrew Wiggins guarding him.
Now, Paul has seen that before in his 17 NBA seasons, handled matchups like that more than well enough, but Wiggins’ height, length, and athleticism do present a problem.
Until Crowder sets a screen and the Warriors switch, leaving Otto Porter Jr. on Paul. Now Porter Jr. is taller than Paul, but not as good of a defender as Wiggins.
So Paul, who the Warriors had been forcing left, took that path to the basket and scored in traffic with 13.1 seconds left.
With the way Phoenix finishes games by fouling to make it an execution and free throw contest, the odds are in its favor to come out with the win.
The Suns are seventh in the league in free throw percentage at 79.9% with Booker shooting 86.6% from the line and Paul at 84.5%. They’re closers.
Plus Crowder is excellent at inbounding the ball in these situations.
Jordan Poole has a chance to be a consistent one in the future.
He scored a game-high 38 points, connecting on 7-of-15 from 3, but the 91.7% free throw shooter to rank second in the league only to Curry at 92.3% missed a huge one that would’ve knotted the game with 1:20 left.