5 game winning streak. The Suns are taking care of business and having fun while doing it. It wasn't pretty at first but they pulled out the win.
It was a tale of two halves with the Suns playing ugly and I mean ugly basketball in the first quarter. They missed 8 consecutive shots in the paint, had 8 turnovers and shot 35 percent from the field.
The bench came in in the 2nd quarter to clean up the mess. Goran Dragic, Marcin Gortat, Jared Dudley turned up the defense and offense cutting the lead to one after trailing by eleven. The Wizards were in the penalty early in the quarter and the Suns started to go to the line with almost seven minutes left to play in the half. But the Wizards wouldn't go away. The answered every single time the good guys were close to finally getting that elusive lead.
Nick Young was hitting from everywhere on the court. This kid is something special. Vince Carter was getting smoked with Young showing no mercy scorching him and the Suns defense with 20 points at the half.
I've criticised Gentry for not making good in-game adjustments but I felt this was one of the best coached games of the season. He put Hill on Young in the second half and BAMF completely shut him down. Young only scored 5 points in the second half.
Channing Frye was raining threes. He scored from everywhere on the floor. His shot was a thing of beauty today. Back to back to back threes form him helped the Suns finally get a comfortable lead.
The Suns have gotten in trouble in the 3rd quarter before but not today. Great defense and collective rebounding as well as a flowing offense helped the Suns put the Wizards away. They outscored Washington 31-18.
Vince Carter had missed his first 7 shots but finally came alive in the second half, hitting his outside shot and even dunking with authority. He finished the game with 12 points but grabbed 10 rebounds. I like that last stat.
Nash finished the game with 17 points and 14 assists. He got some rest tonight thanks to Goran who had a solid game and was part of that second unit who cut the lead.
The Suns were having fun after they took control of the game, the bench and the players on the court enjoying themselves good play after good play. They didn't let the Wizards back in the game and did what they were supposed to do... beat a young team.
Be sure to come back for more post game info and enjoy this win. We saw encouraging signs tonight. Go Suns!