Phoenix Suns impress in 103-88 victory over Sacramento Kings

Recap:

The Suns spotted the Kings a 14-2 lead behind a bevy of turnovers, but a group that included Goran Dragic and four subs closed the gap and the Suns only trailed 25-21 at the end of the first period. The second unit held serve for the better part of the second quarter until the starters returned and used a 9-2 run to close out the first half and give the Suns a 50-44 lead at the intermission.

The Suns opened up the lead after halftime and led comfortably for the entire third quarter, at one point stretching it to a 76-60 lead. It appeared the Suns may pull away at this point, but Sacramento had a different idea. A 15-6 run by Sacramento cut the lead to six, with rookie Thomas Robinson making his presence felt.

The Kings would never get any closer, though, as Markieff Morris scored six points in a stretch where the Suns opened the lead back up to double digits. Jared Dudley poured in 11 more points in a period of less than two minutes down the stretch to salt away the victory.

Player of the Game:

Jared Dudley 25 points 9-12 FG 4-6 3FG 3-3 FT 3 REB 2 STL

Even before the pyrotechnics that put an exclamation point on the victory, Dudley had provided the Suns with his usually solid and consistent effort. Leave it to Jared to pad his stats in garbage time.

Comments of the Game:

"The Bee has stung!" (Why does this sound familiar?)

Hahahahaha Oh Al...

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Keef unstoppable! oops, fouled out. damn refs

The Good:

The Suns played parsimonious defense and mostly held the Kings in check after a quick start. The Kings managed just 37.4% from the field on 34-91 shooting. What did those missed shots result in?

Rebounding opportunities, which the Suns capitalized on. The Suns dominated the boards 58-46. That's +12. Go Suns. The four horsemen went for 40 all by themselves. What did grabbing all those missed shots by the Kings lead to?

Fast break points. Lots of them. The Suns doubled up on the hapless Kings and held a 32-16 advantage. The Suns took the track meet to a Sacramento squad on the second night of a back to back.

This is already reminiscent of last season, winning games with defense, rebounding and fast breaking. Birds of a feather.

The Bad:

After an effective start, coach Keith Smart decided to rest DeMarcus Cousins for the remainder of the evening. This deprived the Suns bigs of an opportunity to test their mettle against the Kings' centerpiece as well as the Suns' fans of getting a chance to watch the only redeeming quality on a barely passable Sacramento roster. We'll all see Cousins again, but until then... Get Smart.

Markieff Morris would have been the player of the game with his impressive stat line, but instead ends up here due to fouling out in 21 minutes. Morris made an impact on the game when he was on the floor, with 14 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals, but he needs to learn to limit the fouls so he doesn't play his way out of games where he's an asset on the floor. Good game Morris, but watch the fouls.

The Ugly:

The only ugly was the first couple minutes of the game that saw the Suns play sloppy, uninspired basketball. They quickly righted the ship, though, and the rest was smooth sailing.