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The Phoenix Suns completed the preseason at 5-2 by winning tonight's game vs. the Jazz, 105-100 in Salt Lake City. For whatever preseason's worth, and it isn't much, the Jazz look like a frisky young team who will give opponents headaches this season. There's lots of young talent on that roster, and if Snyder can get more out of them than former coach Ty Corbin, they could be yet another team to reckon with in the West over the next few years.
As for the Suns, I was only able to listen to tonight's game, and have followed the preseason mostly through box scores, and game recaps by others here who can watch the games. From what I can tell, we learned nothing we didn't already know: The guards will bring the points, the bigs will be inconsistent and occasionally problematic, and paint defense will make us all groan at regular intervals.
Tonight's game showed all of these things. Miles Plumlee, Alex Len and Markieff Morris struggled with early foul trouble in trying to defend the beefy Jazz front line, while Goran Dragic, Eric Bledsoe and Isaiah Thomas were the Suns' best players.
Alex Len played, though, and got some nice run with 5 points and 6 rebounds in 19+ minutes, which was a positive development. Len can be such a difference-maker on this Suns team if he can stay healthy and make solid contributions; he outplayed Plumlee tonight.
Suns coach Jeff Hornacek deployed his three-headed PG monster to close the game in the 4th, and they didn't disappoint in putting more pressure on the Jazz than they could handle. The Dragic-Bledsoe-IT trio combined for 50 (!) points to put this one in the old deep freeze. (Thanks, Al!) The Suns won the second half 58-49.
Plenty more to come here on BSotS about the overall Suns preseason. For tonight, enjoy a surprisingly entertaining game the Suns were able to pull out as they unleashed the PG assault late. This is going to be a fun season!