2015 Summer League: Suns knock off Wizards, 86-77

Well sports fans, Phoenix Suns basketball has returned.

The purple and orange opened 2015 NBA Summer League play with an 86-77 win over the Washington Wizards in Las Vegas.

There was good, there was bad, there was ugly. Remarkably Alex Len was able to be all three at different times. That was just in the first half. After managing to pick up four fouls in the first three minutes of play, Len harnessed that recklessness and managed to throw together a 17 point, 8 rebound effort. Players get 10 fouls in Summer League games, and through one quarter it looked like Len might need all of them.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Saturday's top effort came from the star of last season's Suns Summer League team, T.J. Warren. Warren tallied 20 points on 8 of 15 shooting. Held without a field goal six minutes in, his first basket came on a fast break dunk, which he followed with slam slashing to the bucket 30 seconds later.

Archie Goodwin struggled early. He looked uncomfortable on both ends of the floor and at times out of control handling the basketball. He would play considerably better in the second half and connect on 6 of 13 shots to lead all scorers with 22 points.

Suns fans got their first look at the number 13 pick in the NBA Draft, Devin Booker. While Booker showed flashes of the shooting brilliance that Phoenix coveted at draft time in the first half, he had trouble after the break, hitting 2 of 7 shots and missing a couple of those shots badly. Booker finished with 12 points in 26 minutes.

Alec Brown made the most of his limited playing time. In 11 minutes of play, Brown collected 3 rebounds, and knocked down his only shot attempt, a first quarter three-pointer. 10 different Suns saw minutes on Saturday.

Often at Summer League it's the offense that is on displaying while teams learn how to work together defensively. That wasn't the case for Phoenix on Saturday. The Suns played excellent team defense early and late, forcing the Wizards into 18 turnovers. Washington shot 3 of 22 from behind the arc.

Washington was led Kelly Oubre Jr.'s 20 points. Both Oubre and Jarrid Famous totaled 10 rebounds for the Wizards.

Phoenix returns to Summer League play tomorrow with a 1:30 PM matchup with the Houston Rockets at the Thomas and Mack Center.