clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Reliving the Suns shocking OT run

The Suns are the first team in almost 30 years to win by 16+ in a game that went to overtime.

“It was actually kind of crazy. Every time you’re over in position to get ready to help, you just see a steal, then you see a dunk, then a 3,” Chris Paul said, in amazement after the game.

The Phoenix Suns, led by a fired-up Mikal Bridges, exploded in overtime against the Cavaliers with a 15-0 run in which The Warden had 8 points and an assist on one end, and two blocks and a steal on the other — in a span of less than three minutes! All the other Suns chipped in too, and the Cavs didn’t get a shot to hit the rim for nearly three minutes into overtime.

Here’s the defensive sequence:

  • block by Bridges
  • block by Ayton
  • airball by Sexton
  • block by Ayton
  • steal by Bridges
  • block by Bridges
  • missed shot by Allen
  • turnover by Sexton (bad pass out of bounds)

While that’s happening on one end, the Suns scored 15 points on 7 shots (8 by Mikal) to take a 129-114 lead.

Mikal got mad at himself for allowing the game-tying layup late in regulation, and took it out on the Cavs in overtime.

“I was kind of mad at myself for the layup they had at the end of regulation,” Bridges said of the OT surge. “I took that to heart, and then picked it up.”

“Mikal is such a nice guy, such a good guy,” Paul said with a huge smile. “So to see him get mad in overtime... I think our team feeds off that because that’s not usually Mikal’s personality.”

Sam Cooper, long time BSotS contributor and co-host of The Timeline pod, put the overtime sequence together for us.

The Suns winning margin — 134-118, 16 points — is the largest final scoring margin in a game that went to overtime in like 5,000 years (okay, 28 years).

“I’ve been playing for a long time,” Paul continued. “I ain’t never seen nothing like that...everybody was tied together, and that’s a fun way to play.”

A fun way to play indeed.

And that was before Cam Johnson put points 16 and 17 on the board in overtime with THIS...

Check out DA’s face in real time as Cam was finishing the play.

“Ahh man,” Chris Paul said. “We mess with Cam all the time cuz he’s got sneaky hops. The energy from it...we didn’t really know he could jump like that, he’s got size-8 shoes, so you never know.”

LOL at ‘size 8 shoes’, CP. The same dude joked that he needs to up his consistency on rim protection, after logging two of the Suns 11 shot blocks in the game.

Now watch the postgame pressers. These guys have so much fun together.

The Suns are now 47-18, tied with Utah for the best record in the entire league. The Suns also have won all three games over Utah this season, so they would win a tiebreaker and take the overall top playoff seed if they finish the season (7 games from now) in a tie.

Next up

In Atlanta.

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for the Bright Side of the Sun Daily Roundup newsletter!

A daily roundup of Phoenix Suns news from Bright Side of the Sun