The Suns heard the noise coming from the fans, the media, and former players. They tuned it out, playing one of their best games of the season, blitzing their way to a 129-113 victory.
Nearly everyone played well, but two vets led the way. The first was Kevin Durant, who looked like the new point guard out there, running the offense while scoring 27 points with 16 assists, notching his first triple-double as a Sun and becoming the first player age 35 or older to hit over 25 points, 16 assists, and 10 rebounds.
The second star of the game, also scoring 27, was Eric Gordon, who made 7 of 11 threes and had his revenge game in Houston even after the Rockets played a tribute video for him. Guess he had the old home feeling?
The rest of the starters also played tremendously, as the ball zipped around. The Suns finished with 28 assists and did not look like they had any chemistry issues whatsoever, despite what Woj and Brandon Jennings will tell you. Devin Booker scored 20 points and 7 assists. Grayson Allen went 5-7 en route to 16 points. Jusuf Nurkic only played 14 minutes in his return but had 8 points with 10 rebounds and 2 blocks. The Suns clearly missed everything he brings. He had been out due to the passing of his uncle, whom he honored with his Book 1s.
Nurk didn’t have to play much in the 2nd half, as the game wasn’t close and the Suns backup bigs came to play, mainly Udoka Azubuike, who had 11 points with 5 rebounds and several impressive finishes, including this beauty.
The Suns finally blew out an opponent, which allowed them to give 12 players court time. Saben Lee got 12 minutes, making all of his shots and ending with 9 points. There was even a Bol Bol sighting in the last 2 minutes, and he made a block. The Suns shot 57 percent and also made 14 threes, hitting 42% as a team. The Suns also outrebounded the Rockets 44 to 33.
The only negative to the game was the Suns still had 19 turnovers while the Rockets had 9. But in the end it didn’t matter, as they thoroughly outplayed the Rockets in every other facet of the game and got the win they so badly needed.
And that’s the question. Is this a flash in the pan, or is it the springboard that propels them to a win streak and finally looking like the super team we expected? Their next chance to show us will be Friday vs the Hornets back in Phoenix. Let’s see what our Suns are made of!
