The Phoenix Suns had no mercy on the young Rockets and clinched their eighth straight win by a landslide 89-115. The Arizona team, the most fit in the NBA at the moment, thus added with its ninth victory of the course, maintaining the second place in the West and taking advantage of the Warriors’ loss in Charlotte to close the gap. Houston, for its part, continues in last place without lifting its head, having lost the last 11 games they have played.
The huge difference between the teams was not long in coming, and while the Texans held relatively close until halftime, it was only a matter of time before Phoenix ended up slipping away on the scoreboard. Monty Williams’ men were practically the whole game ahead, and, except for small favorable sets for the locals, they never stopped growing their advantage until they allowed a very comfortable closing of the game. In this way, none of their important players needed to play too many minutes, which helped them to rest for future matches.
Devin Booker, with 26 points, finished as the top scorer, although the truth is that he faded after a great start that allowed him to score 16 points in the first quarter. From then on, the guard signed a more discreet performance and remained at an improvable 9/23 in field goals, although he achieved 6 assists and 5 rebounds to round out his overall performance.
Who also stood out was JaVale McGee, a starter again in the absence of Ayton, who took better advantage than ever of this presence in the starting five to sign his first double-double of the course. The pivot finished with 19 points and 14 rebounds, 7 of them in attack, doing a lot of damage to the Rockets in the paint and showing their weakness in various sections of the game. On the other hand, Chris Paul finished with 15 points, while Mikal Bridges reached 14 and Cameron Payne led the second unit with 13.
In Houston, Christian Wood was the top man with 17 points and 8 rebounds, followed by 12 scored by both Jalen Green, Kevin Porter Jr. and Eric Gordon. The Texans gave an enormous amount of facilities to the Suns, as they lost up to 23 balls and gave up a total of 12 rebounds in attack, which gave the visitors many more options to hurt them and had no problem expanding each time. plus your advantage. Silas’s are, after all, a team that is trying to start building itself, and the difference with a squad that comes from playing the NBA Finals was more than evident.
“The fact that we made 16 losses in the first half is disappointing,” acknowledged the coach. “We have started the game again giving an advantage (8-21 from start) and that is not at all a good way to start. Besides, we knew that taking care of the ball was going to be essential, but we have had the same problems again.
(Cover photo: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
