The Phoenix Suns beat the Oklahoma City Thunder (OKC) 124-104 in their first game without Chrism Paul. The Point God is out for 6-8 weeks with an avulsion fracture on his right thumb. Cam Johnson stepped up to fill up Paul’s spot while Devin Booker became the interim leader of the team. Monty Williams had his team prepared to play and the Suns came away with the win.
The first half of the game was pretty close and ended at 48-45 with Phoenix in the lead. But the Suns took over in the second half. They were led by Devin Booker who had 25 points and 12 assists in the game. Devin took over the point guard duties and performed extremely well. He also had help from his teammates Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson who had 21 points. 3 other players with double-digit scoring were Jae Crowder, Landry Shamet, and Aaron Holiday. Deandre Ayton struggled in the game and only had 6 points and 8 rebounds.
OKC was led by their young stars Shai Gilgeous Alexander (32 points) and Josh Giddey ( 15 points, 6 assists, and 9 rebounds). The other 2 players with double-digit scoring were Tre Mann – 11 points and Aleksej Pokusevski – 13 points. Despite Shai’s game-high scoring it wasn’t enough to win against the top seed Phoenix Suns led by Devin Booker.
The Suns have one of the easiest schedules left in the NBA and could rack up a few wins before CP returns. The team is well-coached, has depth at every position, and has a superstar in Devin Booker. The Suns began playing great basketball in the bubble where they won 9 games in a row. The addition of Chris Paul only added to a really good young team. With the moves they have made this season to have depth at multiple positions, the Suns could very well end the season as the first seed.
