When Chris Paul was injured, there was a lot of speculation of how the Suns would fare the rest of the season. While the Suns went on to win the 1st game CP was out, they have lost back-to-back games after that. A major reason is that they have lost a major part of the passing and control of the offence that CP had. While Devin Booker has been great, he has not had more than 7 assists after that first game.
The Suns went against the Jazz today and lost 118-114. They had a major turnover when they were down by three when Jae Crowder threw the ball out of bounds. Devin Booker led the team with 30 points, 7 assists, and 7 rebounds in the game. The suns had 4 other players scoring in double digits. Mikal Bridges – 11 points, Jae Crowder – 16 points, Deandre Ayton – 23 points and 7 rebounds, and Cameron Johnson – 23 points and 5 assists.
Even though the Suns had a pretty good game it wasn’t enough to beat the Jazz who also had 5 players in double digits. They were led by their superstars, Donovan Mitchell ( 26 points and 5 assists) and Rudy Gobert ( 16 points and 14 rebounds) who dominated the boards. Bojan Bogdanovic (11 points), Mike Conley (13 points), and Jordan Clarkson (22 points) also helped with the scoring.
It is clear for all to see that the Sun’s struggles are mainly due to the lack of a floor general like Chris Paul. The team has scored well and even rebounded pretty well in the last 2 games. But right now the most number of passes anyone on the team has isn’t even close to what Chris Paul averages in a season. The team has to figure out how to keep everyone involved and while it is impossible to emulate what CP brings to the table, at least try your best to incorporate more ball movement.
The Suns might not lose the 1 seed with the Warriors and Grizzlies being too far behind to overtake them but it is still a risk and they have to win a couple of games without Chris Paul to reduce that risk.
