Well, ladies and gentlemen, the Suns have rallied back.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!After going down 0-2 on the road, Phoenix took home court advantage. Game 3 was another battle, surely, but we saw hope – especially in the performances of Devin Booker and Kevin Durant.
The #Suns take some momentum in Game 3 behind massive performances from Devin Booker and Kevin Durant. #RallyTheValley #WeAreTheValley #NBA #NBAPlayoffs https://t.co/TUqWBJMpsG
— Burn City Sports (@BurnCitySports) May 6, 2023
In Game 4, these two would once again mount impressive performances. However, after looking at the numbers, it was really the collective teamwork of the Phoenix Suns that led to their win.
Denver’s Nikola Jokic scored 53 points on the night, going 20/30 on field goals with a percentage of 66.7%. Take Jokic out of the Nugget’s field goal percentage as a team on the night, they collectively were 30/59 for a little under 50%. 13 of those 30 field goals belonged to Jamal Murray. Jokic’s field goals accounted for one-fifth of the team’s scores, and without Murray and Jokic adding to the stats, the Nuggets would only see 43 points from their other players.
How does this play into the Suns’ victory?
Devin Booker put up another impressive field goal percentage of 77.8 with 14/18 field goals made and 36 points total, showing once more that he is among the best players in the playoffs. Kevin Durant also put up 36 points and had a FG% of 57.9.
It’s easy to focus on the leading players of the night, and while the efforts of the opposing team’s Jokic and Murray beat the efforts of Durant and Booker by 9 points duo-for-duo, performances like that of Landry Shamet really set the two teams apart.
While Devin Booker and Kevin Durant remained spectacular, it took a handful of gutsy performances from some unsung heroes for the Suns' to even up the series against the Nuggets.https://t.co/jkNDBZgfny
— Burn City Sports (@BurnCitySports) May 8, 2023
Shamet scored 19 points with 6/9 field goals, 5 of them being for 3 points.
Shamet’s 3-pointers accounted for over one-third of the Suns 3 point scores. The Nuggets as a team only made 7 field goals behind the 3-point line all game.
It seems that all in all, the Nuggets found their success primarily in the problematic presence of Nikola Jokic and the consistency of Jamal Murray, while the Suns had impressive teamwork coming not just from their starters, but from the bench. We will see how Monty Williams adjusts when the Suns face the Nuggets in Game 5 tomorrow.
