The Phoenix Suns have found something already this season in their reserve forwards that they did not have last year, and it showed once again in last night’s 125-119 win over the Los Angeles Clippers.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Both veteran Royce O’Neale and rookie Ryan Dunn achieved career highs in points to help Phoenix win its third-straight game and improve to 4-1 on the season.
After leading the Suns in plus/minus in each of the team’s first four games, O’Neale uncharacteristically finished as a minus-7 against the Clippers, but had statistically his best scoring performance ever, ending with 21 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the floor and 5-of-6 shooting from 3, seven rebounds and three steals in 29 minutes off the bench.
Royce O’Neale dagger 3 for his 19th point of the game! #Suns
pic.twitter.com/NMR601K3e3— Burn City Suns ☀️ (@BurnCitySuns) November 1, 2024
O’Neale, who signed a four-year, $42 million extension with Phoenix this offseason, has now played in 530 regular-season games and started 297 of them, so it is hard to grasp that only 21 points is his career high, but that is the case. In his 30 games with Phoenix last season after being acquired from the Brooklyn Nets at the trade deadline, O’Neale tied his then-career high of 20 twice.
Dunn, the No. 28 overall pick this summer, got his second start of the year for the injured Bradley Beal, and made the most of it.
In a career-high 34 minutes, Dunn notched 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the floor and 4-of-9 from 3, four rebounds and a steal.
No other rookie has more than one game with three or more 3-pointers, while Dunn now has three. Overall, Dunn is shooting 11-of-25 (44%) from 3 after only making 7-of-35 (20%) of his 3s in 34 games last season at Virginia, an incredible transformation that no one who watched him in college could have expected. This montage of Dunn missing free throws badly at Virginia went viral after the win:
If you told me just 6 months ago that Ryan Dunn would be the first rookie to hit four threes in an NBA game, I would've called you all kinds of crazy.
This is what he looked like shooting free throws in his last college season. The same guy. pic.twitter.com/EgxdMJPA6l
— Nick Kalinowski (@kalidrafts) November 1, 2024
Dunn leads all rookies with his 11 3-pointers and is now third in points per game at 9.4, despite playing the 10th most minutes per game among rookies (18.6). This is all while doing a terrific job of guarding the opposing team’s best player night in and night out when he’s on the floor.
WELCOME TO THE DUNNGEON.
☄️ 16 PTS
☄️ 4 REB
☄️ 4 3PM
☄️ 1 STL pic.twitter.com/WWHe63hXKd— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) November 1, 2024
In addition to O’Neale and Dunn, Devin Booker had a season-high 40 points and Tyus Jones had a season-high 11 assists against the Clippers. Mason Plumlee tied his season-high with eight points off the bench.
It is early, but the Suns are showing a lot of improvement from last season and winning in different manners from game to game, an encouraging sign of just how tough they are to play against.
The Suns next take on the Portland Trail Blazers (2-3) at home on Saturday.
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Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau
