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Keys to victory: How Suns can take care of struggling 76ers

Nov 2, 2024; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; A general view as Phoenix Suns guard Tyus Jones (21) brings the ball down the court in the second half during a game against the Portland Trail Blazers at Footprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Allan Henry-Imagn Images

The Phoenix Suns play their second of three-straight home games tonight when they take on the Philadelphia 76ers.

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The Suns are riding a four-game win streak into tonight’s matchup after improving to 5-1 on the season with a 103-97 win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday.

The 76ers rank near the bottom of the NBA in several stats after a 1-4 start to the year without Paul George (left knee bone bruise) and Joel Embiid (left knee injury management). 

George, listed as questionable, is expected to return for the 76ers tonight against Phoenix, according to ESPN. What kind of impact he will have alone without Embiid remains to be seen.

Here are some keys to victory for the Suns:

Play full 48 minutes

This is how Phoenix’s first six games of the season have played out:

The Mavericks game is the only matchup this season where Phoenix has played a complete 48 minutes with no drastic swings one way or another. Saturday’s win may have been the most egregious example of these swings after Phoenix won the third quarter 44-18 following a very ugly first half and nearly coughed up a 26-point lead losing the fourth quarter 32-16.

“The defense was good,” Suns coach Mike Budenholzer said of the third quarter postgame. “I thought we were playing in a great rhythm offensively, kind of getting to everything, everybody was participating, allowed us to get great separation from them. We got to learn to play for 48 minutes. We’re not there, but I’m sure nobody is, so it’s good to put together stretches like the third quarter. We got to keep building on that.”

Against good teams, this inconsistency won’t fly, as we saw last season, but the Suns are showing a lot more potential and grit than they did a year ago. This is exemplified by their last two third quarter performances.

When the Suns go on runs like this, they need to be able to sustain some sort of momentum for the rest of the game. With that said, Phoenix has shown a lot of resiliency to come back from down big or even overcome tough shooting performances throughout the course of a game.

Can the Suns piece together a full 48-minute effort tonight?

Rebound

The Suns grabbed 63 rebounds against Portland, the most they have collected as a team since Feb. 5, 2022. Granted, a lot of this was because the Blazers shot an abysmal 37-for-111 (33.3%) from the field, but Budenholzer said he was really encouraged by the rebounding numbers his team had, especially in the second half. Jusuf Nurkić (15 rebounds), Devin Booker (9 rebounds), Kevin Durant (9 rebounds) and Bradley Beal (7 rebounds) all had or tied season highs in rebounds in the win. 

“We felt like if we could clean up the rebounding, it would help us get out and play,” Budenholzer said of what he told his team at halftime against the Blazers.

To Budenholzer’s point on the rebounds, the Suns had 15 fastbreak points in the second half compared to just five in the first half.

With that said, the Suns have to get better at crashing the offensive glass, as they rank dead last in the NBA with 7.7 offensive rebounds per game, compared to second in the NBA in defensive rebounds with 37.5 per game.

Even with Andre Drummond, known to be one of the best rebounders in NBA history, filling in for Embiid, the 76ers allow the seventh-most opponent rebounds per game so far, so Phoenix has a chance to improve in this area. 

The 76ers are only shooting 41.1% from the floor this season, and while this number will likely get much better with George back, Phoenix will have to not allow offensive rebounds by Philadelphia and get out and run as much as possible off the 76ers misses.

Keep up terrific defense

The Suns, known for their offensive firepower, enter tonight’s matchup surprisingly with the sixth-best defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) in the NBA at 107.9.

The 33.3% Portland shot from the field in Saturday’s game is a lower field-goal percentage than the Suns allowed to any team all of last season. Phoenix is now holding opponents to 43% shooting across its six games so far, the sixth-lowest opponent field goal percentage in the league.

The 76ers do not do a good job of moving the ball, as they rank dead last by a wide margin in assists at 18.2 per game. With this stat coupled with the 76ers’ poor field-goal percentage this season, Phoenix has a chance to put together another terrific defensive performance tonight.

One area the Suns can improve in defensively is forcing turnovers after Portland only had six on Saturday. Philadelphia might be prone to turning the ball over more trying to get George assimilated into the offense. Turnovers are the easiest way for the Suns to play with the pace they want to offensively.

Don’t allow others to get hot

Without George and Embiid, Tyrese Maxey has done his best to try to create offense, averaging the sixth-most points in the NBA at 29.8, while leading the league in field goal attempts at a ridiculous 26.0 per game. Maxey is shooting 38.5% from the floor and 26.3% from deep on 11.3 3-point attempts, as teams have been able to key in on him without Philadelphia’s other weapons.

Simply put, the 76ers have not had much offensive options without Maxey, but this all changes with George back in the lineup. Phoenix has shown enough defensively thus far that it can contain star players, but the Suns can’t let anyone outside of Maxey or George get going or it’ll open up a lot of options for the 76ers offense.

The main player to watch in this area is former Sun Kelly Oubre Jr., who has averaged 18.0 points this year on 40.2% shooting.

Win by the 3-point line

The Suns have preached the new-age analytical approach of attempting as many 3-pointers as possible in Budenholzer’s first year with the team. It has led to them averaging the fewest points per game in the paint in the NBA (38.7), but they are now sixth in 3-point makes per game (15.3) and 10th in attempts (38.2) after getting up a season-high 52 3s against Portland.

 

Tonight’s matchup is a game where Phoenix can really execute this strategy and dominate the 3-point margin. Philadelphia is shooting the second-lowest 3-point field goal percentage this season at 31.3%, converting 11.0 per game (t-26th in NBA) on 35.2 attempts (20th in NBA).

The 76ers have allowed the second-fewest 3-point attempts in the league (31.0 per game), but have not played a team in the top 15 of 3-point attempts yet this season.

Philadelphia’s length on the perimeter could make it tough for Phoenix to get up 3s in the halfcourt, but if the Suns are able to play with pace by accomplishing the other keys to the game, the 3-point line could be what helps Phoenix gets the win tonight.

Local Game Information

Start Time: 8:15 p.m. MST

Location: Footprint Center

TV Channel: AZ Family/3TV, NBATV

Radio: Arizona Sports 98.7 FM, La Mejor 106.5 FM

Stream: Suns Live (click for more info)

Betting Odds (DraftKings)

Line: PHX -7

O/U: 223.5

Injury Report

Report: 76ers star expected to make season debut against Suns

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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

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