March Madness nears but the Phoenix Suns are more of a March Mystery as they enter the home stretch

March Madness nears but the Phoenix Suns are more of a March Mystery as they enter the home stretch

And marada boings Arizona Sports the local sports leader bigley blast March has arrived and the Suns remain a mystery last night’s win over the Rockets changes nothing this is still a team that can’t stay healthy a team that spent three days practicing fourth quarter offense and still couldn’t close

Out a game a team that cannot prevent those 5 to six minutes where they seem to lose their focus and their grip now throughout this erratic sometimes frustrating season I have taken solace in the fact that Devin Booker and Kevin Durant have not lost faith publicly there have been no cracks in their

Public facade that would make you believe this team has no chance but after Thursday’s game kind of felt like Frank vogle was reaching a bit stretching to find a silver lining and I get it it’s getting late and this team needs something they know will be there every night in including Bradley Beal

And Eric Gordon now who would ever thought in their wildest dreams that Yousef nurkic and Grayson Allen would be bigger fan favorites than Beal and Gordon who I thought were their two most important offseason editions either way like I said it’s going to get late very

Soon and I have one hope entering this weekend of basketball for the Suns to treat the Rockets like the lesser team they are and then get the valley buzzing I mean really buzzing with a Transcendent performance against Oklahoma City on Sunday if that’s not too much to ask all right today’s bigle blast

Brought to you by my great friends at Chapman BMW who make luxury attainable find them online at Chapman bmw.com I was shooting a lot from deep I I hit a lot of Threes in the first quarter just the same shots that I missed the other

Game you know I just I stick with it um I mean I don’t know what what my percentages are at but better than League average so I’m going to keep going to your point Bick uh and that’s Devon Booker talking about what happened in the first quarter last night and he

Happened in the first quarter 20 points finished with 35 was four or4 from three-point range um it looked like the suns were going to do exactly what you’re still urging them to do against Houston and that is to treat them like the lesser team to uh exert their their

Superiority over the Houston Rockets it didn’t happen over the last three quarters of that basketball game and it’s I mean that there was a lot of similarities between last night’s game and Friday night in Houston last week too many other than the outcome like you said earli yeah yeah and this is and

Again it’s I was expecting more what they came out in the first quarter and that was exactly what I wanted to see a team that was out for a little retribution a team that was like you ain’t doing this to again young fellas and then the and and then the Rockets

Just kept coming at him and then the sun’s just kind of you know you know played a lackluster second half offensively and and and they got the victory which is fine and and I I set the bar for that win these two games against the rockets and then we’ll press

Go and we’ll all hope for the best but I for Frank vogle after the game to come out and say listen we when you play in our building you’re going to get just crazy ass defense and you’re going to get team that shoots the ball really really well that’s not really been the

Case and and as I said you know this better than anybody you get the best seat in the house the season ticket holders I talk to there there’s two common refrains I hear from them number one way too loud I’ve I still hear that the Steve ker get off my loan lawn bid

And number two the vibe just isn’t the same and and the latter part I can understand because we’re all waiting for this team to be the team we all want them to be and it’s maybe not their fault that they’re not meeting our expectations but that’s the way this

Stuff works we were promised a super team Matt ishbia said they best roster in the NBA yeah now the roster not whole and again I’m not going to dwell on that but we’ll get back into it but let’s get into it now so so the Bradley Beal piece

So the thing about Bradley Beal here you you’ve got to believe that somewhere along this rehab he’s had some kind of setback right CU When this injury happened and this is what we’re talking what um was it January 13th uh February I’m sorry February 13th was right before Valentine’s right

February right before Valentine’s Day I’m only a month off bear with me it’s been a long week it’s s 17 days ago it’s been right so two and a half weeks but it was right it was never kind of couched as a two to three week timeline

But that’s what it’s been no again we talked to Frank vogle at the beginning of last week before they came back and he was hopeful that he’d be back for the Dallas game yeah and again so there must have been a some kind of setback right

Had to have been mhm one of those full weeks too was the allstar break yes where there weren’t like heavy practices or anything either yeah V go I’m just going to finish this then you can jump in um and so in real time it might not

Feel like an issue but what it feels like to me is that what are the odds that when we get into a a playoff series and you get a and say the Suns win a a first round playoff series which really is starting to begin like it’s going to

Be matchup dependent at this point in terms of what their chances are going to be they get to a second round series and so now we’re say 12 13 games into a playoff run what are the odds that these guys are going to stay intact that’s

That’s that’s a thing that I’m just like to win to win an NBA championship you have to play for an additional two and a half months mhm to think that we’re going to have the big three or a full roster for that entire time I I there’s

Just nothing to prove that this season well and to look at it this way too to win a championship you’ve got to win 16 games you can also lose 12 games along those if every series went seven games you’re talking about 28 potential basketball games I think Bradley Beal’s

Season high in consecutive games is is 15 and that coincided with health now I will say this Kevin Durant and Devin Booker um have seemingly shaken off what was I mean second part of the year for sure second part of the Year certainly uh the first part of the year they were

They were susceptible to that nagging stuff too and would play two miss one play Four miss two MH um yeah I mean Gordon’s longest stretch of basketball too is about 13 games this year yeah and and then so and that’s that’s kind of my worry here and again and I do think that

Um the Yousef nurkic Grayson Allen de evolving his fan favorites I not not sure I saw either of those things happening really you know what I mean to the point where Frank vogle is begging Grace Allen shoot the ball more shoot the your percentage is such that I don’t

Care if your percentage drops 10 percentage points keep shooting last night was a rare bad shooting night sometimes he doesn’t get a lot of attempts up Grayson Allen but he’ll usually make the majority of them last night to go two for night and there was one where things were getting a little

Hairy late in that game and Grayson Allen had the single most open three-pointer from the corner in the history of open three-point shots and he actually stood there looked at it like a free throw took a deep inhale and exhale and then shot it and missed and you’re

Like that’s weird that was weird he’s been so good this year so confident on the catch and shoot especially when he’s open but he’s not here’s the thing he has been so good this year and he’s been very consistent but he is not a superstar so he is not going to be good

All the time no and the same with nurkic and the same especially with a B bow type guy but the book book and Durant are superstars and they haven’t been good all the time Kevin Durant’s not playing best basketball right now his last four games shooting a lot of shots

And not making a lot of shots couple things I points I want to bring up on Booker um he finished with six three-pointers again he had four he can’t get over the hump are you keeping a list of that I know you are here’s uh here’s Devin Booker on never

Being able to get to Seven threes in the regular season this is a crazy stat but you have now hit 63 25 that’s why I shot that last one oh do you remember the first time you hit 63 The Game No rookie year Indiana here that might have been

My first 30-point game I think was 32-point game yeah yeah when you think about that stat are you like it’s got to happen sooner or later or do you even I mean it’s happened in the playoffs oh so I’ll take it then there is that he has

Done it in the playoffs Kellen olssen took it a step further and again if you didn’t hear Dwayne Rank and setting up the question that was the 25th time in the regular season in Deon Booker’s career he’s hit six three-pointers never got more than that I know Kellen Olsson

Went a step further and said in those 25 games collectively after reaching six three-pointers Devin Booker going for seven is 0 for 37 wow is that not ridiculous I read that this morning and I was like Wow Kell’s a nerd and then I went wow that’s an amazing St

Insightful great basketball mind but also on Devin Booker him talking about uh maybe this is something we can circle around to but he you know there was not fist to cuffs there was some there was some tension there was some static between him and cam Whitmore last night

And it was you know carried over from last Friday night’s game he acknowledged it but I thought Devin Booker’s response to it in both his television interview and his press conference was refreshing he didn’t take offense to it he kind of said this is B this is the way

Basketball should be mhm I think that’s refreshing these days don’t you I I think Devon Booker was a little um a little put back the way cam Whitmore came at him but then he also remember I think he respected it that’s the kind of stuff I did I think he respected it yeah

Yeah and I think that’s hardcore that that’s the Devon Booker that I love the hardcore Devon Booker thanks for watching Bickley and marada click to see the latest Bley blast and hit the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports

College basketball has March Madness, but Dan Bickley explains how the Phoenix Suns are more of the NBA’s March Mystery heading into the final home stretch of the regular season.

Video: Felisa Cárdenas and Jeremy Schnell/Arizona Sports
Photos: Felisa Cárdenas/Arizona Sports; Getty Images

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