The Phoenix Suns took over the New York Knicks on Wednesday night, winning the game by a final score of 116 to 103. The win streak is their first since 2015 when they won 14 straight games.
This past year has been a challenging one for both teams as well as other NBA teams in general with scandals and injuries leading to many less wins than expected
The Phoenix Suns have won their 15th straight game. The New York Knicks are now the worst team in the NBA. Read more in detail here: nba new york knicks.
11:04 PM EST ET
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ESPN’s Tim Bontemps
NEW YORK (WABC) — In the last month, the Phoenix Suns haven’t lost a game. And, after defeating the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Friday night, they are two victories away from matching the franchise’s all-time winning run of 17 games.
The Suns, on the other hand, will just need to defeat the teams at the top of both conferences, first playing the East-leading Nets in Brooklyn on Saturday night before returning home to face the West-leading Golden State Warriors. It’ll be the first of three games versus the Warriors in less than a month, with the last game being a Christmas Day clash between the league’s top two teams so far.
However, while the rest of the NBA may have the games between two of the league’s top three teams marked at the time, one club does not: the Suns.
After Phoenix’s 118-97 win against the Knicks, Chris Paul noted with a grin, “This ain’t a playoff game tomorrow.” “It’s good for us to compete, and we’ll definitely see various coverages and things like that, but we’re just trying to grow, build.”
“Winning a game in November isn’t important.”
The Suns are working to improve their chances of winning games in May and June. But what about the November winning streak? That’s going swimmingly for Phoenix, which won its 15th consecutive game against the Knicks on Friday night.
Throughout the first quarter, the game was close. The Knicks, on the other hand, faded away as the game continued, unable to get anything going offensively while giving up everything the Suns wanted on the opposite end of the floor. Phoenix concluded the game with a 55 percent field-goal percentage and a 13-for-28 3-point shooting percentage.
Devin Booker, though, stole the show for the Suns, scoring 32 points in only 35 minutes. In the first half, he scored 21 points and went anywhere he wanted against anybody Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau sent against him.
Suns coach Monty Williams stated, “A lot of people say they want to play on this stage, but he genuinely wants.” “However, I don’t believe Book has many stages he doesn’t like to perform on.”
After a pair of tight victories over San Antonio and Cleveland earlier this week, Booker claimed his aggressiveness came from a desire to help the Suns get off to a solid start. He agreed that Phoenix’s winning run has made them a team that everyone wants to play against, and that the Suns must match that intensity night after night.
Booker, who went 14-for-27 from the floor and 4-for-9 from 3-point range, added, “We just wanted to get it rolling.” “It’s no secret that we’re on a roll, and we’ll take every team’s best shot. We simply attempted to set the tone early since the whole NBA is aware of it. Come out and play some hoops as a team… we did a good job today.”
That’s been the case for the Suns for quite some time, and they’re only two victories away from matching their franchise-best 17-game victory run from the 2006-07 season.
Phoenix has returned to the heights they haven’t seen since that period, when Steve Nash, Amar’e Stoudemire, Shawn Marion, and Mike D’Antoni transformed the Suns into regular Western Conference contenders.
These Suns, on the other hand, accomplished what that squad failed to achieve last season by reaching the NBA Finals, where they were defeated by the Milwaukee Bucks in six hard-fought games. And when it seemed like Phoenix could be suffering from a hangover from last season with defeats in three of its first four games, the Suns have won every game since, to the point where they have gone a full calendar month without losing heading into Saturday’s game in Brooklyn.
It’s been a year and a half since Phoenix acquired Paul in a trade a year ago this month. And, as he reflected on his team’s most recent victory, he stated the cornerstone for everything the Suns want to achieve is the defense, which is the NBA’s third-best unit this season and has been second only to Golden State since the start of the winning streak.
“It’s something we speak about all the time. Defense is the only thing that travels “Paul stated his opinion. “I believe that’s where we strive for consistency.”
The Suns will now want to maintain that consistency in their game against the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday. Phoenix, on the other hand, has said that it will not consider anything else.
“We do it one step at a time,” Booker said. “We know we’ll be up against a difficult opponent tomorrow who has been well-rested. So all we have to do now is come in with the same mindset, play the same style of basketball, defend at a high level, and get in condition to get it done.”
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