Suns Easily Defeat Arenas-less Wizards
If only the Suns could stay on their current road trip forever... Phoenix won their 5th straight Friday night against a Washington Wizards team trying to survive without superstar Gilbert Arenas. Phoenix had a franchise-high in assists, finishing w/ 42 total, including 19 by Steve Nash. Nash now has 4 straight games w/ at least 15 assists. Even more amazing than the Suns' assist total itself... the number of shots where an assist was made - an astounding 42 of 50 shots.
The free-for-all put the Suns on a 5 game winning streak, including 4-0 on the Eastern Conference road trip. Amare Stoudemire led the Suns w/ 27 pts and Raja Bell punched in 22 - 14 of them in the decisive 3rd quarter where the Suns took over the game.
Defensively, Phoenix did a great job shutting down the strong duo of Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler. Both players have picked up their games since Arenas went out, but the Suns held them to a combined 13-36 shooting and 16/12 pts, respectively. Much of the credit on defense has to go to Shawn Marion, who was guarding one or the other throughout the game.
The Suns play again Saturday against a pretty weak Timberwolves squad, and again on Monday against the struggling Miami Heat. Assuming they can take both games, Phoenix will move to 18-4 on the season. As of this writing, the Spurs are facing the Jazz and a San Antonio loss would put the Suns in 1st place (Western Conference). Tim Duncan is out for the Spurs, so the Suns are taking full advantage by trying to win as many of their games as possible - to assure homecourt advantage in the playoffs.