The roll continues.
The Phoenix Suns extended their winning streak to five games with an absolute shellacking of the defending Eastern Conference champion Indiana Pacers, a 133-98 blowout Thursday at Mortgage Matchup Center.
The score was lopsided but believe it or not, this win didn’t come without adversity. The Suns played without Jalen Green, who continues to nurse a hamstring strain. Mark Williams, with whom the Suns have been very careful due to an extensive early-career injury history, didn’t play the second night of a back-to-back. And Grayson Allen, who is playing his best basketball as a pro, left the game in the second quarter after catching an opponent’s knee in the right quad and didn’t return.
None of that mattered to the Suns, who went full Cobra Kai — showing no mercy to their injury-riddled opponent. Dillon Brooks got the party started with an impressive array of shot-making in posting a career-high 24 points in the first half. To Indiana’s credit, they fought their way back into contention in the third quarter, getting as close as 10 points on an Isaiah Jackson putback with just over five minutes left in the quarter.
That’s when Devin Booker took over. The Suns’ all-time leading scorer had a string of 10 straight points followed by two gorgeous assists to Oso Ighodaro all in the span of one minute and 52 seconds during which the Phoenix lead ballooned from 13 to 27. That lead would grow to as many as 46 in the fourth quarter.
It wasn’t just Booker though. I mentioned Brooks, who continues to provide buckets and edge. The former Houston Rocket was in the middle of a handful of scraps in a chippy game that featured four technicals and a flagrant foul. But in many ways this night belonged to Ighodaro. The second-year big man had struggled for much of the early season, so much so that many Suns fans were questioning his spot in the rotation. Those questions were put on hold. Ighodaro came off the bench to play over 26 minutes, scored 17 points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked three shots. He did everything right. Ighodaro finished his stint on Thursday with a plus-52 rating — the highest figure in Suns history and third-highest since the NBA started tracking the stat.
Add in the return of the beloved “Valley” City Edition uniforms and court, and it was a glorious night at the arena for Suns faithful … and another indicator of something pretty cool brewing in the desert.