Washington Wizards head down to the Valley of the Sun
The Washington Wizards will try to earn their fifth road victory in six tries tonight. The game will end a string of four games in five days for Washington, a stretch in which they have won two games and lost one so far.
Last night, the Wizards overcame a 19-point deficit and claimed a 98-92 victory over the injury-plagued Los Angelos Lakers. Tonight, they will be faced with a much tougher opponent in Arizona, just a few days before the Super Bowl will take place there.
The Phoenix Suns are coming off a season-best seven straight victories at home. The streak ended Friday night when they fell short by a score of 113-111 to the Houston Rockets on the heels of an incredible James Harden buzzer-beating game-winning shot.
Although the Suns hold a not so great record of 26-20, they still stand as the eight seed in the very tough Western Conference. They have also seen impressive performances out of their new acquisition, Isiah Thomas. The fourth-year point guard is averaging 15.4 points per game, while shooting 41 percent from three point range. And here’s the amazing thing: he hasn’t started a single game this entire season.
The title of starting point guard on the team belongs to Eric Bledsoe, who is spending his second season in Phoenix this year. He is averaging 16.9 points per game, and career-highs in both the assists (6) and rebounds (5.3) per game department.
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The evolution of the point guard has been one that has impacted the NBA greatly over the past few years. It used to be that you needed a big man to win in this league. While a big man is still very important and will definitely elevate your chances of winning championship, we have seen a stretch where many talented point guards have come into the league.
There have been so many good point guards to come into this league that the Suns currently hold two guys at that position averaging more than 15 points per game.
However, even with the incredible amount of talented point guards that have stepped into the NBA, John Wall has perhaps performed better than any of them this season. His 17.3 points per game is nothing special, but he is one of the only few true point guards remaining in the league today. Not only has he averaged a league-best 10.3 assists per game, but he is looking for the pass far more than he is looking to score.
Your instinct as a basketball player is to try and score yourself. However, that is not the way Wall thinks. He just wants to score, no matter who releases the ball and how the ball gets into the basket.
With that being said, we should see intriguing matchups in tonight game, which by the way, could also be seen on ESPN. Tonight’s contest against the Phoenix Suns will feature as the fourth time this season that the Wizards will make an appearance on the Worldwide Leader in Sports.