Al McCoy: Surprising Suns have shown innate ability to bounce back
Jan 2, 2014, 7:52 PM | Updated: Jan 3, 2014, 1:14 am
Obviously, the Phoenix Suns are one gigantic surprise this season.
They finished 2013 at 19-11 and have already been called ‘the best story in the NBA’ by more than one national voice. They were supposed to tank, but refused to. They were supposed to be rebuilding, but they look rebuilt.
The Suns’ surprise is made up of a bunch of little surprises too — wins against teams like the Portland Trail Blazers, road wins against teams like the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Clippers, Miles Plumlee and the Morris twins flourishing, on an on.
And the unforeseeables keep on coming.
On Saturday, following their worst loss of the season — a 115-86 stinker versus the Golden State Warriors — the Suns began a two-game win streak to end the year, with a 115-101 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers less than 24 hours after the drubbing in Oakland. And they added to the recuperation act by grabbing a dominant 107-88 win over the Clippers two nights later — one that drew praise from L.A. media, according to Suns play-by-play announcer Al McCoy.
“The Suns have shown ability — not only game-to-game, but also in-game — that ability to bounce back,” McCoy said Thursday while a guest on Arizona Sports 620’s Doug and Wolf Show.
Coach Jeff Hornacek’s team has had losing streaks of more than one game just twice this season, while putting together win streaks of five and three games to go along with several back-to-back win stretches, including the one they’ll take to US Airways Center on Thursday versus the Memphis Grizzlies. Moreover, they’ve overcome in-game adversity throughout the season thus far, boasting comeback win after comeback win.
Despite turning heads at nearly every corner of their first 30 games, one thing that wouldn’t surprise anyone would be a positive next stretch.
“And right now (you’re) looking at really a very, very important part of the season,” McCoy explained.
“These are teams, particularly on the upcoming road trip, that the Suns are expected to defeat. They are teams with non-winning records. But it’s tough on the road in the NBA, so this is going to be a very interesting time in the next 10-12 days to see how the club responds.”
And even if they lose to one of the seven teams ahead on the schedule, with none of whom having winning records, you can rest assured that they’ll be able to rebound.
“They certainly have shown the ability to not stay down very long.”
