BBNBA: Booker has Suns rolling after win vs. Mavs

Tons of NBA ‘Cats in action last night, led by two members of the 2015 Kentucky team: Devin Booker and Karl-Anthony Towns. Let’s talk about them and everything else BBNBA.

Booker scores 24 in Suns 10th straight win

There was slight panic in the air in Phoenix after the 2021 runner-ups stumbled out to a 1-3 start this season. But since, they’ve won 10 straight and currently have the second-best record in the NBA at 11-3, just a game behind Golden State.

Last night’s win over fellow Western Conference power the Dallas Mavericks was led by Devin Booker. He notched 24 points and nine rebounds in the close win, including this dagger three late in the fourth quarter.

THE DAGGER. pic.twitter.com/4uwQvYeEGF
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) November 18, 2021

Despite the 10 wins in a row, Booker and the other primary Suns (CP3, Ayton, Bridges, etc.) have uniformly seen their numbers dip. To me, that signifies this unit isn’t even playing at its best yet, which is a scary thought for a team that’s 11-3 and the hottest team in the league.

KAT and Fox combine for 50 in Minnesota’s win over Sacramento

Once again De’Aaron Fox put up an absurd stat line. And once again the Sacramento Kings’ supporting cast floundered around him in a loss to a sub-.500 team. Fox poured in 28 on 50% shooting and added five assists as the rest of the Kings couldn’t even get to 100 total points in the loss.

But what was bad news for Fox and the Kings was good news for Karl-Anthony Towns and the Minnesota Timberwolves, who prevailed by 10 over Sacramento.

Anthony Edwards took twice as many shots as Towns but finished with just four more points at 26. Towns needed just 12 shots on 75% shooting from the field to score 22 in the win. One of those nine buckets came on this reverse slam over Tristan Thompson.

Towns dunk up close @KarlTowns pic.twitter.com/4rHBCNMAjV
— Timberwolves Live Postgame Show (5-9)  (@BuiltfromDay1) November 18, 2021

Knicks in state of flux

At the end of October, the New York Knicks were 5-1. Julius Randle already had a couple of big performances, Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier were fitting in seamlessly and the Knicks looked like a deeper version of the team that surprised everyone a season ago.

Now, following a pitiful loss to the Orlando Magic yesterday, New York is practically .500 at 8-7. Walker and Fournier have been abysmal in November and every Knicks starter is playing worse than they were earlier in the year while the bench remains New York’s sole bright spot at the moment.

Knicks last 3 games:

vs Bucks: Every starter has negative +/-. Every bench player has positive +/-.

vs Hornets: Every starter has negative +/-. Every bench player has positive +/-.

vs Pacers: Every starter has negative +/-. Every bench player has positive +/-. pic.twitter.com/ErBpsc87Kk
— StatMuse (@statmuse) November 16, 2021

Part of that bench is Immanuel Quickley, who is emerging after a rocky start to the season. He played 24 minutes and knocked down a pair of threes in the Magic loss, but he’s now played more than 20 minutes in five of the last six games after not doing so at all in any of the Knicks’ first nine outings.

His teammate Julius Randle is struggling mightily lately and scored 13 yesterday while only attempting one two-pointer all night. He averaged 23 points a game last year and hasn’t scored more than 16 in any of his last five games. Yikes. Hopefully, he snaps out of his little funk.