“You can have talent on any basketball team, but if the effort piece is greater than the opponent’s every night, we’re going to be really tough to beat like tonight.”
Vogel – known for his defensive acumen – was lauded as a defensive mastermind and held promise to balance Phoenix’s lethal scoring. Currently, the Suns are No. 5 in the NBA with an average of 102.7 points allowed per game.
Their defending on the perimeter has also made a difference, as Phoenix holds opponents to just 24.8% shooting from downtown, second only to the New Orleans Pelicans.
“I think our first three games have been solid defensively. Obviously, we are playing against good teams and great players. They are going to be great players and make shots over you,” Kevin Durant said after defeating the Utah Jazz.
“But overall, 43.5 percent from the field and 104 points, it is great basketball on the defensive side. They won last night against a good Clippers team, hitting a lot of threes and offensive rebounding a lot and I think we controlled that a bit. Also, catching them on the back to-back was good for us as well.”
The Suns forced 19 turnovers from Utah and allowed just six points in transition in their second win of the season.
“I think we have played good defense to start the season the first few games pretty good defense,” said Grayson Allen.
“We have also had a lead in games that we gave up. I think the third quarter, really fourth quarter too, that was kind of in the back of our minds. We have built a little let’s expand it, bury it and put it away. That was probably a part of the reason why our third quarter was so good. We had that extra little motivation; we had the lead. Let’s finish it.”
The Suns return home to face the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday.
