For 3! Suns rookie Khaman Maluach hits 1st career NBA deep ball in loss vs. Trail Blazers
In an otherwise cold shooting game for Phoenix, Suns rookie Khaman Maluach calmly knocked down his first career NBA 3-pointer against the Trail Blazers.
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Phoenix Suns rookie Khaman Maluach made personal history Sunday by knocking down his first career NBA 3-pointer in the first quarter of 92-77 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.
The 7-foot-1 center’s hit also doubled as the Suns’ first 3, the team combining to miss its first 11 attempts.
Besides the deep ball being an oddity for the big, the first-half minutes were almost equally as rare. Sunday marked just his second time this season getting run in the opening half of an NBA game.
The only other time was on Oct. 25 against the Denver Nuggets, in which he played 12:39 and scored six points.
He surpassed what was previously a career high in points (six, twice) with seven on 3-of-5 shooting and added a career-best seven rebounds (one offensive) in a career-most 16 minutes.
As Jalen Green, the double-overtime hero against the Orlando Magic a night ago, received a hand-off pass from Oso Ighodaro, Maluach calmly stood in the corner.
Green hit him and Maluach didn’t hesitate, with a smooth release and a slight rattle through the hoop.
MALUACH pic.twitter.com/INIiVnwr6E
— Cage (@ridiculouscage) February 23, 2026
The 19-year-old out of Duke entered the game 0 for 8 on NBA 3s while posting 30.8% 3-point shooting in 10 G League games, where Maluach has gotten a majority of his run.
Phoenix’s only other 3 of the half came out of the hands of another rookie in Rasheer Fleming, who added one more in the fourth quarter. He entered Sunday 12 for 48 (25%) from 3 in 31 games played.
Phoenix scored a season-low 40 points in the first half — 2 for 19 from 3 — and trailed Portland by seven. It finished with a season-worst 77 points in a 15-point loss, also notably being the team’s fewest points scored since 2017, and 9 of 35 (26%) from deep.
It was a night for the whole trio of Suns rookies, as Koby Brea got into his fourth career NBA game and joined Maluach and Fleming as the only Suns players with a positive plus-minus for the night — Brea at +1, Maluach +6 and Fleming +2.
Brea hit one of two 3s in his two fourth-quarter minutes while Fleming had six points (2 for 4), two steals and a rebound.
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Comments
13 Comments
"His (Big Dukie) offense is raw" but the TDS Suns - (Threes Derangement Syndrome) are training their 7-1 giant rookie center like a seal to brick threes.
Brilliant! "No dunks for you!" (Or soup.)
Exactly. See my other comment.
To repeat from the game story: Duke has better coaches and is a much better franchise than the Suns, as this story emphasizes. Duke knew the slender giant Maluach was a force in the paint, and should remain like an old-school great center. They didn't train him to launch threes. But come to the three-pointed deranged, half-the-league tanking NBA, and they're trying to get Maluach to take and drain freakin' bombs! Probably will destroy him, and he'll end up being traded to the Trail Blazers. (Dayo Ayton screw up reference.)
Imagine if past coaches told Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Kareem, Shaq and those Hall of Fame bigs like them that they had to launch threes? Heck, Wilt and Shaq, two greats, seriously missed something like ten thousand three throws between them. 10,000! And they're supposed to drain 25 footers?
Bad coaching and GMing Suns!