Vinny’s View: Suns rebound with much-needed win vs. Raptors

I’ve watched the NBA for a long time. I’ll watch it for the rest of my life. I’ll never come close to figuring it out.

That was one of my takeaways from a strange 24 hours for the Phoenix Suns that included a ridiculously frustrating loss to a skeleton crew of Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday and a thorough 120-98 butt-kicking of the fully healthy Toronto Raptors on Sunday.

Sunday’s game followed recent trends. The Suns jumped out to a quick 8-point lead and forced a Toronto regroup timeout. The same thing happened on Saturday when the home team reeled off 9 straight points and forced Milwaukee into a timeout. The Bucks responded. Toronto never did.

The Suns dominated every facet on Sunday; so much so that radio broadcasters Jon Bloom and Tim Kempton wondered aloud if the Raptors might have been suffering from the “Old Town Flu,” an affliction that has hindered visiting NBA teams for decades.

If that was the case, who cares? After a frustrating 2-4 road trip followed immediately by the Suns’ latest candidate for “worst loss of the season,” all defined by patterned fourth-quarter collapses, coach Jordan Ott’s team needed this in the worst way.

Lots of positives for the Suns in this one. First, it was a nice bounce-back game for Devin Booker, who turned in a perplexing performance the night before. Booker scored 25 points, dished out 6 assists and logged a +32 in 31 minutes — the fifth-best single-game mark in his entire career. And he didn’t have to play a second in the fourth quarter.

Ryan Dunn played arguably his best game of the season with 12 points, including 3 highlight dunks, 2 corner 3s and 3 steals.

And maybe the best thing about Sunday … the Suns notched a win while moving one day closer to getting some injured players, including the crucial Dillon Brooks, back.

Vince Marotta has been the Phoenix Suns’ PA announcer since 2016 in addition to his duties as co-host of Bickley & Marotta. On weekdays after Suns home games, you can listen to Vinny’s View on Arizona Sports 98.7 at 7 a.m. or read what he saw from the front row at Mortgage Matchup Center here.

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