Vinny’s View: Suns doing what they should vs. lesser teams

In the NBA, good teams beat the ones they’re supposed to.

News flash: by this determination, the Phoenix Suns are a good basketball team.

They were supposed to beat the Washington Wizards on Sunday night at Mortgage Matchup Center and they did — like a drum — 112-93.

Much like the previous meeting between the two teams in Washington last month, the young Wizards hung in the contest for a bit. Marvin Bagley III’s reverse dunk with 46 seconds to go in the first quarter actually tied the game.

But just like the game in D.C., it didn’t take long for the Suns to assert themselves in the second quarter, building a double-digit lead in the first three-and-half minutes.

There are 14 NBA teams with losing records this morning. The Suns have played 10 of them and are 15-4 in those games. Two of those losses were in the first week of the season. Now that they’ve found their identity, the Suns are beating the teams they’re supposed to.

Helping the second-quarter effort was Ryan Dunn, who had five of his nine points in that frame. I’m mentioning Dunn because recently, despite his dogged defense and high-level effort, things weren’t going well on the offensive end for the second-year player. He was shooting 25% from three-point range over his previous 15 games.

It’s not like he lit it up on Sunday from deep, but for the first time in a long time, Dunn performed as a confident offensive player. That confidence had to be peaked after his highlight follow slam off of a Jordan Goodwin corner three attempt early in the second. He consistently made the right decisions with the ball in his hands, whether it was shooting or distributing.

As I speak, the Suns are in the 6th-spot in the Western Conference standings almost halfway through their schedule. They leapfrogged the Houston Rockets, who lost on the road to Sacramento on Sunday night. This is a playoff team, so having players like Ryan Dunn performing with increased confidence is important to maintain a postseason spot.

And getting Jalen Green back very soon won’t hurt either.

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