{"id":509804,"date":"2026-01-01T13:00:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T13:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/509804\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T13:00:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T13:00:32","slug":"phoenix-ran-into-a-team-built-for-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/509804\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoenix ran into a team built for right now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">First off, Happy New Year! If Bright Side is your first read, I\u2019m honored. If it\u2019s your second read, I\u2019m good with that as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">There is no shame in what happened in Cleveland. It is a reminder that there are levels to this thing. The Suns have exceeded expectations, no doubt, but there are still teams out there that are deeper, stronger, and more complete right now. That is fine. This is a transition year. Keep that in mind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The damage in their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brightsideofthesun.com\/suns-scores-results\/95655\/phoenix-suns-cavaliers-recap-calendar-year-finale-devin-booker-donovan-mitchell\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">129-113 loss<\/a> was done in the first quarter. Phoenix never fully recovered from it. Yes, they were outscored by nine in the fourth, but going down 16 that early warps everything. It changes your shot selection. It changes your margin for error. And when you are dealing with an interior wall like Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, the bar rises even higher. Against a team built like that, you need close to a perfect night to walk out with a win. And the Suns were far from perfect.<\/p>\n<p>Bright Side Baller Season Standings<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">It stopped being much of a contest once Collin Gillespie got rolling against the Wizards. He did not lead the game in scoring; that honor belonged to Dillon Brooks, but the efficiency gap told the real story. Brooks finished 8-of-20. Gillespie went 10-of-14 and drilled 5-of-8 from deep. That kind of precision changes games quickly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">He continues to be the engine behind this team\u2019s unexpected rise. After pulling in 71% of the Bright Side Baller vote, Gillespie now sits at seven on the season, one shy of the leader, Devin Booker. The gap is closing, and it feels earned.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"_1eezmj01\" href=\"https:\/\/platform.brightsideofthesun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2025\/12\/Bright-Side-Baller-5-1.png?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;crop=0,0,100,100\" data-pswp-height=\"3000\" data-pswp-width=\"3000\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\"><img alt=\"\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"fill\" class=\"w91vxg0\" style=\"position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url(&quot;data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'\/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'\/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'\/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'\/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'\/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'\/%3E%3C\/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='\/%3E%3C\/svg%3E&quot;)\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Bright-Side-Baller-5-1.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bright Side Baller Nominees<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Game 33 against the Cavs. Here are your nominees:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Devin Booker<br \/>32 points (13-of-25, 2-of-4 3PT), 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover, -12 +\/-<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Dillon Brooks<br \/>20 points (7-of-15, 2-of-4 3PT), 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, 1 turnover, -13 +\/-<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Jamaree Bouyea<br \/>18 points (7-of-12, 2-of-3 3PT), 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 0 turnovers, -4 +\/-<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Collin Gillespie<br \/>17 points (6-of-15, 5-of-11 3PT), 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnovers, -17 +\/-<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Jordan Goodwin<br \/>4 points (1-of-11), 15 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 turnover, -11 +\/-<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Mark Williams<br \/>2 points (0-of-3), 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block, 1 turnover, -12 +\/-<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Last Bright Side Baller votes of 2025!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First off, Happy New Year! If Bright Side is your first read, I\u2019m honored. If it\u2019s your second&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[7,62461,6,2065,472,4045,604],"class_list":{"0":"post-509804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix-suns","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bright-side-baller","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-phoenix","12":"tag-phoenix-suns","13":"tag-phoenixsuns","14":"tag-suns"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115819973868915123","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}