{"id":513831,"date":"2026-01-03T12:07:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T12:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/513831\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T12:07:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T12:07:16","slug":"phoenix-keeps-its-edge-as-the-calendar-flips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/513831\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoenix keeps its edge as the calendar flips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">New year, same Suns. Phoenix came back to the Valley on Friday night, saw the Sacramento Kings on the schedule, and handled business the way a serious team is supposed to. Aggressive. Focused. No messing around. That has been the theme of calendar year 2025, and it carried right over.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">I know this is the Bright Side Baller space, the quick recap, a few thoughts, then you make the call. But this one is not complicated. It belongs to Devin Booker.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Booker had 27 points in the first half and finally looked like the tip of the spear this offense needs him to be. When he sets the scoring tone, everything else falls into place. The pressure shifts. The floor opens. Roles make sense. That is how this team operates at its best.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">We saw it in real time. Booker cooked early, the group followed his lead, and the fourth quarter became optional for him. Yes, it was the Kings. Yes, they are a mess. But that is exactly the point. Nights like this are about doing what you are supposed to do. And Phoenix did.<\/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\">Booker opened the night in Cleveland, stuck in the mud with 6 points at halftime. Then the switch flipped. He closed with 32, found his rhythm, found his voice, and reminded everyone how these things usually end when he gets rolling. By the final horn, there was no debate left to have. Booker cruised to his 9th Bright Side Baller of the season.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"_1eezmj01\" href=\"https:\/\/platform.brightsideofthesun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2026\/01\/Bright-Side-Baller-6.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-6.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 34 against the Kings. Here are your nominees:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">33 points (13-of-21, 1-of-6 3PT), 2 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 turnovers, +11 +\/-<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">18 points (8-of-14, 2-of-4 3PT), 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, +9 +\/-<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">15 points (3-of-4), 9 rebounds, 0 assists, 1 block, 7-of-11 FT, +7 +\/-<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">15 points (5-of-7), 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, 2 blocks, +14 +\/-<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">15 points (6-of-14, 3-of-9 3PT), 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, +20 +\/-<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">12 points (6-of-9, 0-of-2 3PT), 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 4 steals, +20 +\/-<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">First Bright Side Baller votes of 2026!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New year, same Suns. Phoenix came back to the Valley on Friday night, saw the Sacramento Kings on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513832,"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-513831","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\/115831088375788740","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513831","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=513831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}