{"id":524843,"date":"2026-01-08T12:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T12:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/524843\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T12:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T12:22:14","slug":"the-suns-turned-a-road-game-into-target-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/524843\/","title":{"rendered":"The Suns turned a road game into target practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you know what you do when the team across from you has nearly $81 million in payroll sitting on the sideline? You sweep the leg. Full Cobra Kai energy. No mercy. No breathing room. That is exactly how Wednesday night played out as the Suns downed the Grizzlies<\/a>, 117-98.<\/p>\n

Phoenix strangled this thing early and never loosened the grip. 23 points allowed in the first. 24 in the second. 21 in the third. Memphis never found oxygen and never cracked 100, the fifth time this season the Suns have pulled that trick. When a team shows up wounded, you do not help them limp. You finish the job.<\/p>\n

And how do you sweep the leg in the modern NBA? You rain threes until the floor caves in. Five from Dillon Brooks. Five from Grayson Allen. Four from Royce O\u2019Neale. Three from Jordan Goodwin. Two from Collin Gillespie. Two more from rookie Rasheer Fleming. Even Devin Booker grabbed one for good measure.<\/p>\n

That is 22 made threes. A season high. Tied for the fourth-most in franchise history. The kind of night where the ball keeps snapping the net and the other team starts checking the scoreboard instead of the clock.<\/p>\n

Not a bad way to spend a Wednesday night. Not a bad way to sweep the leg.<\/p>\n

Bright Side Baller Season Standings<\/p>\n

Well, well. We have a new name on the board. Sure, Devin Booker led all Suns in scoring against the Rockets, but it was the fireballing effort of Royce O\u2019Neale who won the community vote for the BSB. Welcome to the standings, Rolls Royce.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Bright Side Baller Nominees<\/p>\n

Game 37 against the Grizzlies. Here are your nominees:<\/p>\n

Dillon Brooks
21 points (8-of-22, 5-of-12 3PT), 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover, +13 +\/-<\/p>\n

Grayson Allen
19 points (7-of-13, 5-of-10 3PT), 1 assist, 3 turnovers, 1 block, +10 +\/-<\/p>\n

Mark Williams
12 points (5-of-6), 12 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 2 turnovers, 1 block, +13 +\/-<\/p>\n

Devin Booker
13 points (6-of-15, 1-of-5 3PT), 1 rebound, 8 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnovers, +16 +\/-<\/p>\n

Jordan Goodwin
11 points (4-of-12, 3-of-8 3PT), 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, +8 +\/-<\/p>\n

Royce O\u2019Neale
12 points (4-of-9, 4-of-9 3PT), 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, +9 +\/-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Do you know what you do when the team across from you has nearly $81 million in payroll…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524844,"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-524843","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\/115859459788237902","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524843","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=524843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}