The Suns beat the Hornets 137-106 at home to take a 31-point win. With players from the Nets, Lakers and Warriors triggering health and safety agreements, the Suns have become one of the few teams in the strong team to maintain a core lineup.
Against the Hornets, the Suns were strongly suppressed from the start, making a 16-5 start. After playing for more than 9 minutes, the Suns directly blasted a 31-9 score, setting the tone of the game in the first quarter. In the single quarter, the Suns led 37-15, outscoring their opponents by 22 points.
In the second quarter of the game, the Hornets found a focus on the offensive end, and finally could play back and forth with the opponent. But the Suns' momentum was strong and they maintained a huge lead, and the Hornets' chase was far away. In the third quarter of the game, the point difference continued to widen and remained fluctuating around 30 points, and the entire final quarter was reduced to garbage time.
The huge point difference allows the Suns to still have 12 players on the table, 10 people scoring points, and 9 people scoring in double figures under the current sensitive situation. Starting center Ayton played only 23 minutes and 42 seconds, with 15 points, 15 boards, 2 assists and 3 blocks on 6-of-10 shooting. Bench interior McGee, on the other hand, only played 15 minutes and 43 seconds, 9 of 10 shooting, 19 points, 7 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal and 1 block.
In the offseason, the Suns delayed giving Ayton an early renewal of his maximum salary contract, which caused a lot of controversy. However, the Suns' performance does not seem to be affected by this. In recent games, substitute center McGee, in a small number of playing hours, has also been able to play the role of a good cake, often cutting down a hot personal data.
This season, McGee averaged 16 minutes per game, scoring 10.9 points and 7.5 boards and shooting 65.9 percent from the field. Maybe in terms of age and potential, McGee is already far inferior to Ayton, but considering the gap between the middle-class contract and the top salary, McKee's value for money is actually not bad.
As McGee gets better, will Ayton's top-salary contract go further and further? There is no direct link between the two. Ayton chases a top-pay contract, but it won't be limited to the Suns. Considering Ayton's age and the space to grow up on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, the young man still has a lot of opportunities and options. McKee's appearance will not be an obstacle to him; on the contrary, it should be a motivator to stimulate him to keep moving forward.