Beijing time on October 21, the NBA regular season continues, the West ushered in a focus battle, the two sides of the showdown is the Denver Nuggets and Phoenix Suns. Although Jamal Murray failed to play due to injury, the Nuggets' strength was clearly above the Suns, and a total of 6 players scored in double figures to defeat the Suns 110-98. Jokic played 34 minutes, shooting 13-of-22, scoring 27 points and 13 rebounds, in addition to 2 assists and 2 steals, and his skills were very comprehensive.
Barton started 33 minutes in this campaign, was quite efficient, played a crazy performance, 8 of 14 shooting, and cut a comprehensive stat of 20 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 1 steal. His combination with Jokic cut a 47+19 stat and dominated the game. In the sun's final moment of chasing points, it was Barton's key two three-pointers that completely extinguished the opponent's hope of counterattack. In addition, Porter scored 6 of 10, contributing 15 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists; Jeff Green, who just joined, scored 13 points; And Gordon had 12 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists.
Although the Suns were last season's Finals team, due to the recent infighting in the locker room, the overall game was not as aggressive as that of the Nuggets. Bridges had a team-high 16 points of 7-of-16, plus five rebounds; Paul was 6-of-11 with 15 points, four rebounds, 10 assists and two steals; Booker had 12 points, four rebounds and four assists; Shamet and C-Johnson each had 11 points; and Payne contributed 10 points. In this game, Ayton did not play happily, even though he scored a second-high 15 points on the team, with 6 rebounds and 2 assists.
But in the matchup with Jokic, his passion is clearly not comparable to last season. You know, last season, it was Ayton who firmly suppressed Jokic's play on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, and the Suns were able to successfully enter the Western Conference Finals. The reason why Ayton is unhappy is simple, the Suns believe that he is not a top-paid player and are reluctant to give him a salary that meets his expectations. The Suns believe that if Ayton is given such a high salary, it will be a great obstacle to their future reinforcements.
Since phoenixes are not like New York and Los Angeles, they are just a small ball city, so after giving Booker a $158 million contract, they didn't want to give Ayton such a high salary. Ayton's game was just a small test, the 15+6 stats were just ordinary for him, it seemed, he was troubled and didn't want to play seriously. However, for Ayton, the more he is looked down upon, the more he should play a super performance, so that even if the Suns do not give the top salary, other teams will give. 47+19！ Jokic exploded, Patton went crazy, the Suns didn't pay the top salary, and Ayton really didn't want to fight.