Mike Budenholzer reveals the key to Suns blowout win vs. Warriors
02/01/2025 08:36 PM
In the Phoenix Suns’ 130-105 win over the Golden State Warriors on Friday, head coach Mike Budenholzer acknowledged that they had a whopping 41 assists. That number is the highest since the 2007 season.
What was that season’s team? The 7-second or less version of the Suns.
With guys like Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire running the show, they exploited defenses left and right. The star power was too much sometimes, and it left their other role players wide open for looks. The current version of the Suns is different from that 2007 team.
Their stars include Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, and Kevin Durant. All of those players are elite scorers and use a variety of tactics to get there. Funny enough, Durant set a Suns record not seen since 2006, around the same time as that assist record. With almost half of the season under the belt, it seems that the team is finally gelling together.
Between trade rumors with Beal and Jusuf Nurkic and their subsequent benchings, the team has found a way to rally. After a disappointing loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, they bounced back positively. Budenholzer kept it brief to AZCentral’s Duane Rankin about his team.
“The guys were great,” Budenholzer said. “(They were) finding each other.”
The Suns head coach has typically kept things brief when speaking about his team. After all, he knows what to expect of his players, and they know what to expect of him as a coach. The team has won nine of their last 12 games and has done so convincingly. They’re also three games over .500, a mark they’ve been teetering with for the majority of the season.
Mike Budenholzer knows what to expect from the Suns
The head coach has made multiple trips before arriving with his hometown team. The native of Holbrook, Arizona, spent his first 17 seasons as the San Antonio Spurs assistant coach under Gregg Popovich. Once the 2012-13 season concluded, he took his first head coaching gig with the Atlanta Hawks.
He led them to the 2014-15 Eastern Conference Finals but were eventually swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Years go by, and Budenholzer is fired. However, he lands another job with the Milwaukee Bucks. In the 2020-21 season, he takes them to the NBA Finals.
Coincidentally, they played the Suns and won the series 4-2. Now, he’s with his third team, but his hometown team. Budenholzer took some valuable lessons from his stints with the Hawks and Bucks. When Budenholzer took the $50 million to be with the Suns, he was ecstatic. However, he’s never worked with a superstar trio like Phoenix has now.
His 3-point emphasis can be overwhelming for some, especially those who are accustomed to shooting mid-range shots. For example, Booker is taking the most 3s of his career. Durant is taking the most since the 2017-18 season. Beal is taking the most since his 2021-22 season.
With all of those players, defenses have to pick their poison with who to leave. It was arguably the most balanced game of the season from an offensive perspective.
Can Mike Budenholzer keep instilling the Suns to pass?
Although his offense is 3-point-centric, there’s plenty of ball movement involved. With the Big 3, they all have had the ball in their hands to score. It’s forced Budenholzer to adjust his offense to a certain degree. There are not as many off-ball sets. However, he’s used guys like rookie Ryan Dunn and forward Grayson Allen to make plays off the dribble.
The defenses collapse and leave one of the three stars open. Furthermore, assist numbers are high when players are knocking down their shots. The Suns hit 56% of their shots from the field and 49% from 3. Those are typically numbers that generate high assist numbers.
Either way, the offense looked fluid, and the Warriors’ defense had no answer. Phoenix will hope to keep the momentum going on a back-to-back set against the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday.
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