If you make a list of most surprising teams this season, the New York Knicks and the Phoenix Suns should no doubt be at the top five, top three max.
Starting with the Knicks, a team that last year finished 12th in the Eastern Conference but is now in 4th place, rubbing shoulders with the Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers, and Milwaukee Bucks.
Saying that the Knicks have exceeded expectations is like saying Tom Thibodeau doesn’t like resting his players—both factual and an understatement. They’re currently riding a wave of nine straight wins, their longest streak in eight years.
In these two odd weeks of collecting Ws, Julius Randle made himself a DIY crown and put it on ever so proudly. These are his stats in the last nine games:
- 31 points, 10 rebounds, 1 assist, 5 3s
- 40 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists, 6 3s
- 16 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 3
- 33 points, 5 rebounds, 10 assists, 2 3s
- 44 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists, 6 3s
- 32 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 3s
- 34 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 3s
- 26 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 3
- 15 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists, 1 3
If you didn’t read through all those numbers, here’s the quick summary: Randle is the new King of New York and runaway winner of the Most Improved Player award.
“New York, we here,” Randle said at one point, and everything made sense. The Knicks started from the bottom, now they’re making the playoffs.
Speaking of making the playoffs, the Suns are finally set to do that after last season’s most disappointing winning streak in NBA history.
The Suns fell short of making the playoffs play-in despite going undefeated in eight games in the bubble, giving yet another reason for Devin Booker to annihilate the league.
He hasn’t done that yet (we’re still waiting for the 80-point game encore), mainly because he’s being grounded by veteran point guard moonlighting as a point god Chris Paul.
Paul has lifted the Suns to a different level this season while hitting personal milestones here and there. With the regular season winding down, the Suns have steadily climbed up. They’re now sitting in second place in the West behind the Utah Jazz. If someone said that that’s exactly how they’ve imagined the Western Conference seeding to look like, that person is not telling the truth.
The Suns are looking to bounce back after losing the first half of their New York trip while the Knicks are zooming to extend their winning streak to 10.
Watch the Suns and the Knicks clash live at 7:30 AM on NBA TV Philippines via Cignal TV or NBA.smart. There are sure to be a couple of more surprises in this one.
NBA.smart is free for Smart Signature and Smart prepaid subscribers with Giga Video subscription.
