Four Key Things The Suns Did Right In Game 5 Victory Against Pelicans

The Phoenix Suns were able to secure a 3-2 series lead over the New Orleans Pelicans after a gritty show of force on their home court.

Here are four reasons why they were able to keep the Pelicans at bay.

Playing Mikal Bridges for 46 minutes

Former Villanova forward Mikal Bridges became the breakout star of Game 5 after putting up a playoff-career-high 31 points on 12-of-17 field goal shooting with four three-point makes in 46 minutes of action.

Head coach Monty Williams called on Bridges’ number to guard both Pelicans stars Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum for most of the game, and his performance was more than exemplary.

The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor noted that Bridges defended Ingram and McCollum for 36 and 34 plays, respectively, holding them both to subpar shooting performances.

Bridges will need to keep this performance up in Game 6 as they look to close out the series in New Orleans despite having Devin Booker on the sidelines.

Shots were falling

For the first time in what seemed like forever, the Suns were able to find the bottom of the net much easier and more efficiently than in their past four performances.

Chris Paul tallied 22 points on the night. Cameron Payne may have finally found his footing with 12 scores of his own, and both Cameron Johnson and Jae Crowder saw most of their shots go into the net.

The free throw disparity was still an issue for the Suns as the Pelicans had 35 attempts compared to their 20, but that was more so because of careless plays on the defensive end that led the Pelicans to the penalty much earlier.

Feeding Deandre Ayton

Since Booker went down with the hamstring issue, Bahamian big man Deandre Ayton stepped up to the plate and took a big leap to answer the challenge.

Ayton got going early in the game after being fed by his teammates the ball in the midrange and in the paint, leading up to his 19 points. He was also not shy in sharing the wealth with three assists that night.

Despite him fumbling the ball on multiple occasions and tallying turnovers, Ayton has been their most consistent performer against the Pelicans, and they will need him to turn it up even more going into Game 6.

Utilizing their bench depth

The Suns are well-respected across the league for having one of the deepest bench mobs in the NBA, and they certainly showed it in this crucial playoff game after giving playing time to third-string point guard Aaron Holiday and Bismack Biyombo.

Williams opted to give the Suns more length in the frontcourt by playing a combination of Biyombo, Ayton and JaVale McGee to combat the Pelicans’ lineup of Jaxson Hayes and Jonas Valanciunas.

Holiday getting playing time was also a necessity after Payne picked up three quick fouls and was able to drain a three and tally two assists plus a board in just 5 minutes of action.

The Suns will likely go into Game 6 with the same game plan and throw different looks at the determined Pelicans squad in hopes of closing out this series without the need for Booker to risk his hamstring issue.