Former Wildcat Deandre Ayton shines as Suns win 17th straight

PHOENIX, AZ – Entering Tuesday night’s game winners of 16 straight, former Wildcat Deandre Ayton and the Phoenix Suns (18-3), overpowered Golden State.

For those that have been following former Wildcat Deandre Ayton and the Phoenix Suns so far this year, it has been an exciting season as the Suns are now winners of 17 straight following their 104-96 victory over the Golden State Warriors (18-3).

Largely led behind the two-way play of their young, sensational center, Ayton finished his evening with an impressive stat line of 24 points, 11 rebounds, two assists, and two blocks on 11-19 shooting en route to the Suns’ win.

However, coming into this matchup, this game had plenty of hype. After all, the Suns were on an impressive winning streak, and the Warriors had also been playing impressive basketball even without Klay Thompson. Nonetheless, Phoenix came ready to play!

Golden State would jump out to an early lead as they pulled ahead 35-31 after the first quarter. However, Phoenix would withstand the Warriors’ opening run by outscoring the Warriors 49-43 over the next two quarters, before closing things out with a monstrous fourth to seal the win.

Extending their winning streak to 17 games, former Wildcat Deandre Ayton and the Phoenix Suns matched the franchise-record longest winning streak.

Fresh off an NBA Finals appearance, many had high hopes for the Suns coming into the year, however, early on things looked a bit challenging as Phoenix stumbled to a 1-3 start, as they even lost Ayton to some nagging injuries.

Luckily, the team has since responded and is playing their best basketball. With their convincing win over the Warriors last night, it is easy to say that the Suns are the hottest team in the league right now, and Ayton has had a sizeable role in that.

The Bahamian big man enters his fourth year in the NBA, and this is more or less a make-or-break season for the former Wildcat. Coming into the year, he and others felt he was going to get extended by the Suns to a rookie max deal, but after some back and forth with the organization, Ayton remains unsigned and is set to become a restricted free agent after the season.

In 15 games, Ayton is averaging 16.0 points and 11.5 rebounds per game while shooting a career-best 64.7 percent from the field.

His defense has been quite solid as well as he is holding opponents to 47.8 percent shooting and sporting Points Difference Percentage of -5.4 percent. By comparison, Rudy Goebert is a -9.1, while Joel Embiid is at -5.2 percent. A good defensive number will be negative since it indicates that the defensive player is holding their opponent to a lower percentage than normal.

Either way, Ayton is having a heck of a start to the 2021-22 season and he is a big reason the Suns were able to beat the Warriors and extend their winning streak to 17 games.