Phoenix Suns are the best defensive team in the playoffs

“Defense wins championships,” is a saying that floats around the sports world every single year in the playoffs. While offense has been the narrative of the NBA for years now, resulting in more and more three-pointers being taken and being made, defense still exists and won the Los Angeles Lakers a championship last year. 

Having an excellent balance between being a high-level offensive team and being one of the best defensive teams in the league results in playoffs and success and so far for the Suns, this has been their narrative. 

Phoenix was one of four teams during the regular season (Suns, Jazz, Clippers and Bucks) to finish inside the Top-10 in both Offensive and Defensive Rating and so far in the postseason, they rank 9th in scoring on offense and 1st in opponent’s scoring. The Suns have shot 48.2% from the floor in the playoffs, ranking them third out of all qualifying playoff teams and they have held their opponents to 42.3% shooting, which ranks them 2nd in the playoffs. 

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Chris Paul is the anchor for this team defensively, but with Mikal Bridges locking his opponents down on the wing, Jae Crowder pulling his weight defensively and DeAndre Ayton improving every single game he plays, the Suns have all the tools they need to maintain their status as being the best defensive team in the playoffs. 

Scoring against Phoenix has been hard for both the Lakers and the Nuggets, two teams that were known to be high scoring teams during the regular season when their stars were healthy, and yet they struggled to get anything going on offense against the Suns. 

Of the six other teams remaining in the playoffs in both the Eastern and Western Conferences, all of them ranked inside the Top-15 in scoring during the regular season, so it should be interesting to see how Phoenix’s defense fairs against these teams in their upcoming matchups, but given how good the Suns have been defensively, it is hard to doubt them right now.