The Suns won a 121-90 preseason contest over the Spurs...or rather, what was left of them.
Even with the majority of San Antonio's stars sitting out Thursday's game, however, Phoenix Head Coach Jeff Hornacek still wanted to see the speed and effort he's been asking from his team since training camp.
He got it and then some. The win marked the Suns' first exhibition game with more than 100 points. They scored over a fourth of them on the fast break, and just under half of them (60) in the paint.
"We're getting better," Hornacek said. "Obviously [the Spurs] were a depleted team without half their guys there. It doesn't matter...
In ascending order, here are the five takeaways from preseason game number four:
5. Youngsters have game
#SunsVsSpurs Highlights
When Hornacek turned his younger players loose in the fourth quarter, they made sure it wasn't a meaningless gesture. Archie Goodwin scored 10 points (4-6 FG) and had two steals in just nine minutes. T.J. Warren hit a pair of buckets in the paint, and Tyler Ennis turned in four points and two rebounds in six minutes.
Most importantly, they kept up the running game the veterans had established early on.
"We're young and [Hornacek] wants us to run," Ennis said. "To have T.J., who's one of the fastest people in the fast break, and Archie also on the fast break, it makes it easier for me not only with the speed of the game, but also just to have options."
4. Trouble together or apart
The Morris brothers didn't play a ton of minutes together, but didn't need to in order to be productive overall.
Markieff got the Suns out of an early lull with a mix of post-up shots and garbage buckets, finsihing with 17 points (7-10 FG), seven rebounds, two assists and a steal in 23 minutes of play. Marcus added 14 points (6-11 FG), six rebounds and a steal in 25 minutes.
3. Rotation is taking shape
RISE Recap
The starting lineup could very well change for the fifth game in a row, but Hornacek did stick with a core group of 10 players before the game got out of hand in the fourth quarter.
Minutes were still spread evenly, but Hornacek stayed with three big men (Plumlee, Markieff Morris and Barron), his three point guards (Bledsoe, Thomas and Dragic) and four shooters (Marcus Morris, Tucker, Green, Tolliver).
Hornacek has said repeatedly hot and/or cold hands will often dictate who plays on a night-to-night basis, but it appears the sheer number of players under consideration is shrinking.
2. Thomas' handles are ridiculous
Fans thought they'd already witnessed the 5-9 guard's ball-handling skills after an earlier cross-over earlier in the game.
That proved to be merely the appetizer. In the middle of the fourth quarter, Thomas his defender with a behind-the-back dribble to the right. The crowd overrode its own reaction seconds later, when Thomas slipped a perfectly placed between-the-legs bounce pass to a cutting Markieff Morris.
The layup ended up sticking between the rim and the backboard, but the bench's reaction (they basically lost their minds) made the sequence priceless.
1. Three guards works
Did Eric Bledsoe notice right away when he, Isaiah Thomas and Goran Dragic took the floor at the same time late in the second quarter?
"Of course I noticed," Bledsoe said afterward. "You can tell by how the game went."
Bledsoe Block, Dragic Finish
Everyone could. The three-guard lineup breathed fast break life into a Suns team that had been hoping to rediscover last season's torrid pace. The ball snapped quickly from side to side, at least when it needed to. More often than not, the trio formed a three-person fast break the Spurs simply couldn't stop.
Hornacek, in fact, was surprised when he found out how quickly that group's damage (a 9-0 run) had taken place.
"Was that all they played, was three minutes?" he laughed. "Man, it seemed longer than that."
"They were very good pushing the ball," he added. "When we got to the ball, it was off to the races. For us to be successful, we have to use the bench, continue to run so we can wear teams out."
We're fairly certain stat lines like these will wear out any backcourt:
Bledsoe: 27 minutes, 16 points (7-10 FG, 2-3 3FG), six assists, two steals, two blocks
Dragic: 23 minutes, 20 points (9-14 FG, 1-2 3FG), six assists, three steals
Thomas: 20 minutes, 15 points (5-8 FG, 4-5 3FG), five assists, four rebounds, one steal, one block