Weddings. The sacred moment when two people stand together and promise to love, honor, and cherish each other for eternity. Eternity is a long time. Anyone who has been married understands that quickly. The only way that promise survives the calendar is through teamwork. Every successful marriage carries the same understanding inside those vows. You walk through life together. You support one another. You do what you can to place the other person in a position to succeed.
So why the wedding talk?
That is where I was during the Suns game yesterday.
I was attending the wedding of my 20-year-old nephew. It was outdoors in Arizona in March, which sounds like a postcard until you remember that Arizona has its own personality. The ceremony began at four in the afternoon, and the temperature sat comfortably at 97°. The vows were being read, and I could not tell if people were crying or melting.
The lovely bride and groom walked back down the aisle, hands raised, smiles wide, celebrating the fact that their bond was official. The crowd applauded. The reception hour began. I glanced down at my phone.
4:37 PM. Perfect. There was a window here. A small one, although a window all the same. Time to pull out the phone and tune into the Suns game.
Yes, I was that guy. The guy with his phone quietly propped up during the reception, trying to sneak glances at the broadcast while conversations floated around the courtyard. I was looking forward to this matchup with Toronto. In my mind, the Raptors resemble the Suns of the Eastern Conference. A team outperforming expectations and doing much of the work on the defensive side of the floor. The basketball version of that Spider-Man pointing meme.
We were standing around one of those little cocktail tables when Rasheer Fleming started cooking. He put together one of the better stretches of basketball we have seen from a Suns player all season. The kind of run that makes you lean over to the person next to you and say, “Hey, this kid might have something”. Granted, when I did, I learned the guy next to me had no clue who Fleming was and had only politely asked me what I was watching earlier. Ugh…I am a Suns Sicko.
I was in line grabbing tacos when Phoenix pushed the lead to 58–47. Up 11, I was feeling good. The team, albeit Booker and Green-centric, was knocking down their shots.
In the fourth quarter, the Suns held a 100–90 lead, and I thought to myself, “Alright, things look under control. Might as well grab another round of tacos.”
That is when it unraveled.
Standing there in line with a strawberry lemonade in hand, I watching the game on my phone as the whole thing started slipping away possession by possession. Nothing like witnessing a collapse while holding a drink at a dry wedding and wondering if you somehow caused it by stepping away from the table. It was time to splash that lemonade with some 10 Cane rum, which I discreetly pulled from my pocket.
Phoenix lost the game just as a plate of carne asada street tacos was placed in my hands. I slammed the remainder of my lemonade as I navigated back to my table. There would be no reason to dance tonight.
The larger story continues to develop on the floor. A wedding celebrates two people becoming one and learning to operate together. The Phoenix Suns are trying to build something similar with Jalen Green and Devin Booker. As Green has regained his health and rhythm, the two guards have started to look comfortable sharing the floor.
Over the past five games, the numbers jump off the page. Booker is averaging 32.6 points, shooting 43.2% from deep, while adding 5.2 assists and 4.4 rebounds. Green is right there with him. He is averaging 28.8 points, hitting 38.9% from beyond the arc while launching 10.8 threes per game. He is also contributing 3.6 assists and 4.2 rebounds.
The team sits at 4–1 over the last five games, although the lone loss arrived against the Toronto Raptors. That game served as a reminder of something simple. Like a marriage, basketball requires balance. That is what the Suns are trying to sort out as they continue reintegrating Jalen Green into the offense. Getting 61.4 points per game from your backcourt sounds fantastic. It provides options. It forces opposing defenses to think about multiple threats when the game tightens late.
Although balance still has to exist. That will be the mission for Phoenix over the remainder of the season.
One of the Suns’ quiet superpowers this year has been their balance. Devin Booker stepped back from his usual scoring volume and leaned into facilitation. That approach helped unlock strong seasons from players around him. Collin Gillespie. Royce O’Neale. Grayson Allen. Dillon Brooks. Those guys have produced some of the best basketball of their careers because the ball found them in the right moments.
Now the equation has shifted.
Insert Jalen Green into the lineup, and the offense naturally changes. That is expected. The Suns have become extremely guard-centric during this stretch. Over the last two games, Booker and Green combined for an average of 72 points. At the same time, Collin Gillespie averaged two points.
That is the lesson sitting in front of the team. It is perfectly fine for Booker and Green to carry the scoring load against certain opponents. Some nights, that is the best path to victory. But the offense still needs to involve everyone else on the floor.
Gillespie attempted 4.5 field goals per game over the last two contests and went 0-for from three during that span. That is not a sustainable formula for winning basketball. Gillespie has been one of the surprise contributors this season. Right now, he is sacrificing touches so Booker and Green can operate. The Suns need to find the middle ground where those two guards can cook while the rest of the offense remains alive. That balance will determine how far this group can go.
So that is where the Suns are right now.
They are in the learning curve portion of the season. The post-honeymoon phase. The time when the group starts figuring out where to push and where to pull, how to share the floor, and how to make the parts move together. Is it a little strange that this process is happening during the final fifth of the season? Sure. Although that is what injuries do. They disrupt the rhythm, force adjustments, and send teams back into the lab when the calendar says they should already have the answers.
These final games become the testing ground. Jordan Ott and his staff are watching closely. They are experimenting with rotations, studying which combinations work, learning when to lean on the guards and when to spread the responsibility around the floor.
The goal is simple. Find the balance that allows everyone to move forward together. A group that functions like a true team, where every player understands his role and the whole machine operates as one.
In the end, the Suns are standing at the same altar every good team eventually reaches. Talent is easy to assemble, chemistry is harder to sustain. Booker and Green can light up the scoreboard, although the real promise of this group lies in whether the rest of the roster stays part of the ceremony. If Phoenix finds that balance, the kind where the stars shine, and the role players still feel the ball in their hands, then this partnership has a chance to last a while. If not, the honeymoon phase will end quickly. And just like any marriage, the next stretch of games will reveal whether this relationship truly works.
Congrats to the happy couple, William and Brooke Lissy.
