Suns lose to Adelaide 36ers
Wins and losses don't matter in the NBA preseason, but it's still shocking to see a championship contender lose to an Australian team — at home, no less! That's what happened Sunday night as the Adelaide 36ers defeated the Phoenix Suns, in Phoenix, 134-124.
Craig Randall II, last year's Most Improved Player in the G League, paced the 36ers with 35 points, including nine three-pointers. Aussie Mitch McCarron, who won the Division II Player of the Year Award in 2015 for Metro State, dished out 16 assists, and Robert Franks, former G League champion with the Lakeland Magic, scored 32 points, helping the 28-point underdog 36ers pull the historic upset.
Phoenix only played its starters for half the game, and they played fine, with Mikal Bridges and Deandre Ayton both scoring 22 points in 22 minutes. The reserves, however, got thoroughly trounced by a team from Australia, which had to particularly sting for Phoenix's Australian backup center Jock Landale.
It's the first time since 2015 that a team from outside the NBA has won a game in an NBA arena since a loaded Fenerbache team beat the Nets. That Nets team would go on to finish 21-61 and fire both its head coach and general manager. The Suns are supposed to be a title contender!
This may be a sign that the NBL is truly the second-best basketball league in the world, as Landale claims. It may simply be that Adelaide was unusually hot from three-point range, shooting 55.8% as a team, but for a Suns team that's already begun the preseason in turmoil, it's another worrisome sign.
More must-reads: