How Suns Shut Down Victor Wembanyama in Impressive Win vs Spurs

What Was the Suns' Approach to Stopping Wembanyama?

The Suns decided to guard Wembanyama with Royce O'Neale to start the game and had Mark Williams on a forward, and he would shade to help down low when necessary.

Phoenix employed this strategy the entire night - guarding Wembanyama with a smaller player, not letting him get deep post position, trying to make the catch as difficult as possible and then, if he did get the ball and drive into the paint, having the center come over and double.

This led to Wembanyama kicking the ball out several times, but his teammates struggled all game with the Spurs only shooting 10-for-41 (24.4%) from 3 on the night.

“It's a tough cover and puts a lot of pressure. Wemby puts a lot of pressure on your paint. So do the rest of those guys," Suns coach Jordan Ott said. "Just overall, Royce, taking that matchup, that's not an easy one. Just his physicality, all the guys, anyone that got on him, Goody (Jordan Goodwin) was on him for a little bit.

"Of course, our bigs, just their overall intention to keep them out of the paint. Once they put it on the ground, we know that they want to get into the paint. And then when they spray it out, just get there and know who you're closing out to. So great job by the group taking care of our own paint, which is what we've been hammering since day one.”

Suns guard Grayson Allen explained how Phoenix approached guarding Wembanyama as a collective group.

"A big level of it is your activity, but also your discipline within that activity to be physical but not foul, be active and flying around and being in the right spots," Allen said. "A lot of times we were blitzing his catches in the post so it’s up to the guy guarding him, and we are switching with him too. A lot of different guys just guarding him in the post.

"It’s up to the guy guarding him to push that catch up and the guy blitzing to take the right angle, have hands high and have active hands to try to get a deflection, try to make that pass just a little tougher.”

Another component to consider in how impressive the Suns' defense was against Wembanyama is that they showed a high level of buy-in and execution with a detailed game plan against a tough opponent on a quick turnaround coming off a big victory just two days prior.

Suns star guard Devin Booker, who had 28 points and 13 assists, feels the Suns can build off this for the future.

"The coaches come with a plan, and even though we have a young team, we kind of slow it down and walk through multiple situations and what we want to give up and what we don't want to give up," Booker said. "When you see a plan work like that, you gain confidence in the script, and we'll stick to that moving forward."

Next up for the Suns is another challenge for the their defense in a road matchup against Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors Tuesday night.

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