Phoenix Suns: 5 Positives From Brutal Season Opener

2. Quality Of Shots

Speaking of opening night flukes, here’s one of the biggest stats of the night that really shouldn’t be a trend for the entire 2015-16 season:

“A lot of them looked good,” Hornacek said of his team’s three-point shooting. “Heck, we had three on one possession that were wide open, they were all right on line but were all long.”

At the professional level, uncontested shots are like layups for these guys. But Wednesday night against Dallas, all those opening night jitters must have gotten to the Suns, who somehow managed to shoot 16 percent worse on wide open shots than they did on contested looks.

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“It seemed like every shot was a little long,” Hornacek said. “I don’t know if you see it that often where every single shot looks long and that’s just a fact they were probably pumped up for the game.”

Maybe some of that speaks to the nature of Phoenix’s often stagnant offense. After all, the Suns had more turnovers (18) than they did assists (15) in the game. But with the team shooting 25 percent from downtown, Teletovic going 2-for-10, Bledsoe going 4-for-12, Markieff Morris going 1-for-6 and T.J. Warren going 4-for-13, the Suns shouldn’t shoot that poorly from the floor moving forward.

“We just have to stay positive,” Bledsoe said. “We got great looks all night, they just didn’t fall.”

Like every offense in this league, the Suns will have their off nights. Phoenix may not be an elite shooting team, but they’re definitely better than what they showed against the Mavs.

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