Spurs pull out gritty win over Suns behind a huge night from Bryn Forbes

It wasn’t the prettiest victory but the San Antonio Spurs pulled out a tough road win over the Phoenix Suns thanks to a scorching hot night from Bryn Forbes.

Another night, another tale of two halves for the San Antonio Spurs. They’ve struggled all year with playing a solid 48 minutes of basketball from start to finish and tonight was no different. The Spurs came out of the gate scorching hot. A barrage of three’s gave the Spurs a fifteen point lead heading into halftime.

The second half was remarkably different. Led by Devin Booker, the Phoenix Suns slowly but surely pulled themselves back into it and closed the gap by the end. A few big baskets by Bryn Forbes and Derrick White, as well as clutch free throws by LaMarcus Aldridge, eventually helped hold off a Suns comeback and secured a much-needed road win for the Spurs.

The main storyline in this win has to be the incredible first half that Byrn Forbes had. We’ve been critical of Byrn’s play this year but he was magnificent in the first half of tonight’s game.  He set a new record for most three-pointers in a half by a San Antonio Spur with his seven made three’s before halftime tonight. He was only one away from tying the franchise record for most made three’s in a game.

He’s struggled to be as accurate as he was last year but Bryn was dialed in tonight. He’s had caught fire before but tonight was next level. It didn’t matter where he let it go from, you were confident that he would somehow find the bottom of the net no matter how contested or off balance the shot was.

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Bryn wasn’t the only San Antonio Spurs guard to have a big night. Derrick White set a new season-high for points tonight with 25. After a breakout year last season, White has plateaued a bit in his third year in the league. He’s still a very solid combo guard and a key role player for the Spurs, but he might not be the organizational building block we had hoped he might be during the summer.

This team is remarkably better when White is playing aggressively and looking for his own shots just as much, if not more, than he looks to set up others. He’s a bigger guard and finishes well near the basket.  When defenses have to pay serious attention to him as a scorer it makes setting up his teammates that much easier, as proven by his seven assists tonight.

It was a good road win for the San Antonio Spurs but the end result shouldn’t have been nearly as close as it was. Gregg Popovich and the team will have a day to figure out what they could have done better as they prepare to host Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans in one of the most highly anticipated games of the season on Wednesday night.