Salt Lake City Stars Fall To Northern Arizona Suns; 78-103

By Spencer Wixom

The Salt Lake City Stars hosted the Northern Arizona Suns for their third match-up of the year, where the Stars fell 78-103.  With this win the Suns are now tied for the most wins in the D-League with a 6-1 record.  This was a hard match-up for the now 1-7 Stars from the beginning as the Suns may be the most versatile team in the league.

The Stars lacked energy and gave up 19 points off of turnovers and allowed the other team to get some easy buckets.  They allowed the Suns to shoot 48.3% from the field and 46.2% from three.  On the other end the team couldn’t get it going as they only hit 35.7% of their shots.  Coming into this game the Suns were 5-0 when they held teams under 80 points, and the Stars couldn’t break that mark on Tuesday night.

Jeremy Williams was one bright spot for the Stars of the bench.  The forward came in and played hard off the bench and really hustled.  Coach liked what he saw, “He put his work boots on.”

The Stars now have a four game road trip ahead of them.  Williams thinks that this road trip can bring the team together and help them bounce back from this 1-7 start.  “We are going to be on the road quite a bit, and I think it will make or break us.  At this point, being that our record is 1-7, we have nothing but good things to look forward to.  We all have a chip on our shoulder.  We’ve lost enough games to know what we need to do.”

Play Of The Game

I told you Kyser would have a highlight for the @slcstars! Check out this put back! pic.twitter.com/79Lbf3Z490

— Spencer Wixom (@JazzJargon) November 30, 2016

Game MVP

Sundiata Gaines

15 Points, 4 Rebounds, 1 Assist, 1 Block, 3-7 3P, 6-13 FG

Gaines was the leader on this team, on and off the court.  The game got chippy and the team began to loss it’s sense of urgency.  Knowing his role as a veteran, Gaines took a technical to try and spark some life into his team. “I’m just trying to do something.  Get physical, get the team sparked and motivated.  This is our second game now in a row of losing by 30 points, and its a sense of pride.  Just wanting it.”

Prospect Watch

This is a new segment I’m going to add into my Stars recaps.  The D-League keeps an updated prospects watch.  I will be commenting on each player from the game that is ranked on this list.

#6 Elijah Millsap

17 Points, 4 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 2 Steals, 0 Blocks, +32, 0-2 3P, 6-11 FG 

Millsap was the best player on the court tonight.  He did everything for the Suns, including run the offense.  If he continues to play like this he will get called up by a NBA team.  He is a very good example of someone that can fill a role in case of injury.  A team like Memphis would make a lot of sense for Millsap should they begin to see injuries arise like last year.

#23 Johnny O’Bryant III

17 Points, 7 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 1 Steals, 0 Blocks, +30, 1-1 3P, 6-13 FG 

O’Bryant should be much higher on this list.  Of all the players that have walked into the Bruin Arena he presents the best combination of upside, at 23 years old, and talent.  O’Bryant is beginning to show that he can hit the NBA three, which absolutely makes him a NBA player with his size and strength.  I doubt it will be long before he gets a call up.  Any team with injuries at the power forward position should consider giving O’Bryant a look.  In fact, he is one player I would move to the top of the call up list for the Utah Jazz.

#24 Henry Sims

10 Points, 7 Rebounds, 0 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Blocks, -2, 0-1 3P, 3-7 FG 

Sims has been good, but not great in every game I have seen of him so far.  Tonight, and in general, he seems to get into foul trouble.  I think this is a result of him defending bigs who are more agile than he is, and that is a habit he needs to break to get back into the NBA.  A team could absolutely call Sims up because he isn’t necessarily bad at anything.  I think the question with Sims is where is the upside.  He has started to shoot the three ball, and that might be what he needs to do.