The Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings are both teams that will be aiming for the playoffs this season and the two teams met on Wednesday night, to give the NBA world a taste of how the teams will fare this season.

The first quarter started out as well as any Kings fan would have wanted. They started on an 8-0 run, which included threes from both Rudy Gay and DeMarcus Cousins. Gay's night didn't stop there however, his early three-ball seemed to give him the confidence that wasn't evident on Monday night against the Portland Trail Blazers. Gay landed himself 14 first quarter points, including an incredible 3 of 3 from downtown.

The Suns offense struggled in the early part of the game. They lacked the creativity and movement, that under coach Jeff Hornacek has become a necessity for their team. Defensively, they got in early foul trouble, with both Eric Bledsoe and Tyson Chandler both picking up two early fouls.

Sacramento extended their lead out to a dominant 16 point margin nearing the end of the first quarter. But with the second unit in that consisted of Darren Collison, Marco Belinelli (who piled on 32 points against Portland), Caron Butler, Omri Casspi and Eric Moreland, Phoenix feasted. The Suns were able to force turnovers and overpower Sacramento's small lineup inside to go on a quick 11 point unanswered run that took them into quarter time with the score still in favour of the Kings, 32-27.

Their run in the early second quarter, with baskets from second year forward T.J. Warren and Bledsoe. Darren Collison ended the 15-0 spurt with a beautiful spinning layup that stopped the Suns' momentum. Sacramento decided to ditch the bench unit and turned to DeMarcus Cousins and Rajon Rondo to get back to the dominance that they had showed earlier. But the Suns held their own, mainly through Jon Leuer, who stamped his mark on the game with 9 second quarter points and this exquisite jam over Cousins.

Heading into the third quarter up 53-52, the Kings went back to the man who started off the game hot. Gay was barely used in the second period, but more than made up for it in the third, with 16 points. The Suns defense just couldn't find an answer for him, it didn't matter if he was in transition, coming off screens or creating himself, Gay was simply putting the ball in the basket. Despite Gay's sensational performance, the Suns were able to stay in the game. Good team play and ball movement was giving Eric Bledsoe, T.J. Warren and Brandon Knight easy shots that they were able to convert on to keep the gap at just three points.

As the fourth quarter started, it became apparent that this was just a preseason game and neither team had true aspirations of winning as both Hornacek and George Karl sat their starters in order to give the bench some late game experience. Without Gay or Cousins in the game, the Kings lacked direction and had to rely on Collison and Belinelli to score. Meanwhile without Bledsoe or Knight, the Suns had Warren and Leuer taking a majority of their shots. In the end, Phoenix managed to seize control of the game with consistent scoring and good defense on Belinelli, who finished the game poorly, making just 4 of his 15 shots. The Kings did however have a chance at winning the game, but Darren Collison's last heave was way off and was recovered by the impressive Leuer.

The Suns will take a lot of positives out of this game, most of them being competition at the forward spots. The performances from T.J. Warren (17 points) and Jon Leuer (17 points, 13 rebouonds) were surprising and will give Jeff Hornacek a lot to think about. This is especially considering that starting small forward P.J. Tucker didn't have a great game and power forwards, Markeiff Morris and Mirza Teletovic were a combined 3 of 23 from the field.

The Kings will have one major positive which is obviously the play of Rudy Gay, who was close to unstoppable with his 30 points. After his awful game against Portland, where he shot at less than 20% from the field, this is exactly what the doctor ordered.

Looking ahead, the Suns next play the Utah Jazz on Friday, while Rudy Gay and the Kings go up against the San Antonio Spurs tomorrow.

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About the author
Brad Winter
Covering and writing about the NBA with passion here on VAVEL USA.