Cam Payne Shining in Starting Role
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The Phoenix Suns will welcome Chris Paul back whenever ready.
Despite a drop in scoring, there's simply no replacing the floor vision and constant ability to come up with steals that the Point God shows on a nightly basis.
Yet Paul has been out for roughly ten days, and backup point guard Cameron Payne has performed well in his absence. In his four games as a starter since Paul's departure with right heel soreness, three of those performances have come with 22 or more points.
In all but one game, he's shot at least 47% from the field. Assist numbers have been eight, four, five and seven during that stretch, too.
His most impressive performance came in Phoenix's 130-119 win over the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday, where Payne dished out a 29/3/7 stat line to put the Suns back on a winning track.
Those 29 points matched a career-high for Payne.
“Cam can score the ball. He had seven assists to go with it, but in the closing moments he needs to be better," said coach Monty Williams. He's referencing the extra jawing done by Payne towards the end of the game with Klay Thompson.
"We don’t need to have all that silliness at the end of games. When you think about his game, he played so well tonight and then we have to finish it the right way and with Chris (Paul) out. Those are the things that we’re looking for from Cam - that’s managing the game. So, great tonight from a scoring perspective, but we also have to cap it off with finishing the right way.”
Teammate Mikal Bridges, who was one assist and one rebound shy of a triple-double, didn't harp as much on the extra curricular at the podium afterwards:
“He hooped. Little turbo, man, just plays with pace and works so hard. I’ve known him for all of these years and I know how hard he works. He’s stepping up. As (Chris Paul) goes down, he steps up. He’s playing how he’s supposed to play," said Bridges.
The Suns are set to battle the Utah Jazz on Friday, and we could see the eventual return of Paul on the road.
However, Phoenix has been fairly content to let Payne continue shining in his role as a temporary starter.
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