The Sun catches fire with 15 straight, making for a spirited comeback

On By Littum

Once the Phoenix Suns figure out how to stop being who they once were, they have the potential to terrorize the NBA. The struggle to make it a reality and fighting through that game was on display again in a 125-119 win over the Los Angeles Clippers.

Phoenix was down 18 at halftime in a terrible performance through two quarters, especially defensively. The Suns’ offensive flow was brutal, producing just eight assists, while the warts on defense were everywhere.

And then they just didn’t miss.

Devin Booker and Kevin Durant had a pair of shots go down early in the third quarter, which wasn’t so much of a shock as it was a lifeline if the Suns could get some stops. They came, and Phoenix seized the first chance to regain momentum by making 15 straight shots in the period across nine minutes that included a 30-10 run to tie the game in the late third.

This was greatly helped by a shot to the face that Clippers guard Norman Powell took that forced him to the bench after he was on fire, a rhythm he could never regain later in the game. Their offense completely fell apart the other night in a back-to-back, with James Harden losing the ball and consistency in getting to the basket after being magnificent to begin the game.

Phoenix’s bench answered the call once again. Ryan Dunn and Royce O’Neale were outstanding over a stretch of stellar play that kept pace in the fourth quarter. And while Grayson Allen was 1-for-8, he made a handful of key plays with five rebounds, three assists and four steals.

Booker hit a pair of 3s over a two-minute stretch midway through the fourth quarter to put the Suns up by six, giving them a decent cushion at crunch time. With less than a minute remaining with LA down just three, Durant brought it up before Tyus Jones arrived to initiate the game.

He received a screen from Booker to counter all the recent doubles and shifts from the Clippers, and Booker on the short roll found O’Neale for his fifth 3 of the night and the dagger.

Booker scored a season-high 40 points on 11-of-18 shooting with eight assists and two turnovers. Phoenix is ​​going to hit a whole different gear when he and Durant are consistently the best player on the court because this is a dramatically deeper team compared to last year. Durant had that type of outing on Saturday and was pretty good Monday as well. It pays to have two of the best in the world, you know.

Dunn played game-changing defense in that sector of the third quarter when things started to tilt, scoring 16 points. He only broke 15-plus twice in 65 games at Virginia. Dunn missed his first two 3-point attempts before drilling the next three of them, a remarkable turnaround in his confidence compared to college.

O’Neale’s plus-minus wizardry came to a screeching halt (-7) bizarrely the night he posted a career-high (!) 21 points after totaling 31 in his first four games. I don’t know what the precedent is for players who attempt under 10 shots a game winning Sixth Man of the Year, but he’ll at least be in the running if he keeps this up.

Before the heroics, it was Phoenix’s second game in a row that got off to a terrible start, and this time there was no immediate recovery. The Suns were down 37-20 after one quarter.

Phoenix’s turnovers, which had more to do with a mental lapse from LA’s high-pressure, on-ball defense and less to do with those defenders actually ripping the ball out, set a bad tone early, as did the tremendous lack of paint from the drivers. Without Bradley Beal (right wrist sprain), the Suns can quickly fall into a lull when it comes to short rolls off the screen sets or cuts to account for the ball getting around the rim. When Phoenix’s offense has cooked, it’s been when the ball movement is flowing, and that usually starts when the ball handlers are screaming downhill.

The Clippers did much, much more of this via Harden and Kevin Porter Jr., which made a significant difference. It’s clear as day when Harden plays without brain fog and real intent. This was the first night in a young season where we saw the Suns’ lack of on-ball juice defensively catch up to them. So when the process offensively is a mess and the Suns can’t generate stops to help improve it, that’s how you go down by 19 early in the second quarter.

Booker did the Booker thing and took us back to the 2016-19 era where he would single-handedly try to bring Phoenix back from a big deficit at some point in the game. A 13-5 spurt got Phoenix within nine before more problems defensively cropped up. The Suns unforgivably kept giving Powell room to get off his jumper, sometimes on the ball and sometimes off it. Powell’s second straight fumble midway through the second quarter forced Budenholzer to call his third timeout of the half, and he did so with a whole lot of visible frustration. That was justified for the mistakes alone before it came to how Powell entered the night with 26 points on the night.

Jusuf Nurkic had another brutal start, to the point where Budenholzer opted to use Oso Ighodaro in the second quarter over him. LA responded by feeding Ivica Zubac, perhaps the most underrated center in the NBA right now. He averaged 22.6 points and 14 rebounds per game in his first three contests this year before an off night Wednesday. Zubac rebounded with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and his effort in the back half of the second quarter got the Clippers up 18 again at the half.

Phoenix clearly wasn’t fully focused in this one out of the gates. LA was able to start the game with two plays off the court that required virtually no dribble to get two buckets and also got a free shot at the rim from a Suns tag. It became more evident on the glass, where the Clippers had 12 offensive rebounds in the first two quarters alone. Point to size all you want. Sure, it’s a bit of it. But only a little. The Suns didn’t respect their shortcomings enough with their commitment level and paid the price.

Nurkic started the third quarter and was out there for key points in the fourth quarter. LA going small themselves resulted in Nurkic not finishing the game, but he played better in the second half, albeit not enough to make up for another really rough start.

This continues to be a tough matchup for Durant, who once again struggled with turnovers. The Clippers had great pass awareness to watch for errant passes that Durant would shed with the pressure and get under him and into his handles as usual. His four giveaways weren’t a nuclear amount, but were again a problem in the offense. Durant made up for it by fighting his ass off defensively, especially in the second half. He finished with 18 points (7-of-14), five rebounds, four assists, one steal and two blocks.

Jones was rock solid with 11 assists and one turnover to go with seven points in 33 minutes. Good things happened when he ran the offense.

Beal missed his second game in the last three with a sprained right wrist. He’s been great as a low-usage, do-it-all guy in the three games he’s played, but it’s critical for Beal to find a clean stretch of four to six weeks relatively early in the season. He needs to find a rhythm and flow with not only his role, but also his teammates. This was much more of an issue for him last year, not his level of play.

Beal’s wrist injury is by all accounts a minor one, but it’s not encouraging for Beal to go from being cleared to go 90 minutes before tip on Monday to being ruled out 30 minutes before Thursday (as he was on Saturday). Again, even something nagging like this that only costs a game here or a game there is a big hindrance.

Powell finished with 23 points, while it was a triple-double for Harden – 25 points, 10 rebounds, 13 assists, two steals, two blocks and six turnovers on 8-of-19 shooting.