The Phoenix Suns are still at times able to overcome their problems functioning as a complete unit thanks to extreme shot-making, a theme of many wins this year, the latest of which came on Saturday in a 121-117 final against the Chicago Bulls.
Kevin Durant (27 points, 9-of-15), Devin Booker (29, 10-of-20) and Bradley Beal (25, 10-of-19) combined to shoot 29-for-54 (53.7%) for 81 of the Suns’ 121 points.
This was the constant source of enough offense across a fixture the Suns looked like they were facing an equal counterpart, that counterpart being a 22-35 Bulls team that was missing two starters.
Phoenix (27-29) made some overdue swaps in this one, moving Tyus Jones to the bench in favor of Beal while also giving more minutes to Nick Richards.
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The Jones move had less to do with Beal and more to do with Jones’ inability to use his best traits as a floor general after Phoenix’s offense early in the season went a Point Book direction with Booker. Jones was essentially a 6-foot-1 3-and-D wing who did occasional supplementary playmaking and was routinely picked on by opposing offenses in that role. Beal gives the Suns better on-ball defense and rim pressure offensively, making this a no-brainer swap weeks ago.
Bizarrely, though, this led to the Suns moving Beal back to his old role as the point guard and put Booker more off the ball. That has not worked at all in the past, both for the team and the individuals. Beal’s best suited focusing on scoring and the little areas he can impact the game beyond that, while Booker is the best playmaking threat on the roster. The floor opens up far more when Booker is the primary initiator, which in turn gets Phoenix’s ball movement in its best form. That was clear again on Saturday.
The Suns began the game on a streak of seven straight misses, three straight makes and then six straight misses to go 3-of-16. Chicago, a putrid offensive team, was able to piece enough together to lead for most of the first half, at one point by as many as 13.
The Suns quickly took a two-point lead into halftime and looked like they were going to blow this thing open, particularly because of Chicago’s extreme stagnation offensively that absolutely zapped any small shred of intensity the game had left. Phoenix then proceeded to miss a handful of good looks in an opportunity to pull away and were still afforded the luxury after those few minutes to go up a dozen with five minutes remaining in the third quarter.
The Bulls relocated some energy late in the period and closed with a 13-5 run to trail by just three, one of a few different surges in the second half from both sides that eventually got us to 109-103 Suns with a little over five minutes left.
That is when a Booker turnover, Bulls 3 off an offensive rebound and another Booker turnover that allowed the Bulls to get free throws in transition had us officially in what would be a tight close.
It was tied at 111 when Durant drew a foul while setting a screen and then another while securing a rebound to make it 115-111 Suns at 1:45 to go. Richards then had a good bit of verticality to get a stop that let Booker sink a 3 that looked like the dagger until Chicago got four straight points. Durant then drew a double that got Beal open for a 3 with 13 ticks left that was the actual dagger.
Chicago was fairly shorthanded, missing guard Ayo Dosunmu (left shoulder soreness), big Jalen Smith (concussion) and wing Patrick Williams (right quadricep tendinosis). Dosunmu has straight up been one of the Bulls’ best players the last two years, Williams has started 130 games the last three seasons and Smith has been a stretch big reserve in the rotation.
So, in a game against awful competition during which the Suns look like they are evenly matched against, they continued to not play their rookies. Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro were DNP-CD’s.
Richards had a solid day with 15 points and nine rebounds in 28 minutes while holding his own in 1-on-1 coverage against Chicago’s Nikola Vucevic. The latter is an area where Richards has struggled as a Sun against some of the better centers in basketball, so that was a nice step forward for him. He was indeed able to close the game and did well.
In the mid-third quarter, Beal grabbed at his left foot after changing directions and immediately called for a sub while trying to jog it off before later returning. He missed the last four games before the All-Star break for a left great toe sprain. That would be a quick snag in the lineup change.
Jones, of course, took a severe discount to sign with the Suns on a veteran’s minimum contract. A move like that can come with certain guarantees, ones that have only been speculated, but it sure looked intentional when Jones’ statement after signing with Phoenix included referring to himself as the “starting point guard.” It’ll be interesting to see if he still is able to clock at least 20 minutes per game as a reserve or if this is even more of a demotion.
This is not a reason to keep playing Jones a lot, but Jones has been efficient offensively. He’s shooting an average 43% in the midrange and very good 40% from 3, while also at an awesome 78% at the rim for his 49 total attempts. The majority of players tend to be affected by moves like this but Jones slotting back into the role he played for most of his career should avoid those bumps in the road. We’ll see. He got 20 minutes and was 0-for-5 with six assists and zero turnovers.
The Suns’ shot profile continues to be a massive problem. Phoenix had only one of its nine shots at the rim in the first half and was 20-of-39 from 5-14 feet in order to win points in the paint 50-40, per Cleaning the Glass. The Suns only got 30 3s up in comparison to 53 for the Bulls, who shot a nearly equal percentage of 34% to the Suns’ 33.3%, which means they made eight more. Phoenix was +8 at the foul line to get a little bit of that math back.
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