Suns grind to keep ‘searching’ through win vs. Hornets

PHOENIX — Thursday was a great litmus test for the Phoenix Suns.

A matchup with the shorthanded Charlotte Hornets would give us a good indication of how much progress the Suns were making through, as Devin Booker described it on Saturday, a learning stage for a fairly new group.

It wasn’t exactly convincing, and instead, another sign of the necessary growth ahead following a 101-96 win.

“To be transparent, we’re still searching, we’re still finding (it),” Booker said. “We’ve had parts of the game where we look really good with certain lineups, and (then) certain lineups we come in and we just can’t find that flow. … I always say it feels better in a win, but we definitely have some things to clean up.”

With that said, it was also a hell of a fight put up to still get the benefit of learning through a win in this “figuring-it-out” stage.

The Suns (5-6) used 27 Hornets (4-8) turnovers to their full advantage, requiring just about all of them to get the offense going. After beginning the game 10-of-23 from 3, the Suns missed 17 of their final 20 attempts.

They did not record a 30-point quarter, and did enough defensively to let Charlotte do what it does as the worst giveaway squad in the league.

After the Suns went up by six with 2:40 to go, Charlotte employed the “run-and-jump” defense on Booker to force the ball out of his hands and allow his teammates to play 4-on-3. The results were an Oso Ighodaro shot blocked at the rim, a Dillon Brooks midrange miss and an open corner 3 failing to go down for Jordan Goodwin.

With Charlotte then within three, Booker did what a lot of people want to see him do in that situation and just forced the issue. He scored through three Charlotte defenders with a contested floater, and then before the late double-team came on the next possession, drilled a 28-foot step-back 3 to ice it.

Normally a cool customer, Booker was really fired up after sinking the shot. He does not want to lose these types of games that are still really winnable, even while the team-wide dynamics still come into form. We’ve seen him frustrated by that process, and it’s bringing out some tremendous basketball from him.

DEVIN BOOKER DOWN THE STRETCH 🔥

3 OF HIS 30 POINTS. BACK-TO-BACK Ws FOR PHX! https://t.co/uVSCrrWua2

— NBA (@NBA) November 13, 2026

It was another bad man sighting, and this one was required.

“I passed out of it a few times, and I thought it was the time to be aggressive,” Booker said.

He finished with 30 points (12-of-20), seven assists and two turnovers. It’s at the point with how he’s playing right now that he is straight-up carrying the team through this process to keep them afloat until a flow arrives.

Miles Bridges and Jalen Green both did not close the game. Through three stints for the quartet of Booker, Brooks, Bridges and Green, the Suns were a combined -23 in 17:02. Those numbers had been mildly improving the last few games but took a big step back on Thursday.

Green only played 21 minutes total, his third straight game under 25, although this was the first competitive fixture for that to occur in. Bridges reached 25 minutes. We have gotten to the inevitable point where multiple players in that quartet are not closing, and we’re probably going to see it more.

Collin Gillespie played 27 minutes and scored 13 points. Luke Kennard was great in this one, continuing to be an activator for offensive movement. He got 24 minutes and scored eight points.

With Goodwin back and also getting 21 minutes, Ryan Dunn only got 10. He also was fiddling with his left leg in the first half, so maybe that was part of it too.

This was a big-time trap game for the Suns, which played out in a major way.

Kon Knueppel (left hamstring strain), Brandon Miller (right hip strain) and Dennis Schroder (left hamstring strain) were out for Charlotte, a team that even at full strength you could say is either at the Suns’ level or still a little below it.

But this was a huge stylistic challenge within where Phoenix has struggled out of the gates. While the Hornets have not been a good offensive team out of the gates, they are still leading the league in 3-point volume, are top-5 in offensive rebounding and No. 1 in defensive rebounding. Those are margins the Suns have had issues with.

Charlotte loves to play with speed, and that’s what the Suns want to do too. Another problem, however, has come with Phoenix’s decision-making on early shots. A bad shot or pass puts the defense in a compromising position to recover, especially early in the clock.

Some teams can get away with this as sound defensive teams in transition. The Suns aren’t there yet, and the starters really get hammered by this cycle. They aren’t making good enough choices when they play quick, and aren’t playing good team defense to make up for it.

What the Suns have been able to do is getting back to forcing turnovers, at least against vulnerable opposition.

Charlotte has the worst turnover percentage in the NBA and committed 13 in the first 16 minutes of Thursday’s contest. The Suns’ pace was again playing with fire a bit, but they began 10-of-23 from 3 in that opening spurt to lead by 15.

But as the Hornets calmed down the turnovers, giving it away only two more times for the rest of the first half, they got back within five.

They stayed that way in the third quarter, all while the Suns were 2-for-13 from 3 since that 9-of-22 start. Kennard was shockingly 0-for-5 to that point, and Charlotte had a four-point lead entering the fourth quarter.

A sluggish final frame for both teams was impacted largely by Kennard, even though he didn’t hit a 3. Kennard made three midrange baskets, a part of his game where he has enough craft to set up soft jumpers if he’s got a good matchup off the bounce. It was a key bit of self-creation the Suns needed.

“He’s not just a 3-point shooter — he’s a very, very good basketball player,” Gillespie said of Kennard.

Kennard’s final middy put the Suns up five with under five minutes to go, and from there, Charlotte didn’t have any more gusto offensively without Coby White to create a loud enough response.

A huge factor in this game was White reaching his minutes threshold with 9:04 to go. White had scored 21 points in 20 minutes and was the only presence that seemed to keep Charlotte from stumbling over itself. If he played his usual 32-34 minutes, this could have been a different end result.

Offensive rebounds finished 15-9 Charlotte, a good result for Phoenix considering the uphill battle it faced. Don’t believe the total rebounding numbers of 52-31. Those are juiced up by the Suns taking 12 more shots, thanks to all those Hornets turnovers. Look at the offensive glass instead! That obviously has to improve still, but this was just the night to make it salvageable, and a 15-9 deficit was. Goodwin had four of those nine. Invaluable player.

The Suns limiting themselves to eight turnovers was a big deal to keep that balance in check.

Three-point shooting wrapped up at 13-of-43 (30%) for Phoenix and 14-of-39 (36%) for Charlotte, another success in the margins/math game for the Suns.

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