Suns claw back against Hornets for another ugly win, 3 straight
Jan 12, 2025, 11:15 PM | Updated: Jan 13, 2025, 12:48 pm
PHOENIX — “A win is a win” attempts to reach its limits at times and that has been the case lately for the Phoenix Suns, who beat the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday 120-113.
Phoenix only led for 2:10 in the first 44 minutes against a now 8-28 basketball team it nearly maddeningly lost to for the second time in a week.
With all that taken in and before we get any further, the Suns have now won three straight. They’ve got some direly-needed momentum. Devin Booker believes in that sort of thing.
“You try to keep everything the same, but you can feel it,” Booker said of momentum, noting he thinks the vibes are better over these last three games.
“At this point we’ve dropped too many games and we need every one. … The sense of urgency has to be high and we have a good example of what works for us and what doesn’t,” Booker added.
And the reason why the Suns (19-19) still have a shot to turn this around and haven’t tail-spinned yet is because the energy between the team has remained in a solid-enough spot.
“The vibes always been good to me,” Kevin Durant said. “From the outside looking in, it’s tough cuz we losing. But for the most part, everybody’s coming in trying to figure stuff out, working hard, coming in here with energy (and) enthusiasm for the game of ball.”
The Suns sure need that.
It says a lot that this game looked like an even playing field in terms of the decision-making and basketball IQ on display. Charlotte scores incredibly highly on the “Young Team Playing Through Mistakes” scale, and yet, an uninformed watcher would grade Phoenix right alongside the Hornets in facepalms by a team’s fans per 48 minutes.
Where the Hornets make up for the sizable talent gap is athleticism and energy. Perfectly fine centers you’d be fine with having on your team continue to maul Phoenix, with Charlotte’s Mark Williams putting up 22 of his 24 points and 13 of his 16 rebounds in the first half. Casual sports fans at Footprint Center who haven’t seen Williams play before would be shocked to be told he’s not even a top 15 player at his position.
Suns starting center Mason Plumlee checked out at eight minutes played midway through the second quarter before not returning until there was 1:36 left in the third quarter. That was to give rookie Oso Ighodaro a rest, a player that isn’t close to a usable solution as an undersized first-year guy, but he’s providing the best center minutes at the moment.
The game felt like head coach Mike Budenholzer reaching his breaking point with that group. If Phoenix is indeed going to trade for a center, it has to be someone young and under team control for a few years. The Suns can’t go rental shopping with how bleak the future looks and how obvious it is that they are not just a competent center rotation away from developing into a serious threat.
The only, and I mean only reason the Suns were in this game was points off turnovers. The Hornets, bless their hearts, couldn’t get out of their own way with giveaways, allowing Phoenix to hold a 26-10 edge.
The Suns went down double digits almost immediately, clawing back before halftime to keep it within a possession or two until Charlotte extended its lead to nine with seven minutes to go. Charlotte has tons of work to do on learning how to close out games, a defect that let the Suns hang around in a game they had no business having a chance to win.
Phoenix cut it to three with five minutes to go and it was just going to be a matter of if the Hornets had enough finish in them or if a lack of it would let the Suns limp across the finish line first.
It was a one-point game before LaMelo Ball traveled for Charlotte’s 16th turnover and a Kevin Durant midrange jumper put the Suns ahead with three minutes remaining.
Ball then missed a 30-footer, a Durant middy went in-and-out and then a wild miss at the rim by Williams was corralled by Ball, who found Brandon Miller for a 3 to retake the lead at 2:18 left.
Charlotte kept getting exposed in its ball screen coverage late by leaving Ighodaro a lane to dunk, bringing a tie, and then Williams was stripped in the key. Ighodaro then got another dunk when Durant was doubled and Miller didn’t convert on a chaotic drive to the rim at under a minute remaining. A Royce O’Neale corner 3 then finally put the Suns in real control of the game for the first time after failing to have it for 47 minutes and change, enough to end it.
It’s going to take a lot of wins to get past performances like this that continue showing how far behind NBA contenders the Suns curremtly are.
O’Neale’s return marked a noteworthy moment in which all of Phoenix’s non-point guards and non-bigs were heathy in a game for the first time since the starting lineup change. Well, at least half of one before Grayson Allen did not return in the second half due to left knee soreness.
In the last five games, all of which featured Allen, Bradley Beal, Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Ryan Dunn, Beal was at 31.6 minutes per game while Allen’s at 25.5 MPG right ahead of Dunn’s 24.4 MPG. Most notably, those three guys were all ahead of Tyus Jones at 23.9 MPG, with Monte Morris’ 14.1 MPG showing it’s nearly a full quarter now Phoenix was recently spending without a point guard.
On Sunday, that quickly multiplied. Morris was out of the rotation, so when Jones rested on a night he played just a season-low 18 minutes in, the Suns were without a point guard. They went +22 in those 30 minutes.
Beal played the final 18:48 of the game and Jones sat for the last 8:59.
Here’s what Budenholzer had to say on the decision: “I keep referencing trying different combinations, trying to find the best combinations for us and Brad’s been dynamic and athletic on both ends. … Tyus has been good for us, we’re gonna need Tyus but tonight we kind of went a different direction, mostly probably about Brad and Royce being back and Ryan and those guys helped us on both ends.”
Booker had 30 points, five rebounds, eight assists, three steals and one turnover in 39 minutes while Durant was at 27 points, eight rebounds, five assists, a steal and a turnover in 40 minutes. The true difference in the game was the ease those two had at dictating the terms of how a possession would go, while Charlotte is still figuring that out.
Speaking of, this was the first time in three years that the fifth-year guard Ball has played in Phoenix.
He’s been a fascinating watch without a leash this year while embracing a totally free playstyle, so seeing that dynamic up-close was something. He and Miller attempt a combined 24 3-pointers a game, a byproduct of taking handfuls of ill-advised pull-up 3s. It’s definitely not good for the offense’s flow, especially when Ball’s feeling himself and inexplicably takes one-legged leaners from deep when wide open, and you can’t win at the highest level with all that nonsense.
But it at least puts pressure on opposing on-ball defenders. And when Ball plays in the half-court, he can totally dismantle defenses with the pull-up 3s at his size (6-foot-7) and unbelievable passing chops. Those skills obviously make Ball one of the NBA’s elite transition players as well.
“He keeps you on your toes. You never know when he’s gonna shoot it. Everybody says he’s still playing like he’s at Chino Hills. He really is,” Booker said, referencing Ball’s high school. “His confidence is sky high. When you have it rolling like that (and) people don’t know what you’re going to do when you do it, then you’re a tough cover.”
Ball wound up with 25 points (9-for-25), six rebounds, 11 assists, three steals, a block and three turnovers.
It is a lost cause to attempt ranking Ball amongst fellow point guards, except to say he might have a case as the most talented one out of all of them. Which is why you need to keep Charlotte in mind over the next couple years as not so much a potential young team on the rise but a sleeping giant if all the player development comes together.
Beal ended up with 15 points, three rebounds, six assists, two blocks and one turnover in 35 minutes. He has quickly developed into the ultra-valuable energy guy off the bench. Again, when he stays healthy, Beal is able to show the excellent basketball player he is, no matter the role.
Phoenix trading up in the second round of last year’s draft for Ighodaro could be looked back on a season-saving move. He had 10 points, six rebounds and two assists in 30 minutes.
Jusuf Nurkic was out for Phoenix due an illness. Budenholzer pregame said Nurkic tested positive for the flu and it’s unlikely he is with the team for the start of the upcoming five-game road trip because he is contagious. It is one hell of a coincidence given Nurkic’s recent move to DNP-CD status and how he said he didn’t find out from Budenholzer beforehand.
Allen’s rotten injury luck continues. He was just finding his great form from last year but now faces potentially his fourth stint out.
The Hornets won second-chance points 26-12, while Phoenix’s work on the aforementioned giveaways and finally getting up 40+ 3s (!) to a 17-for-41 (41.5%) mark is where it was able to make up for it somehow.