Shorthanded Suns adjust on the fly, lean on Devin Booker to beat Cavs

PHOENIX — It was wacky that the NBA’s worst offensive team heading into Monday night hovered in the mid-50s in field goal percentage for most of the game and put up 113 points on the league’s fifth-best defensive team.

Probably exacerbating that happenstance was the Phoenix Suns, the aforementioned stout defensive team, entering a home game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the offensively-burdened team, with only 10 active players. Five rotation-caliber players, including starting point guard Chris Paul (hamstring), were out for Phoenix.

So the Suns (14-9) were happy to take a 119-113 win over a sneaky competitive Cavaliers team.

Head coach Monty Williams mentioned before the game that, without Paul, he would be navigating things somewhat blindly. When the Cavs (10-15) threw a pregame curveball by announcing a new starting lineup featuring centers Andre Drummond and Jarrett Allen, it added to the rotation shuffling.

Williams admitted afterward it forced him to make a late starting lineup switch of his own by plugging in Frank Kaminsky when the Suns had planned for Cleveland to go small.

The on-the-fly adjusting continued into the game, and it started with Booker taking on a lead play-making role with E’Twaun Moore starting in Paul’s place.

“You have to make adjustments,” Booker said. “I wanted to take on that facilitating role, still find places to be aggressive but make sure I’m getting everybody involved the way Chris does when he’s in.”

The results were pretty good for Phoenix, which got a season-high 36 points from Booker, who added eight dimes.

He had a collection of help.

The Suns got two fourth-quarter three-point makes from Cam Johnson after he’d missed his first six attempts. Deandre Ayton added eight offensive boards, Mikal Bridges scored an efficient 22 points and Moore played 40 minutes. He finished with 17 points, four assists, two steals and a block.

Phoenix needed all of it.

“… I probably called more plays tonight than I’ve had to call this year because Chris wasn’t on the floor, and mostly because I was just trying to help Book and E’Twaun manage the game better,” Williams said.

“But our secondary auto offense helped us tonight manufacture some movement. When you don’t have Chris on the floor, you’re missing a lot of experience on both ends of the floor … it’s Hall of Fame. I don’t need to explain it. I just thought our guys did a great job corporately stepping up for all of the guys out tonight.”

Among the few things you would expect heading into the night was the Suns’ best healthy player knew he had to carry a heavier load than usual.

Booker attacked rookie wing Isaac Okoro early on. The Suns’ leading scorer got a hoop on a scooping bank drive, then beat Okoro on a back-cut and again behind a screen for a three out of a timeout.

Cleveland went to a zone briefly, but Booker capped his 17-point first quarter waving off a screen when rookie Dylan Windler matched up against him on a cross-switch in transition. Booker found a mid-range pull-up with ease.

Williams loved that Booker didn’t go matchup hunting as much as he could, though — at least not in the first half.

By the time Booker returned with the Suns up 54-44 midway through the second quarter, Bridges had nearly matched him with 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting to that point. He finished with 22 on 8-of-10 shooting.

The offensive ease wasn’t just a Booker and Bridges thing, either.

Neither team played especially effective defense for most of the game. The Suns and Cavaliers combined for only 20 turnovers and shot between 51% and 52%. The Suns won a tight — and voluminous — points-in-the-paint battle, 60-58.

Phoenix in the first half hit a scorching 60% from the field. Problem for the Suns was that the Cavaliers backcourt of Collin Sexton and Darius Garland got to their spots with ease by working off screens from the dual-center starting lineup.

The guards continually got into the lane for floaters before Phoenix adjusted, but the duo then started tossing lobs to their athletic rollers. By the end of the game, Sexton and Garland combined for 40 points and 12 assists.

“Those two guys are bulldogs,” Williams said. “The (Cavs) just keep coming at you.

“They scored 22 points in the fourth. That to me was a statement quarter for us with all the guys we had out of the game.”

Booker’s 10 fourth-quarter points, including a bailout fadeaway three, came in handy, too.

Like, look at this.

Book now has a season-high 35! #DevinBooker | #NBAAllStar https://t.co/sIQvrSsPQf pic.twitter.com/DbemfL7Sy8

— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) February 9, 2021

Ayton, who held his own against the Cavs’ center duo, finished with 15 points, 16 rebounds and three blocks. He credited his teammates’ communication for the defense finding cohesion down the stretch, as Cleveland shot 38% in the fourth quarter.

“We locked in on coverages that coach adjusted during the game,” Ayton said, adding that the injured players like Paul, Jae Crowder, Dario Saric and Cam Payne were making sure the active players knew their coverages during breaks in action.

“All of that communication is insane, and I love it.”

But that communication matters little if a team down five rotation-caliber players doesn’t have talent. To Booker, the grinding win against the Cavaliers — who by the way boasted the 11th-best defense in the NBA heading into Monday — should be credited to the front office as well.

“That’s one thing, even though we had a short offseason when this team was built, (general manager) James Jones, going into the first week, I was like, ‘Man, we’re deep. We’re solid all the way through,'” Booker said. “There might be some games where very talented players don’t get to play.”

Booker then went to a phrase that he likes to use to describe Moore, who ended up leading the team in his 40 minutes played.

“Everybody knows, man, your opportunity is going to come,” Booker said. “Stay ready so you don’t got to get ready.”

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