EMPIRE OF THE SUNS

Suns grit through growing pains, old habits for OT win vs. Clippers

Oct 23, 2024, 10:29 PM

Kevin Durant #35 of the Phoenix Suns scores as he drives past Derrick Jones Jr. #55 of the LA Clipp...

Kevin Durant #35 of the Phoenix Suns scores as he drives past Derrick Jones Jr. #55 of the LA Clippers during a 116-113 Suns overtime win in the season home opening game at Intuit Dome on October 23, 2024 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

The process of building is always going to be unforgiving in basketball, even in an offseason full of promising change, and that was the lesson (if you needed it) within the Phoenix Suns’ 116-113 win over the Los Angeles Clippers in overtime.

Phoenix’s flow offensively in the first half was hit or miss but it did make 10 of its 23 3-pointers and play solid defense, enough to at one point lead by 14. But the offense stalled out once more, scoring six points across a 7:17 mark at the end of the second quarter and opening of the third to bring on a tie game across a 20-6 Clippers run. This featured a whole lot of turnovers on a night Phoenix had 22. The unforced errors, a giant problem area for last year’s squad, were a cheap jump-scare tactic straight out of a C-tier horror movie.

For all the layers to this game, they don’t matter all that much when Devin Booker and Kevin Durant drastically underperform. Through three quarters, they combined for six field goals, four assists and eight turnovers. Durant took the brute force route to get some shots to fall in the fourth quarter while Booker never got there before fouling out with 1:27 to go in the fourth quarter.

This allowed the game to get weird and out of the Suns’ control against a Clippers team that was very ineffective offensively. Crunch time of the fourth quarter was essentially Durant and James Harden trading possessions in isolation, which, to put it kindly, led to varying results. Both weren’t able to create good looks while also turning it over in bunches.

Durant, however, drained a very him shot with an insane degree of difficulty to tie it at 21 seconds remaining.

Harden couldn’t convert on his counter to bring on overtime, when the Suns executed just a little bit more to win it. Bradley Beal was great all evening, and bizarrely with Harden guarding him in OT, Phoenix did the right thing in feeding Beal and he scored nine of his 24 points in the extra period.

Phoenix led by two with 75 seconds left before once more getting stuck in a vortex of targeting mismatches and 1-on-1 isolation for Beal or Durant instead of running offense. It’s clearly going to be a tug-of-war affair again in making that happen, at least early on. Even with point guards and a new coach.

After a Beal turnover and Durant miss, Harden had two free throws to tie the game with five seconds left but missed the second. Jusuf Nurkic made both of his to put Phoenix ahead by three with three seconds left in OT and L.A.’s ATO resulted in Harden dropping the inbounds pass to seal the win.

Durant ended up with 25 points (8-for-17), seven rebounds, zero assists, three steals, a block and seven turnovers. Booker only attempted nine shots in 32 minutes, hitting five for 15 points with six assists and four turnovers.

Beal and backup point guard Monte Morris injected life into the Suns across both halves. The former teammates in Washington used that pre-established chemistry to greatly aid the Suns. Reserve lineups featuring some combination of those two, Grayson Allen, Royce O’Neale and the rookie duo of Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro did a terrific job relocating defensive intensity and rebounding.

Head coach Mike Budenholzer went 11 players deep in his rotation. In the first half, Nurkic (8:49), Mason Plumlee (8:40) and Ighodaro (7:28) all got run, with Ighodaro spending some of that time at the 4. Allen was the last guy in, as Phoenix will slowly ramp him back up after Achilles soreness forced him to miss the last four games of the preseason. Budenholzer must have played over a dozen lineup combinations. He was not afraid to immediately switch a body or two if things briefly stagnated.

Harden was largely a mess for a Clippers team that had to overly rely on him without Kawhi Leonard (right knee recovery). His final line of 29 points on 10-of-28 shooting with 12 rebounds, eight assists and eight turnovers says it well enough.

The Suns only got up 15 3s in the final three quarters after the aforementioned extremely promising 23 for the first half. The ball movement was fine overall but particularly underwhelming in the half-court offense, where continuity built over the next few months will help big time. It looked better when starting point guard Tyus Jones started the possessions. He was good in this one and had 11 points, eight assists, two steals, a block and of course, zero turnovers.

Because of the turnovers and an inconsistent gang-rebounding approach, the Clippers took 14 more shots. They had 13 offensive rebounds to the Suns’ four.

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