Suns catch fire with 15 straight makes for spirited comeback vs. Clippers

Once the Phoenix Suns figure out how to stop being who they once were, they have the potential to terrorize the NBA. The struggle of making that a reality and fighting through that struggle was again on display in a 125-119 win over the Los Angeles Clippers.

Phoenix was down 18 at halftime in an awful performance through two quarters, especially defensively. The Suns’ offensive flow was brutal, producing only eight assists, while the warts on defense were everywhere.

And then they just didn’t miss.

Devin Booker and Kevin Durant got a few shots to go down early in the third quarter that wasn’t so much of a jolt as it was a lifeline if the Suns could get some stops. Those came and Phoenix snatched the first chance at regaining momentum by making 15 straight shots in the period across over nine minutes that included a 30-10 run to tie the game in the late third.

This was very much aided by a shot to the face Clippers guard Norman Powell took that forced him to the bench after he was on fire, a rhythm he never could reclaim later in the game. Their offense completely fell apart on the second night of a back-to-back, with James Harden losing the ball and consistency in getting to the basket after he was magnificent to begin the game.

Phoenix’s bench answered the call once more. Ryan Dunn and Royce O’Neale were outstanding over a stretch of stellar play that kept up in the fourth quarter. And while Grayson Allen was 1-for-8, he made a handful of key plays with five rebounds, three assists and four steals.

Booker hit a pair of 3s over a two-minute stretch in the mid-fourth quarter to put the Suns up six, giving them a decent cushion for crunch time. At under a minute to go with L.A. down just three, Durant brought it up before Tyus Jones arrived to initiate the play.

He received a screen from Booker to counter all of the recent doubling and switching by the Clippers, and Booker on the short roll found O’Neale for his fifth 3 of the night and the dagger.

Devin Booker as a screener working for the Suns.
-Look at the angle and the contact, Mann is not going to be able to switch
-Pops to the open space, Tyus Jones gets it right to him
-Harden rotates, Mann has to flow to the corner, quick kick and O’Neale hits it. pic.twitter.com/Exp1hG3JsJ

— Steve Jones Jr. (@stevejones20) November 1, 2024

Booker scored a season-high 40 points on 11-of-18 shooting with eight assists and two turnovers. Phoenix is going to reach a whole different gear once he and Durant are consistently the best player on the court, because this is a dramatically deeper team compared to last year. Durant had that type of outing on Saturday and was pretty damn good on Monday as well. It pays to have two of the best in the world, you know.

Dunn played game-changing defense in that sector of the third quarter when things started to tilt and scored 16 points. He only broke 15-plus twice in 65 games at Virginia. Dunn missed his first two 3-point attempts before drilling the next three of them, a remarkable turnaround in his confidence compared to college.

O’Neale’s plus-minus wizardry came to a screeching halt (-7) bizarrely on the night he posted a career-high (!) 21 points after amounting to 31 in his first four fixtures. I don’t know what the precedent is for players that attempt under 10 shots a game winning Sixth Man of the Year but he at the very least will be in the running if he keeps this up.

Before the heroics, it was Phoenix’s second straight game having a terrible start, and this time there was no immediate recovery. The Suns were down 37-20 after one quarter.

Phoenix’s turnovers that had more to do with a mental error off L.A.’s high-pressure on-ball defense and less to do with those defenders actually ripping the ball out set a bad tone early, as did the immense lack of paint touches by drivers. Without Bradley Beal (right wrist sprain), the Suns can quickly fall into a lull when it’s up to short rolls by the screen-setters or cuts to account for the ball getting around the rim. When Phoenix’s offense has been cooking, it’s been when the ball movement is flowing, and that usually begins when the ball-handlers are screaming downhill.

The Clippers were doing much, much more of this via Harden and Kevin Porter Jr., which made a significant difference. It is clear as day when Harden is playing without brain fog and real intent. This was the first night in a young season when we saw the Suns’ lack of on-ball juice defensively catch up to them. So when the process offensively is a mess and the Suns can’t generate stops to help improve it, that’s how you go down 19 early in the second quarter.

Booker did the Booker thing, taking us back to the 2016-19 times when he would singlehandedly try to bring Phoenix back from a large deficit at some point in the game. A 13-5 spurt got Phoenix within nine before more problems defensively sprouted up. The Suns inexcusably kept giving Powell space to get off his jumper, sometimes on the ball and sometimes off it. Powell’s second straight 3 working around switches off the ball in the mid-second quarter forced Budenholzer to call his third timeout of the half, and he did so with a whole lot of visible frustration. It was justified for the mistakes alone before getting to how Powell entered the night posting 26 points a night.

Jusuf Nurkic had another brutal start, to the point where Budenholzer elected to use Oso Ighodaro in the second quarter over him. L.A. responded by feeding Ivica Zubac, perhaps the most underrated center in the NBA at the moment. He averaged 22.6 points and 14 rebounds per game in his first three contests this year before an off night on Wednesday. Zubac bounced back with 22 points and 12 rebounds and his effort in the back half of the second quarter got the Clippers back up 18 at the half.

Phoenix clearly wasn’t fully focused in this one out of the gates. L.A. was able to start the game with two out-of-bounds plays that required practically no dribbling to get two buckets and also got a free shot at the rim off a Suns make. It became more evident on the glass, where the Clippers had 12 offensive rebounds in the first two quarters alone. Point at size all you want. Sure, that’s a little bit of it. But only a little. The Suns didn’t respect their shortcomings enough with their engagement level and paid the price.

Nurkic did start the third quarter and was out there for key points of the fourth quarter. L.A. going small itself resulted in Nurkic not finishing the game, but he played better in the second half, albeit not enough to make up for another really rough beginning.

This continues to be a rough matchup for Durant, who once again struggled with turnovers. The Clippers had awesome awareness one pass away to watch out for errant passes Durant would make off the pressure and got under him and into his handle as usual. His four giveaways weren’t of a nuclear amount but were once again an issue in the offense. Durant made up for it by competing his ass off defensively, most notably in the second half. He ended up at 18 points (7-of-14), five rebounds, four assists, a steal and two blocks.

Jones was rock solid with 11 assists and one turnover to go with seven points in 33 minutes. Good things were happening when he ran the offense.

Beal missed his second game in the last three due to a right wrist sprain. He has been terrific as a do-it-all guy on low usage in the three games he’s played but it is vital for Beal to find a clean stretch of four-to-six weeks relatively soon in the season. He has to locate a rhythm and flow with not only his role but his teammates. This was much more of the problem for him last year, not his level of play.

Beal’s wrist injury is by all accounts a minor one but it is not encouraging for Beal to go from being declared good to go 90 minutes before tip on Monday to getting ruled out 30 minutes prior on Thursday (like he was on Saturday). Again, even something nagging like this that only costs a game here or a game there is a major hindrance.

Powell finished with 23 points while it was a triple-double for Harden — 25 points, 10 rebounds, 13 assists, two steals, two blocks and six turnovers on 8-of-19 shooting.

Follow @KellanOlson