PHOENIX — Perhaps the thought is due to the San Antonio Spurs being in town, but a lot of Sunday’s 111-102 Phoenix Suns win epitomized the foundational progress the Suns have already made and a commitment to what their style of basketball has now become.
A rough shot-making start for the team as a whole and its leaders individually did not affect Phoenix’s confidence shooting the ball or shake its faith in a system that it knows works. There was also a malaise in the first half to overcome, particularly on the defensive end that head coach Jordan Ott noted postgame wasn’t up to par.
But what do good teams who know what they are do? They raise their collective level to what it is expected to be at later in the game.
“They can feel it, you can feel in-game we weren’t just quite right,” Ott said. “There’s 82 of these, it’s a Sunday afternoon — every excuse you can have in the book but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter. It matters what happens win or loss at the end of the night. They felt it, they knew it, they came out with the right mindset.”
The Suns found extra opportunities through those misses by grabbing ’em and taking care of the ball. At one point in the early second quarter, Phoenix had taken 16 more shots than San Antonio to be within seven when it felt like the deficit should be 20-plus through that first half when the energy wasn’t right.
“We shot it terribly and we’re still in a good position,” Devin Booker said of being on the other side of the possession battle. “It’s going to be like that some nights. Granted, if (we) make it to the playoffs, there’s games in the playoffs where you just can’t make a shot and you still have to find a way to get it done.”
They eventually got shots to fall, riding 61% shooting in the third quarter to San Antonio’s 30% to find control of the game for the first time in the evening, all while those margins kept providing a cushion.
A 16-3 Phoenix run in the mid-third quarter and 10-4 opening to the fourth got the lead up to 12. Individual shot-making arrived by closing time, giving enough of a buffer for the Suns to find a victory.
The margins concluded at 20 more shot attempts for them, which greatly aided San Antonio going +17 in points at the free-throw line. A 19-6 edge in forcing turnovers was also a great equalizer, as was a 19-16 advantage on second-chance points even though the Spurs grabbed a lot of misses too (14-11 in offensive rebounds).
The Suns (11-6) are now 10-2 since beginning the year 1-4 and sit in a top-six playoff spot out West at the conclusion of play on Sunday. Almost all of that can be attributed to a handful of guys playing their best basketball right now, and while conventional wisdom leans you in the direction of some regression coming, the tremendous contributions are also a direct byproduct of a system that maximizes nearly all of the players on the roster.
Jordan Goodwin, who was here two years ago and could not look more uncomfortable with the role he was asked to play at the time, has been a revelation off the bench.
“We allow him to do whatever your super skill is. … Even if it wasn’t (a part of our system), you got to allow him to do what he’s really good at,” Ott said of Goodwin and his mentality with all his players.
Because of four absences — Grayson Allen (right quad contusion), Ryan Dunn (right wrist sprain), Jalen Green (right hamstring strain) and Rasheer Fleming (left ankle sprain) — Goodwin was in the starting lineup and he produced 15 points, 10 rebounds and three assists all while starting possessions defending Spurs star De’Aaron Fox.
The 6-foot-2 guard that over his last two years of college at Saint Louis had the third-most double-doubles in the country, has been fully encouraged to crash the glass hard and cause havoc on a game wherever he can. Goodwin was a key fulcrum in the wild comeback on Friday with that chaos and has consistently brought it to the table all year.
“Man, I honestly don’t know what (it is but) he has a knack for the basketball,” Booker said of Goodwin. “He’s always in the right place in the right time. He defends at a high level, he makes the hustle plays that we need. He’s been hitting on all cylinders for us.”
It may have taken 24 shots for Dillon Brooks to get to 25 points (10-for-24) but shot creation has to come from someone besides Booker and he was not dissuaded by missing seven of his first eight shots. While Booker did the same exact thing early and ended up 7-of-18 for 24 points, he took care of the ball much better, with seven assists to two turnovers on a defensive gameplan that was majorly selling out on his drives.
Collin Gillespie was a member of that club too, starting the night 1-for-6 before closing 5-for-7 to end up with 15 points off the bench with six assists and zero turnovers.
Gillespie said he’s heard Ott reference someone’s “superpower” or “super skill” a few times to different players, and Booker referred to it as “the blueprint” that Ott has as a coach after his time with Cleveland.
San Antonio (11-5) did not have Victor Wembanyama (left calf strain), Stephon Castle (left hip flexor strain), Dylan Harper (left calf stain) and Jordan McLaughlin (left hamstring strain).
Fox’s 26 points were paired by just three assists and two turnovers. He was not able to get the gears of the Spurs’ offense spinning with other guys and shooters finding a rhythm. You could also tell the lack of transition opportunities in the second half really bogged them down.
Mark Williams played 29 minutes on Sunday ahead of the second game of a back-to-back on Monday, meaning he will likely sit against the Houston Rockets the next day. It’s an interesting example of the strategic choices Phoenix has to make with his schedule.
Houston is putting up historic rebounding numbers and boasts some gigantic lineups, so you’d want Williams for that matchup. At the same time, the Suns have slim odds winning that game anyway even if Williams plays given how excellent the Rockets have been lately. San Antonio’s unimposing big rotation gave Williams an opportunity to feast, but Phoenix perhaps could have gotten by OK without Williams because of that.
Ott wouldn’t rule out Williams for Monday, noting how there are certain variables within Sunday’s game that could change his status, and wouldn’t say how much of the decision-making process on which game he plays comes down to matchup versus external medical factors.
Monday, of course, would mark the return to Phoenix for Kevin Durant. But Durant will miss the Rockets’ next two games due to a family matter, per ESPN’s Shams Charania.
“I hope everything is OK with his family first, but yeah I’d love to match up with him,” Booker said of that eventual meeting that will now have to wait until at least Dec. 5 in Houston.
Green will miss it too, but Brooks will be out there and especially excited for it, as you surely should have guessed to be the case already.
“Yeah I’m sure he will be,” Booker said of Brooks with a grin. “He’s geared up for every game, though.”
Brooks acknowledged there is something extra to it.
“For sure,” he said. “Gonna get my rest, eat my Wheaties and can’t wait to see Ime tomorrow.”
Ime is Rockets head coach Ime Udoka. Brooks’ last words on the Monday matchup when asked which teammate he’s the most excited to face off with appeared to take a shot at Houston’s limitations as a defensive team, which of course is the end of the floor Brooks contributes on the most.
“It’s whoever is going to be guarding me in the beginning,” Brooks said. “I’m intrigued to see who they [have] guarding me in the beginning. We’re going to have to figure out against that zone what to do with it because they’re not going to play man with us so we’re going to see a lot of zone.”