PHOENIX — This is the time of year when things will get a bit wonky but you didn’t expect it to affect the Phoenix Suns as much as it has.
Once the All-Star break is in sight, a lot of teams take their foot off the gas a bit, as is a byproduct of being human. But the Suns seemed like the exception, which showed for most of Tuesday’s 120-111 win over the Dallas Mavericks before it got way too hairy.
After a meltdown in Thursday’s loss to the Golden State Warriors ensued via two points in the final seven-plus minutes, Phoenix (32-22) flirted with the idea again.
The Suns led by as many as 31 points in the first half, and even though a late first-half Mavericks flurry cut it to 17, that advantage was never really threatened until the closing stages of the game.
When Phoenix went up 17 at just under eight minutes to go, it scored five points over the next six-plus minutes to see the lead fall all the way to six. Middies from Devin Booker and Dillon Brooks closed it out, but that being necessary at all was in some ways a failure.
Like the Warriors loss, Brooks overheated while the offense stalled out.
He does not pass the ball nearly enough in general and it really stands out in those situations. Once a few shots didn’t go down, that did not stop him. It’s simply how Brooks is with how big his role is, so maybe there’s a tough conversation coming at some point that he’s got to cool down in tight moments, but he’s also been the man for Phoenix through some of those moments too.
For now, it’s just a part of The Dillon Brooks Experience to expect.
But with that said, head coach Jordan Ott alluded to how conversations do and will take place for possessions that end like a few did in the final frame.
“You’re just trying to get the best shot possible every possession. So if it didn’t end in a high-quality shot and we had time left on the clock, we’ll talk about it,” Ott said.
Booker was 7-of-16 shooting for 19 points with six assists and three turnovers while Jalen Green was 5 for 14 off the bench for 12 points. Green was at 20 minutes off the bench while Booker played 32. Both of them are clearly still not 100% yet.
Ryan Dunn also had a dozen, the first time in 33 appearances he cracked double-digit scoring. It was his best performance in weeks, with Ott correctly identifying the “force” and “confidence” Dunn had Tuesday.
“I thought tonight he was fantastic,” Ott said.
Dallas (19-34), which is now on an eight-game losing streak, did not have much juice to start this one. The Suns always keep it well stocked, and while the Mavericks did fight back once it got ugly, it did still get ugly.
Brooks scored a season-high 15 of his 23 points (11 for 26) in the first quarter, and then Green picked up where he left off with nine of his 12 points plus an assist. The lead was already 20 by the end of that frame and it quickly got up to 30-plus, with an evident lack of defensive intensity on display from Dallas.
The Mavericks on the season rank 28th in offense and 12th in defense, but across this skid, they have totally lost that level of defense.
Dallas was heavily relying on transition to get anything on the board and its downhill driving was not effective in the half court.
When the lead expanded to 31 in the mid-second quarter, Phoenix cruised too soon and gave up an 18-4 run in the last 4:15 of the first half.
The second half was defined by if another surge like that materialized or not, because if one did, we were going to have a game on our hands. And we wound up having one for at least a few possessions.
The only reason Dallas was in this game at all was the free-throw line.
It was 44-9 Mavericks in attempts.
It should just never be that lopsided no matter how much more physical one team is defensively than the other, or how much of a better driving team one is than the other. That is reflected by history, where a differential of 35 or greater hasn’t happened in the last five seasons and just six times in the previous 15 years, per Stathead.
“We saw it the whole night,” Ott said. “Everyone in the arena felt it. That stoppage of play, then to go play again. … It was frustrating for everyone. I don’t think anyone that was watching that was probably too happy that they spent the time watching all those whistles. I don’t know we’ll take a look, just like everyone else hopefully does.”
A very light whistle did not help, with any ticky-tack foul involving contact inspiring a stoppage.
Brooks got his 15th technical of the season in the fourth quarter. He definitely earned it but we’ll see if the discrepancy helps his chances of seeing it rescinded. He claimed all he said was pointing out how many fouls each official was calling. It is close to the NBA All-Star break for the officials too, who need it more than anyone right now.
Amir Coffey, half of the return in the Nick Richards trade, made his Suns debut at the start of the second quarter. He contributed six points in 13 minutes that included a surprising amount of time in the fourth quarter when Dallas started clawing back.
With both Grayson Allen (right knee sprain) and Isaiah Livers (left shoulder sprain) out until at least the All-Star break, a rare ability to practice to begin the week opened the door for Coffey to get some run. The seventh-year wing spent his first six years with the Los Angeles Clippers, where he slowly built himself up into a moderately reliable rotation piece.
Coffey then signed a one-year minimum deal with Milwaukee, where he lost his rotation spot to open the season fairly fast.
He’s been successful while well-insulated within a team that has a clear identity, so perhaps this pit stop is what can get him back on track. And while it’s not the high-end size the Suns could use on the wing, he’s still bigger than almost everyone on the perimeter at 6-foot-7.
Of note, Coffey had a wide-open catch in the corner and did not shoot the ball, a reminder of how little we see anyone do that on the Suns. He’s going to have to knock that off to get legitimate minutes.
Ott said pregame that both Booker and Green are in that Mark Williams tier of evaluations for back-to-backs, meaning the team will give them a hard look on Wednesday morning to determine if both are indeed good to go for the Oklahoma City matchup. Booker rushed himself back from a fairly severe ankle sprain, while Green still doesn’t have enough games under his belt yet to have built up that type of security.
Cole Anthony is still not with the team after he was also a part of the Richards move. Arizona Sports’ John Gambadoro has reported Anthony is not expected to be a part of the Suns.
It makes sense for Phoenix given it’s glut of guards already and the need to open roster spots for the two-way guys, while Anthony could also have better opportunities at playing time elsewhere. The timing could take time to materialize, as there is some CBA mumbo-jumbo that will help the Suns if they wait like they have been already.
Fresh off the Anthony Davis trade, the Mavericks were without Kyrie Irving (ACL tear) and Dereck Lively II (right foot surgery), as well as Klay Thompson (rest).
Dallas will want to tank because its upcoming first-round pick is the last it possesses of its own until 2031, on top of how special the top of this upcoming draft class is. The problem is the Mavericks might be too good to do that. They didn’t ship out a handful of useful role players that, along with Flagg, will find a way to rack up victories, although these last two weeks have defied that notion some.
Dallas at the end of Tuesday’s action sat with the seventh-best lottery odds, 4.5 games back of third, where the odds for a top-four pick are equally 52.1%. It hasn’t given an indication yet they will tank as aggressively as some other organizations currently are, and will need to in order to move up.
This tanking race will be relevant to the Suns with how much lighter it will make the schedule. When looking at the top-10 teams in lottery odds that own their pick, Phoenix has nine more games left against those squads.