PHOENIX — It was not as squeaky clean as it was on Monday, but the Phoenix Suns took care of business against an inferior opponent on Wednesday in a 127-121 win over the Chicago Bulls.
The Suns ran out to a giant cushion in the margins that have ailed them all year, enough padding to avoid a collapse in the second half.
Midway through the third quarter, Phoenix was up 19-2 in points off turnovers, 20-2 in second-chance points and only had five turnovers. That was good enough for the Suns to lead by 21.
In that period, though, Phoenix’s defense began regressing as Chicago (29-40) started generating better looks. That persisted and then the Suns started turning the ball over more. They looked like they were going to be able to avoid any awkward closing moments a few different times, including a Devin Booker 3-pointer with 5:50 left that was part of his 20 fourth-quarter points that put Phoenix ahead by 17.
But then the Suns we’ve seen most of the year showed up, allowing an 18-4 run over 4:18 to only have a four-point advantage with 27 seconds left. Phoenix was then able to find Booker for a free layup off a sideline out of bounds play, he made two more free throws and then scored off a Bulls turnover to seal it.
“We built a good lead up throughout the whole game and that’s the NBA — they’re NBA players, they make a lot of money for a reason — and the NBA is about a game of runs,” Suns forward Kevin Durant said. “It’s gonna happen in bursts. … and that’s what happened in the fourth (quarter). … I’m sure they’re in the locker room wishing they had did that a little bit earlier but we had control over the game. It happens like that sometimes.”
Booker had 41 points, four rebounds, seven assists and four turnovers in 36 minutes while Durant added 26 points, four rebounds, eight assists and one turnover in 36 minutes.
“I’d say just making shots, playing in the flow and trying to find easy looks,” Booker said of his night. “I think we had a great first half on the defensive end and missed a lot of easy ones and let up a little bit in the second half, but we turned it back on.”
Nick Richards provided some serious numbers at center with 18 points, nine rebounds, two assists and three blocks. Rookie Ryan Dunn continues to produce with playing time, scoring 16 points in 30 minutes.
It was not a good night for the Suns’ transition defense. Chicago had 31 fastbreak points and Suns head coach Mike Budenholzer went as far as calling it a “layup drill” of sorts for the Bulls in the fourth quarter.
The Bulls, like the Raptors who were just in town on Monday, are doing that very amusing thing when their front office is tanking to some degree after selling at the deadline and in response are ripping off wins. Chicago came into Wednesday winning five of its last six games, notably doing so tied at ninth and 10th in the standings with no competitor emerging below that.
The locker room definitely has something to play for still. Coby White was the most recent Eastern Conference Player of the Week and Josh Giddey in his last nine games was averaging 23.1 points, 10.9 rebounds and 8.4 assists per game before missing over a week due to an ankle sprain.
White didn’t find a rhythm until the game was out of hand, shooting 9-of-18 for 24 points. Giddey came off the bench for 31 minutes and ended up with 22 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.
Chicago was without Lonzo Ball (right wrist sprain) and Ayo Dosunmu (left shoulder surgery). Phoenix did not have Grayson Allen (left foot strain) and Bradley Beal (left hamstring strain).
Mason Plumlee was also out due to a left quad strain, a new addition to the injury report on Tuesday that Budenholzer said pregame the Suns will know more about in a few days. It’s a significant wrinkle for the rotation because Plumlee is playing his best basketball of the season and doesn’t deserve to sit, but Phoenix needs to spend the rest of the season playing more of Richards and Oso Ighodaro for development time. Ighodaro was impactful again with four points, six rebounds and three assists in 20 minutes.
This was the first time the Suns have won two straight games since late January.
Phoenix is now tied with the Dallas Mavericks in the standings at 33-37, which would put the Suns in the postseason as the 10th seed. They own the individual tiebreakers with both Dallas and the Portland Trail Blazers (31-39), as well as the three-way tiebreaker.
Dallas nearly stole a win on the road against Indiana but fumbled away an 11-point lead with six minutes left, a meltdown that included a turnover off an inbounds pass up two with 25 seconds remaining. Portland picked up a nice victory at home over Memphis.