PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns have found it, a level of competitiveness and enthusiasm that during most of the season was totally absent at any threshold, let alone the heights it is reaching now.
Time will tell the depths to which “it” changes their season, but for now, it’s doing a whole hell of a lot.
Phoenix beat the Milwaukee Bucks 108-106 on Monday, its fourth straight win and second in a row playing a tremendous brand of basketball against a quality opponent.
“I just like that we’re just standing on our identity of playing hard, playing for each other even more,” Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant said. “I felt like we had good intentions throughout the year trying to do things the right way, but I think we’re more decisive (with) what we want to do on both ends which is making us closer as a team.”
That is not a score typo. The Suns came into the night 5-17 when scoring under 110 points, thanks largely to an inability to win through their defense. They did that on Monday.
“Each possession we’re communicating better, we’re scrambling better, we’re rebounding better and we’re keeping the ball in front,” Durant said. “We do those things, those are core things that we do on the defensive side of the ball that pretty much dictates the whole game for us.”
The Suns opened the game with three turnovers in four possessions while Milwaukee was generating outstanding looks early, an early indication that this was going to be a slugfest for Phoenix if it were to come away with a victory.
That is indeed what it turned into, and the Suns went blow for blow with a great basketball team tossing those punches often.
There was never a double-digit lead for either squad, and from the 6:46 mark of the third quarter to 5:41 remaining, it was a one-possession game. That streak was snapped by a Suns 3-pointer from Ryan Dunn that followed his cutting baseline jam to extend Phoenix’s edge to six.
The Suns have been direly lacking the consistency to keep a game like this so tight throughout, shooting themselves in the foot time after time in a signature stretch that decided a very intense affair. And while they absolutely had some goofs and gaffes across the game, as evidenced by the Bucks’ 27 points off Phoenix’s 16 turnovers, the Suns played hard enough through them for the impact to sting far less.
“We just tried to get over that hump. … We kind of held our hat on the defensive side of the ball. … When we have droughts scoring the ball, our defense gotta hold up,” Durant said.
After the Suns got up seven shortly later, Milwaukee ripped off a 7-0 run to tie the game, capped off by a Giannis Antetokounmpo 3. Phoenix retook the lead, and in a direct example of Suns mistakes not defining the outcome, Durant fouled Kyle Kuzma for a four-point play to make it 105-103 Bucks with 1:22 to go.
A miss for each squad followed on some chaotic possessions forced by awesome defense, and off Milwaukee’s the ball found Durant curling to his right at the top of the key. He took a page out of Antetokounmpo’s book and lowered his shoulder into Kuzma to create separation for a triple to retake the lead.
Antetokounmpo then drove downhill, forcing three help defenders to contain the path to the basket, leading to a pass to Brook Lopez eight feet out on the baseline who went up strong to earn a foul. Lopez split the free throws to tie it.
Milwaukee was concerned with a sideline out of bounds play drawn up for Durant and rightfully so because that’s what it was.
Devin Booker screened Antetokounmpo to force a second of recovery work by his defender, which allowed Booker to run up to the logo for a clean catch in a play Booker said postgame was straight out of the Team USA playbook from last summer. Booker’s defender Gary Trent Jr. bizarrely tried to cut off the passing angle to gamble around Oso Ighodaro’s screen, leaving Lopez to defend Booker on a side-step middy Booker could have closed his eyes for as soon as he planted his feet to rise and fire.
Suns beat the Bucks, Book called game pic.twitter.com/m6G4yUiYXG
— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) March 25, 2025
The Bucks’ execution of whatever was drawn up down two with 1.7 seconds left was poor, forcing Lopez into a difficult 20-foot fallaway he nearly made, but it clanked off back rim to end the night.
Genuinely am trying to figure out wtf the plan was here for the Bucks in this ATO at the end of the game.
Maybe a screener the screener exchange for AJ? Maybe AJ just thought Giannis was Richards and was trying to screen him for Giannis to come back to the ball? pic.twitter.com/osoaA1P0gD
— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) March 25, 2025
The Bucks were without Damian Lillard (right calf soreness) and that hasn’t prevented them from winning this year. They are now 8-5 when he’s out, including a 5-3 record when Antetokounmpo is still in. He finished with 31 points (12-of-19), 10 rebounds, five assists and two turnovers. Antetokounmpo’s reads off all the extra attention his way were terrific all night and the Bucks will be disappointed with the 12-for-39 (30.8%) 3-point shooting on a lot of good looks.
Phoenix used Dunn, Ighodaro and Nick Richards on Antetokounmpo. It was a big-time team effort to contain him as much as possible for one of the many nights in which he looked like Godzilla.
“That’s a monster,” Dunn said of his first time guarding Antetokounmpo. “That’s a real-life monster.”
Durant ended up with 38 points (11-for-21), eight rebounds, five assists and five turnovers while Booker added 19 points (7-for-18), seven rebounds, 12 assists and five turnovers. Both of them were absolutely all over the floor. Booker never left fifth gear out of halftime.
Dunn continues to be straight up one of the Suns’ best players since getting back in the rotation. He contributed 12 points, nine rebounds and a poster dunk on Antetokounmpo that he will have a tough time topping the rest of his career.
RT TO MAKE RYAN DUNN’S POSTER BE SEEN BY EVERYONE 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/QmF3wj4LkV
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) March 25, 2025
“It was crazy,” Dunn said. “Book had the pass and I knew it was gonna be contested so I’m like, ‘I gotta try to dunk it on him’ and just closed my eyes and I just heard a scream when I fell. I was like, ‘Alright, I made it.’ Very cool, very cool, so hopefully I get that poster up in my house one day.”
Grayson Allen returned from a six-game absence due to a left foot strain and played 12 minutes, only the eighth time in his 54 games this season that he’s been under 20. That is a new reality for some of the season-long veterans of the team to get used to with the energy Cody Martin and the youngsters keep providing.
The Dallas Mavericks won in Anthony Davis’ return on Monday night, maintaining a mirrored 35-37 record with Phoenix for the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference.
And all of a sudden, the Sacramento Kings have dropped seven of their last nine to be at 35-36. Sacramento losing that much and Phoenix winning this much made the nine seed entirely unreasonable but that is not the case anymore. That tiebreaker won’t be cemented until the final game of the season when the two face off. Phoenix would need a win to split the head-to-head series 2-2 and force the next tiebreaker into divisional record, which the Suns already have wrapped up.