Phoenix Suns center Deandre Ayton, left, fouls Miami Heat Guard Gabe Vincent during the second half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, March 23, 2021 in Miami. (AP Photo / Jim Rassol)
Victories for the Phoenix Suns like Tuesday’s 110-100 final over the Miami Heat are the team could use more of.
They were tested by a good team on the road, with Miami (22-22) counterattacking in the late third quarter after the Suns (29-13) played a great 14-minute trajectory from the middle of the second quarter to the leaves third with an increase of a whopping 22.
Phoenix was only leading 12 at one point in the early fourth quarter when that hit came, and a combination of the second unit and Deandre Ayton needed to stabilize.
They did, and that was all Miami had in it. The Suns have shown a great trait in a handful of wins over good teams, where they keep getting punches to the chin, and then in the fourth quarter there are no more shots to throw in front of the opponent. That wearing effect is the quality of a tough, tough team.
Ayton had one of his best games of the season and, for the first time in over a month, had some kind of two-way impact that is only encouraging.
“His pick and roll coverage was really good,” said head coach Monty Williams of Ayton’s defense. “His attention to the edge of not being dirty, raising his hands and making it difficult… those are dominant performances. I just thought his focus was on a high level. “
Ayton finished with 17 points, 16 rebounds, three assists and three blocks.
“When he plays with that kind of strength and focus, it gives us a chance to be that type of defense team that you’ve seen tonight,” said Williams.
Devin Booker had his strike and converted on some difficult shots to log 23 points.
Four of the Suns’ five starters were at least plus-19, a great development given the season-opening lineup’s surprising struggle to consistently outperform opponents. Phoenix had 29 assists for seven turnovers.
The Suns kept star Heatguard Jimmy Butler on 14 points on 11 shots, leaving one of the world’s best off the foul line after averaging more than eight free throws per night in his last 10 games. Williams said avoiding fringe mistakes was part of the game plan. Butler also had five sales.
Williams was able to play Booker, Chris Paul and Jae Crowder all under 30 minutes with a game in Orlando on Wednesday, while Ayton and Mikal Bridges played 34 each.
In a close game to a quarter and a half, there was a mid-second swing where that aforementioned Suns wave came from.
If you’ve been watching or listening, you may have missed the specific piece you attributed it to.
Williams said after a recent home game that Paul has a combination of feeling and instinct for stealing that he has never seen before.
Paul, almost like a distant basketball ghost in some butterfly effect-like strokes, will often influence and redirect the flow of a game with one or two plays you can only imagine he would make. Right now it just seems like an intoxicating play. But when you look back on it, it can sometimes turn out to be a turning point.
Heat rookie Precious Achiuwa was unbalanced and missed a rabbit after a swipe by Paul in the middle of the second quarter with the Suns leading three, then Paul took the rebound.
Paul kicked that rebound forward for a final lob to Booker, then set up Bridges for free throws with a nasty behind-the-back feed down next time.
After that rebound pic.twitter.com/ORmP3ESWzt
– Kellan Olson (@KellanOlson) March 24, 2021
The Suns ended the first half with a 16-4 run after that first shot by Achiuwa that would have put Miami on a point.
Would it have happened without that swipe and the next two passages by Paul? Could be. But it’s one of those things that was a pleasure to notice by watching Paul every night and that is a testament to his status as a point guard.
Sometimes it’s a lot more than the box score suggests on an eight point and nine assist night.
Most of that great sprint had to do with the big guy.
Part of the reason Ayton was such a confusing young player to watch this year isn’t just because he’s inconsistent. Sure, the source of its inconsistency is a mystery, but inconsistent players can still be fairly easy to pinpoint.
Ayton has not been the case this season as his performance has been more erratic from shift-to-shift in a game and his mistakes are at times revolting. He looked like a rookie at times in his first few weeks of joining the NBA. It’s bizarre.
However, the player we saw on Tuesday was back on track with last season. When Ayton brought activity to the attack glass and got the ball early, that would usually get him going more often than not. That was the case against the Heat.
While Miami shifted heavily, the Suns tried to involve Ayton from the jump. And in arguably the best development of the entire evening for him, things didn’t go well early on. He was blocked by Butler on his first shot, missed the second, and Butler pulled the chair to Ayton on the third attempt to get him to travel.
Instead of snowballing Ayton, he kept trying to earn a post position and it eventually paid off. He made his next three shots.
From there, he kept a presence that bounced back and rolled toward the basket as he did his job defensively.
And when it goes beyond “doing his job defensively” to really affect most assets, he plays great basketball.
The third quarter was one of the best shifts in Ayton’s career.
Crowder said that because of the way Ayton moves, they can exploit that as a team to make them a top defense team, because Ayton is not just a one-dimensional defender on ball fencing. Crowder said there is “a sense” that Ayton can get better by putting himself in the right position, such as when to be in certain places, when to crash the attacking glass, when to run, and so on.
That feeling fully converged in that shift.
Ayton said it a lot to get into that kind of zone knows the staff and communicates with his defenders in the area, something Crowder said they have put constant emphasis on Ayton and he has improved.
“We communicated defensively throughout the game, which brought the intensity and the sense of urgency tonight,” Ayton said.
Ayton changed almost every shot on the edge over a period of eight minutes.
When Ayton got off the floor, the Suns lead had exploded to 22. And after Dario Saric caught his fifth error in the early fourth quarter and the Suns’ advantage was reduced to 15, Ayton was the starter who came back with the reserves and made sure the game was in safe hands.
The expectations are too high to set given the lows of Ayton’s third year, but if that’s the player who can make it to the Suns in the playoffs, they can go all the way.
“In an ideal world I actually want even more … For me I am never satisfied with him, because there is so much,” said Williams about Ayton.