Phoenix Suns forward Mikal Bridges, center, shoots between Portland Trail Blazers center Enes Kanter, left, and security guard Damian Lillard during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Portland, Oregon, Thursday, March 11, 2021. (AP Photo / Craig Mitchelldyer)
There are many different identities that an NBA team can have to achieve great success in the regular season.
The blueprint for the Phoenix Suns, who have contributed to a handful of their now 25 wins of the season, stick around in matches, fight and don’t get confused before hitting when the opportunity arises in the second half. From there, one of the two All-Stars or both will do the rest.
That was the story on Thursday night in Portland for a 127-121 victory over the Trail Blazers.
“Guys came into the gym and we had unreal juice and a steady attitude and I thought that was what happened to our team tonight,” said head coach Monty Williams. “We just stayed on track … We just haven’t had any meltdowns at all.”
After clawing back in the first half to level the game at half, the Suns were again 11 behind in the middle of the third quarter. That’s where their great second unit led by point guard Cameron Payne and center Dario Saric made a 26-11 run to put Phoenix at four.
After a few free throws by Damian Lillard for Portland, All-Star point guard Chris Paul scored or assisted the Suns for the next seven runs. The other All-Star, gunman Devin Booker, took over from there. He scored or assisted 10 of Phoenix’s next 12 points.
“Book had a rack where he carried us offensively,” Williams said.
The ease of that process is greatly aided by a very good defense, which put that one-two punch to seal the game on a 13-point Suns-edge with 2:40. Most importantly, the game largely stayed out of minutes considered clutch, where Lillard has been supernova this year.
Booker finished with 35 points, five rebounds, and eight assists on 12-for-21 shots. He had one of those nights where you could tell he felt his team might need that extra bit of great play from him to win. He delivered that, all with a buttocks left knee that had him listed as questionable on the injury report.
Paul said with a laugh after the game that after his daily conversations with Booker during the break, he didn’t think his defensive buddy was going to play.
‘He’s different. Really, really. He’s different, ”said Paul. “Not just the fact that he played tonight, but also the smooth 35 he had tonight. Me and Jae Crowder were just talking about it. He is different. “
Booker hurt that knee again late in the fourth quarter. He was clearly in pain after falling to the ground, but limped through and stayed in the game. He said after the game that the time was “lighter” than the last and that he is “straight”.
Paul was one of seven Suns players in double figures with 19 points, five rebounds, and seven assists. The Suns fired 59.0% from the field and 54.2% (13-of-24) at three-point range.
Lillard needs a lot of defensive attention, so if his supporting cast makes defense worthwhile, that’s going to be one of the most important recipes for the Blazers’ success. That was the case early on.
Lillard made either shots or the right play from ball screens that Deandre Ayton of the Suns played well in his spot. As part of the game plan, Ayton crawled a bit higher to deny Lillard a lot of space and stuck on him when he had to deny his path to the edge. Ayton who did that, however, left Portland’s Enes Kanter on boxouts.
“To counter Dame’s ability to fire from the supermarket, give up three seconds on the back and offensive rebounds,” said Williams.
Kanter is a force on the glass and proved it in the first quarter. He took misses or the Blazers made them with a good secondary ball movement from Lillard’s first reading. Portland had seven of the 15 offensive rebounds in the first quarter, and Kanter had six in total.
This resulted in a great one and a half quarters of the Blazers, who at the time were 10-of-20 shots from 3, and Phoenix trailing 13. The Suns got a few minor things wrong on that trajectory, but the key principles such as ball movement in attack and rotations in defense were in place.
So a strong individual effort or two would likely land a run, and indeed it did in a wave by Booker and Mikal Bridges.
A 16-4 run to end the first half and even the match featured eight points and an assist from Booker plus five extra points through Bridges, who led all the goalscorers at half time with 16 of his 18 points.
In the third quarter, the Blazers made a small adjustment to continue with Ayton by involving him in their actions again. Lillard made a few tough shots of that, and when Saric came in front of Ayton in the third quarter with 4:12 to go, Ayton did not return.
That was despite the big guy getting a few buckets in the third quarter, and while Portland headed for him, he was usually fine at night, aside from a few hand troubles with the basketball. Ayton recorded 23 minutes, his lowest total of the season that was not in one fell swoop, and added 11 points with four rebounds.
Saric scored 11 points, five rebounds and two assists. He gave the Suns a constant source of good insult in the post, capitalizing on mismatches while defending his own defense.
“A lot of teams end up switching from 1 to 5 and with someone like Dario who can punish them inside, they can’t do that,” Booker said.
Like Good morning. It’s from basketball Tom Ziller notes that there are multiple ways of looking at the dynamics of who’s closing in on the 5, given the Suns’ ambitions for the postseason.
Williams finished in three games with Saric for the second time after going back to Ayton continuously this year and the latter is again remarkable. It should also be looked at as the luxury offered to Phoenix thanks to Saric’s great play that should earn him some love for the sixth man of the year.
Speaking of that award, let’s get Payne some recognition there too. He was a ridiculous plus-24 in 20 minutes, scoring 13 points, three rebounds, six assists and a bargain.
Lillard finished the night with 30 points, seven rebounds, eight assists and two steals in 10-of-23 shootings, and it felt like the Suns were doing just about anything to limit what he does, which appeals to his superstar.
In that regard, the Suns (25-11) have now beaten the Blazers (21-15) twice, holding the tiebearker above them in the standings. Furthermore, they ran into a strong Western opponent twice and did well.
Paul was asked if the Suns would take that into account at all, and the future Hall of Famer soon commented that Portland was without CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkie, saying they should focus on themselves.
His team has been pretty good at that, a surprising trait for the group to give everyone outside of Paul and Crowder a lack of experience with winning teams.
He talked about how they can do it, while also pointing out that the suns will really show what they stand for as the hot piece of 17 wins in their last 20 ends.
“I believe that confidence. I think our coaching staff, the culture of our team – we just got a great bunch of guys, man, I’m telling you, ”said Paul. “And to see how well Cam Payne has played when he’s out there, we’ve just got one of those teams where everyone is cheering for everyone. Everyone is happy for everyone. It’s fun.
“We will experience some difficult times, some setbacks. When that setback hits, I think it will really be put to the test then, but the spirit is certainly good in this team. “