Suns look to build off impressive win
Team responds after OKC loss to blast Golden State
Monty Williams isn’t a doofus. He’s far from it, but Williams said that’s how he felt after Wednesday night’s disappointing loss to Oklahoma City at Phoenix Suns Arena.
“I felt like I was letting the guys down,” Williams said.
Instead of staying in that mood, Williams did what he’s always done.
Get back to work and prepare his team the best way he knows how.
“Sometimes I have to say things that people may not want to hear, but it’s the best thing for them,” he said. “... I haven’t been enforcing that the way that I typically would.”
The Suns responded with one of their better performances of the season in blasting Golden State, 114-93, Thursday night without injured AllStar guard Devin Booker.
“Coach got on us, and we came out there and executed,” Suns wing Mikal Bridges said.
Williams said Booker worked out Thursday, but didn’t “move around in a dynamic fashion just yet.”
The Suns want to see how Booker responds the next couple of days. With Friday being a travel day and no practice after a back-to-back, Booker is listed out for Saturday’s game at Dallas, but could be ready for Monday’s matchup against the Mavericks.
Phoenix (9-8) snapped a threegame losing skid, but being barely
over .500 shows it is still a work in progress. Here’s a look back at splitting its recent home back-to-back and ahead to two games at Dallas in a span of three days.
Doncic not enough
The Mavericks’ Luka Doncic enters the season as a preseason NBA MVP candidate, but Phoenix won the first game between them on Dec. 23, as Chris Paul and Booker hit late jumpers to seal the 106-102 victory.
Doncic got his – 32 points, eight rebounds and five assists. He’s continued to deliver this season, but the Mavs are below .500 even with Kristaps Porzingis returning from a knee injury he suffered in last season’s playoffs in the bubble.
The Mavs have time to figure it out, but Doncic has been special in nearly averaging a triple double going into Friday’s games – 27.4 ppg., 9.7 apg., 9.4 rpg.
He’s truly become of the league’s top players. The Suns will have multiple defenders on him starting with Mikal Bridges, but he’s likely going to get his. Doncic is that good.
However, Dallas has been inconsistent.
The Mavs beat the Los Angeles Clippers by a ridiculous 51, topped Denver in overtime and upended Indiana, but have lost twice to Chicago (7-10) and once to Charlotte.
They’re a playoff team not playing like one.
Having Doncic gives them a chance to not only get there, but do serious damage.
Whether they will is the question.
Player of Wednesday’s loss: Chris Paul
Oh he was in his bag.
Trash talking. Dribbling exhibitions. Splashing jumpers.
With Booker and backup point Cameron Payne (right foot sprain) sidelined, and Deandre Ayton having a way off night after four consecutive monster double-doubles, Paul tried to carry the Suns as he scored 32 points against his former team.
That wasn’t enough.
The Suns shot 37.9% from the field, missing 16 consecutive 3s, in defeat.
They only scored 10 points in the second quarter as Oklahoma City closed the half on a 24-4 run to take a 45-42 lead. Jae Crowder scored 17 points and Abdel Nader came off the bench with 12 against his former team, but Phoenix melted down the stretch.
‘Respect your opponent’
This was perhaps loss of the season.
In reaction, Williams displayed the most anger after a loss in his time in Phoenix, but Paul sent a message that once again showed why he’s considered a great leader.
“We’ve got to respect who we’re playing against every night,” Paul said.
The next night, Williams approved that thought.
“When you play the first quarter the way that we did and then you look at the second, it looked like two different teams,” Williams said as Phoenix led by as many as 15 in the first quarter. “That’s a disrespect for the game and your opponent to think that you can go back out there on the floor and totally forget what works.”
The Suns responded with a big win over Golden State Thursday.
While Williams set the tone for how Phoenix played, Paul sent a message that the Suns needed to hear, too.
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Player of Thursday’s win: Frank Kaminsky III
Bridges bounced back from a subpar game with a team-high 20 points. He was aggressive, went 7-of-8 from the line and did an overall solid job defending Stephen Curry, who finished with a game-high 27, but managed only 14 after the first quarter.
The Suns also did the job on Kelly Oubre Jr., who in his first game against the Suns since the Paul trade had just four points on 1-of-11 shooting (0-for-5 on 3s).
All five Suns starters reached double figures. Crowder scored 16 points. Cam Johnson and Paul each added 13 while Ayton went for 12 and 13 boards after that dud effort against OKC.
Nader kept providing scoring punch off the bench with a season-high 16, but Kaminsky III was a difference maker in nearly posting his first career tripledouble.
Plus his answer to a question about attempting to make personal history was hilarious.
“When you got teammates like Mikal, who are missing layups trying to dunk the ball as opposed to laying it in and Doolie (Nader) smoking layups, it makes it a little bit harder,” a smiling Kaminsky said.
Kaminsky had a career-high eight assists to go along with 12 points and 13 rebounds to match Ayton’s game-high effort.
He went at second overall pick James Wiseman and didn’t turn the ball over in helping Phoenix make up for Dario Saric and Damian Jones missing a sixth straight game under the NBA’s health and safety protocols.
Depth being put to use
With Saric, Jones, Booker and Payne out, Williams has had to adjust his rotations.
In doing so, bench.
Williams played Langston Galloway and E’Twaun Moore the meaningful minutes while Jevon Carter didn’t see action until the game was well decided.
Nader has emerged, but with the way COVID-19 and injuries have already impacted the season, who plays and how much could change at any time.
Crowder lost his starting job, but returned to that unit when Booker got hurt. When Booker returns, Williams will have to sit Crowder or Johnson.
Payne may be sidelined for a while as he’s tried to play through pain. Payne missed two games with a right ankle sprain and sat the last two with a right foot sprain.
“It just hasn’t healed the way we’ve wanted it to,” Williams said Thursday. “We just feel like giving him more time off is going to be the best thing so he can get over this hump.”
Williams later said they’ll have to “put some lineups on the floor that may not be conventional, but we can learn some things.”
Phoenix went into the season feeling good about its depth.
It is being put to use right now – and will play a role in how the season unfolds.
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