Suns turn into contender
Team learns a few things during grind
The Suns’ 118-110 road win over the red-hot Knicks shows us what kind of team they are and what might lie ahead, columnist Kent Somers writes.
The NBA season is an arduous, months-long slog that gives teams plenty of reasons to write off poor performances.
The end of a long road trip. The second of back-to-back games. Injuries. Managing loads.
There are times in every season, however, when teams show us who they are by either planting their feet and straightening their backs, or by embracing the excuses and cowering.
Monday night at Madison Square Garden was such a time for the Suns.
The end of a long road trip. The second of back-to-back games. Facing the Knicks, who had won nine consecutive games.
The Suns showed us who they are, what they stand for and what might lie ahead with a 118-110 victory.
“We wanted to turn an O.K. trip into a good trip,” guard Devin Booker said. They did.
The victory gave them a 3-2 record on a road trip that featured games against five of the top six teams in the Eastern Conference. It also alleviated concerns created by the previous two games, losses to the Celtics and Nets, when their offense prompted a question Suns fans had often from 2016 to 2019.
Do the Suns have anyone other than Booker who can score?
Coach Monty Williams knew the five-game road trip would produce at least one such moment. The best coaches, and Williams is in that category, effectively sell those times as opportunities.
“You’d be hard pressed to find many teams who have had to go out and play this kind of schedule, strength of schedule, on the road, back to backs,” he said of the five-game stretch.
“I think we’ve grown on this trip. We’ve been stressed. I think we’re going to come out of this a much-improved team, just from environment, experience, understanding what playoff basketball is going to look like. Those things can only help your team.”
Williams said that 90 minutes before tip-off against the Knicks. Three-anda-half hours later, those words seemed prophetic.
Nothing about the victory was easy. The Knicks led by 12 four minutes in and by 15 early in the second quarter.
Suns forward Cam Johnson missed his first seven three-pointers, most of them with no Knick pestering him. Mikal Bridges missed two similar looks. Deandre Ayton scored only four points in the half and Chris Paul eight.
Booker’s 20 points kept the Suns tethered to the Knicks, but the two previous losses made clear it would not work long term.
Could anyone else, beside course, score when stressed?
It was a question at halftime Monday, and it will be again in the playoffs, because so many of the Suns haven’t experienced the post-season.
The answer Monday was encouraging. Bridges got hot. Johnson made shots on his eighth, ninth and 10th three-point attempts. Ayton added five points and six rebounds in the third quarter.
When they were struggling Monday evening, those players heard nothing
Paul,
of from Williams.
“I don’t say anything to the guys about offense,” Williams said. “You never want to mess with a guy’s thinking. Our guys work. Reps remove doubt. You just have to trust.
Their teammates, however, urged them to keep shooting. We need you, Booker said.
They came through and Paul closed the game by scoring seven points on three shots, two of which many players wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) take, much less make.
Asked what it was like to have Paul on his team in those moments, Booker said, “It’s insurance.”
Booker said it without a smile or a wink, so it wasn’t a reference to Paul’s side gig with State Farm.
The Knicks victory, Booker predicted, would make the plane flight home more enjoyable. But stress awaits in Phoenix, too.
The Suns, who have the secondbest record in the NBA and in the Western Conference, play the Clippers, who have the-third best record, Wednesday night. The No. 1 team, the Jazz, visit Friday night, and seven of the Suns final nine games of the regular season are on the road.
“We still know what we’re up against when we arrive home,” Booker said.
Like a muscle stressed by a workout, the Suns should emerge from the road a trip a little tougher, stronger and more confident.
The last two weeks of the regular season will be filled with the news of clinched playoff spots and seedings, and chances are the younger Suns are going to hear plenty about staying grounded in the moment.
It’s a philosophy Paul summed up this way after the Knicks game.
“Just work. See what happens.”