Suns’ tough stretch continues vs. Clips
Monty Williams wasn’t sure how tough Phoenix’s five-game road trip was from a historic perspective, but he knew it wasn’t an ideal one.
“You’d be hard pressed to find many teams that have had to go out and play this kind of schedule, strength of schedule on the road,” Williams said. “Back-tobacks. I think we’ve grown a ton on this trip. We’ve been stressed, which allows you to grow.”
This was after losing two in a row, to Boston and East-leading Brooklyn, and before facing New York Monday, which had won its last nine games.
Monday’s game also was the conclusion of Phoenix’s second back-to-back during its week-long voyage against five of the top six teams in the Eastern Conference.
This was going to test the Suns “mental stamina,” as Williams often says.
The Suns (43-18) passed, with a 118-110 comeback win over the Knicks (34-28) at Madison Square Garden after trailing by 15 points in the first half.
“We wanted this one,” two-time AllStar Devin Booker said. “We wanted this one bad.”
Finishing the brutal road trip 3-2, Phoenix now faces the Los Angeles Clippers (43-20) and West-leading Utah (4417) in a monumental two-game homestand. The Suns’ 11-year playoff drought could officially come to an end as early as Wednesday against L.A.
Here’s a look back at that second road back-to-back and ahead to Wednesday’s showdown against the Clippers at 7 p.m. on ESPN and Bally Sports Arizona.
Phoenix has been without Jae Crowder (right ankle sprain), Dario Saric (injury management, left ankle) and Langston Galloway (personal reasons), as well as Abdel Nader, who underwent a right knee arthroscopy Monday.
Out indefinitely, Nader has missed Phoenix’s last 20 games. Crowder has sat Phoenix’s last three games while Saric and Galloway didn’t play in the last two.
Player of Sunday’s game: Torrey Craig
Not only did Phoenix score just 86 points in Thursday’s loss at Boston, Celtics center Tristan Thompson called Torrey Craig “trash” during a dust up near the end of the game.
Three days later, Craig went for 20 points and 14 rebounds, both season highs, in Sunday’s loss to Brooklyn.
Now, Craig said Thompson’s verbal taunt didn’t fuel his play. Hard to believe that, but it did help Phoenix stay in a game in which Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant combined for 67 points.
Booker scored a game-high 36 after accounting for a combined 34 in his previous two games, Deandre Ayton posted his 32nd double-double with 20 points and 13 boards, but Craig provided necessary bench punch, as Cam Johnson started for Crowder.
The next Johnson.
Scenarios
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Player of Monday’s game: Chris Paul
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Booker nearly single-handedly kept Phoenix in the game in scoring 30 of his game-high 33 points through the first three quarters.
He shot just 1-of-4 from the field in the fourth, though, in a 41-minute night on the second of a back-to-back.
Mikal Bridges broke out of a twogame 1-of-13 slump from 3 with a 3-of-6 effort in scoring 21 points with 16 coming in the second half.
Then there’s Chris Paul.
The 16-year veteran and 11-time AllStar scored Phoenix’s final seven points capped by a deep 3 over Reggie Bullock with 14.5 second left to put away the red-hot Knicks.
Bang!
The Suns have already lost the tiebreaker to the Clippers after losing at home to them in January and at Los Angeles earlier this month.
Now, they’ll meet one final time with the Clippers just a game behind the Suns.
Say they finish tied for second, or even first, in the West as Utah, without All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell (ankle), has lost two in a row to lowly Minnesota.
The Clippers would get the higher seed.
Denver (40-21) is also creeping closer and closer to the Suns.
Just three games behind Phoenix, the Nuggets own the tiebreaker over them, too.
Say they tie for third in the West. The Suns would end up fourth and likely play the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers in the first round with a healthy Anthony Davis and LeBron James.
The Lakers are fifth, as James is expected to return by next week from a high right ankle sprain he suffered March 20 against Atlanta.
So while three weeks remain in this shortened, but compact 72-game regular season, Wednesday’s Suns-Clippers game has major playoff seeding implications.