Suns stay unbeaten in bubble
The Phoenix Suns have been the hottest team in the NBA since seeding games began and they kept rolling right along Monday, beating the Thunder 128-101.
While Suns star Dev in Booker was excellent against the Thunder, with 35 points on 9-of-17 shooting, Phoenix has also gotten production from plenty of other places during its six-game winning streak in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
Monday, that included 14 points from former Thunder Cameron Payne.
“We've committed to a style of play (and) we've been able to adapt to different situations,” said Suns coach Monty Willi ams, who was an Oklahoma City assistant in 2015-16. “This bubble has been like two training camps for us to be able to have a couple weeks of practice and then games against the best teams in the league. We haven't accomplished anything. It may sound like coach speech, but we dug ourselves a hole with our record. We scratched all year long, we won some games, but it's been an uphill battle for us.”
The Suns are averaging 120 points per game during the restart. Booker is averaging more than 30.
“He certainly has scored at a very elite level,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said of Booker. “But he' s getting other guys involved as well. I think that's why you see them scoring as many points as they do.”
With games remaining against Philadelphia and Dallas, the Suns are one game out of the eight spot in the Western Conference.
An eighth- or ninth-place finish would put the Suns in the Western Conference playin series beginning Saturday.
“It' s been fun ,” Book er said .“We've been playing really good basketball and we've been having fun on and off the court with each other. We're becoming closer, we're learning from each other, we're communicating for each other.”
Phoenix has not made the playoffs since 2010.
Tip-off set
The Thunder' s Friday seeding game finale against the Clippers will be played at 5:30 p.m ., the NBA announced Monday.
The game will be broadcast locally on Fox Sports Oklahoma and nationally on ESPN.
Ayton arrives late
Fighting for a playoff spot, the Suns were without their second-leading scorer for the start of Monday's game against the Thunder.
Deandre Ayton's arrival at The Field House was delayed after Ayton missed a COVID-19 test Sunday.
Ayton tested Monday, but couldn't head to the arena until the testing results came in. Once Ayton was cleared, he headed to the arena and was on the floor for the start of the second quarter.
Williams said remembering to be tested every day can be difficult at times.
“I'll test in the morning and we'll get to about four or five o'clock and I'll ask myself questions like, `Did I test?' You just get confused by it,” Williams said. “And I know I'm not the only one who's done that.
“We've said in the NBA season guys are going to make mistakes. You have to be able to give people grace. It wasn't intentional.”
Much of the questioning of Williams after the game was about Ayton's missed test.
Eventually, Williams grew weary of the questioning when he was asked if he ever considered holding Ayton out.
“It's over with,” Williams said. “I'm not going to get into what I was going to do if ... it's over with.”
Ayt on finished with 10 points and six rebounds.