Nets display maturity in ripping Suns
PHOENIX — Slowly but surely, the young Nets are growing up. With games against the two best teams in the Western Conference looming, the Nets played a winnable game Tuesday night against the Suns. And they went out and won it 104-82, at Talking Stick Resorts Arena, grinding out a physically dominant rout they never could have fashioned a year ago. The Nets (5-6) have won back-to-back games for their best 11-game start since 2012-13. They got a game-high 26 points from rising guard Caris LeVert, but most of all the young Nets did it by manhandling Phoenix with the second-stingiest defensive effort in the NBA this season.
The Nets — dead last in the NBA in forcing turnovers a year ago — harassed the Suns into 20. They snatched 13 offensive rebounds, had a 54-30 edge in the paint and — when they saw a 15-point thirdquarter lead shrink to five — calmly responded and padded it back to 22.
No panic. No drama. No contest.
“We’re just more active. Twenty turnovers, we talked about that in the offseason, improving our activity. That’s our mental maturation, a physical maturation,” said coach Kenny Atkinson, whose Nets drilled Philadelphia by 25 on Sunday and have posted consecutive 20point routs for the first time since 2012-13.
“We’re growing up in terms of our physicality on the defensive end. Teams are going to make a run in this league; that’s a talented team. We took it calmly, we didn’t panic. ... I was really pleased with our physicality.”
The Nets were physical all night, holding Devin Booker (20 points) to 6-of-21 shooting and No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton (15 points) to 6-of-17.
“When you’re playing against a team like this and you get a 14- or 16-point lead, you want to put those teams away, give them no hope,” Ed Davis said. “We had them down and we kept them down. That’s why we came out with the win.”
Davis had nine points and 12 rebounds, but he wasn’t alone. Jarrett Allen (10 points, nine boards, five assists) was stout, while LeVert and Spencer Dinwiddie (12 points, five rebounds, plus-20) harassed Booker.
“Keeping a team under 90 is crazy. What’d they have, 82? That has to be top-five lowest scoring total of the season,” Davis said. “It was a hell of a game for us defensively. We needed that against this team with their offense and on the road. This is good for us.”
It was second-best actually, behind only the Trail Blazers’ 111-81 thrashing of the Timberwolves on Sunday. The Nets close out this road trip at Minnesota on Monday after facing Denver and Golden State, a big reason they needed this win. And they got it in stifling fashion.
At one point Allen Crabbe missed not one but two layup attempts. He hustled to rebound both, however, and keep the play alive, kicking the ball back out to Spencer Dinwiddie, who found Joe Harris for a jumper and 33-25 lead.
The Nets still led 63-49 when they yielded a 9-0 run, a Trevor Ariza 3-pointer slicing the cushion to five with 5:31 left in the third. But Jared Dudley hit a 3 to stanch the bleeding, then found LeVert for another in the corner to pad the lead back to 71-60 with 4:01 left in the third. They kept padding it from there.
“As a team defensively we’re pretty good when we limit the other team to one shot. But in this league you can’t give teams second and third opportunities. For us that’s going to be the challenge going forward,” LeVert said.
“Booker was the main focus for us. We just tried to make every shot tough, make every catch tough. We really did a good job of that. … Going forward that’s what it’s going to take. It wasn’t just one person guarding him; it was the full team.”