Payne, Booker, Bridges power Suns at home
Make that 2-0 against the defending NBA champions this season.
Cameron Payne went for a career-high 29 points, Devin Booker scored 27 and Mikal Bridges nearly posted his first career triple-double in leading Phoenix past Golden State, 130-119, Wednesday night before a sellout crowd of 17,071 at Footprint Center.
Bridges finished with 23 points, nine rebounds and a career-high nine assists in a game-high 42 minutes.
The Warriors (6-9) got a game-high 50-point eruption from Stephen Curry, made 18-of-42 from 3 as a team, but they couldn’t slow down the Suns (9-5), who snapped a two-game losing skid.
Phoenix nailed 21 shots from 3 at a 52.5% clip, both season highs.
Here are five takeaways from Wednesday’s game as the Suns go back on the road to face Utah (10-6) on Friday night.
No Payne, no win for Phoenix
He’s playing heavy minutes, battling fatigue and even took a hard foul to the floor that left him grabbing the back of his head.
And without him, the Suns would be in serious trouble.
Starting in place of the injured Chris Paul, Payne not only is scoring, but is helping the Suns play at a faster pace that leads to early, open looks, offensive rebounds and transition points.
He’s a long away from the guy who had his share of struggles last season. Now, coach Monty Williams said Payne needs to “finish the right way,” saying he has to avoid the “silliness.”
That’s part of Payne’s confidence, though, and that’s factored in him posting three 20-point games in his four starts for Paul, who is out with a sore right heel.
Sources informed The Republic that Paul is getting closer to returning, but Payne is filling in more than nicely.
The way he’s playing, interested to see if Phoenix goes to a three-guard lineup with Booker, Payne and Paul, especially if Paul is going to keep playing more off the ball.
Booker leads ‘intentional’ FT turnaround
Driving at Andrew Wiggins.
Playing bully ball in the post on Curry. Booker started the game intent on changing that free-throw disparity Phoenix dealt with in its two-game losing skid.
The All-NBA performer shot 9-of-9 from the line by himself after Phoenix attempted only nine free throws as a team at Orlando and just four at Miami to tie the second-fewest amount of attempts in a game in franchise history.
The Suns ended up going 21-of-25 Wednesday, nearly matching Miami’s 22-of-25 effort Monday night.
Booker is the team’s most aggressive player, he set the tone by getting to the
line early, but the Suns need one to two other guys minimum to do the same for Phoenix to generate more free-throw attempts.
Bridges (6-of-6) and Payne (5-of-6) were those two on Wednesday.
Late third finish
Damion Lee didn’t like the foul call. Neither did the fans.
Referee Tony Brothers didn’t like Lee’s reaction to the call.
So he gave Lee a tech with Phoenix up 11 late in the third.
The Warriors had two possessions to cut into that double-digit deficit, but JaMychal Green missed inside and Jock Landale blocked Jordan Poole’s drive.
Seven seconds later, Landale finished a transition dunk off a Booker pass to put the Suns up 12.
Forty-two seconds after that, Booker nailed a stepback 3 as Phoenix went into the fourth leading 103-89.
With the way Golden State hit 3s all night, the Suns needed that cushion going into the fourth.
Suns destroy Warriors’ defense again
Golden State coach Steve Kerr spent a great deal of his pregame press conference talking about the team’s improved defense in winning three of its previous four.
“We’re taking care of the little things better, we’re not fouling as much defensively,” Kerr said. “We’re making teams work. Not giving up as much in transition.”
Then Phoenix diced up the Warriors again for 130 points after scoring 134 on them in last month’s 29-point home victory.
Golden State had three issues defensively against the Suns.
One, ball movement. The Suns had 31 assists on Oct. 25, 33 Wednesday.
Two, 3-ball. Phoenix shot 12-of-29 from 3 on Oct. 25 and 21-of-40 on Wednesday.
Three, mismatches.
Right now, Golden State doesn’t have anyone who can guard Booker, who scored 34 on the Warriors back in October.
Klay Thompson can’t. Curry shouldn’t have to do it, but he can’t either.
Andrew Wiggins should be the answer, but maybe Andre Iguodala is when he returns from a left hip injury.
So the Warriors have to adjust, which leads to multiple shooters getting open looks.
Booker finished with nine assists to give him 16 total in two games versus Golden State.
Deandre Ayton is the other main mismatch in terms of size.
He only scored 14 on Wednesday night, but had one huge assist out of the paint to Torrey Craig for 3 that gave Phoenix an 18-point lead with 6:35 left in the game.
Craig scored 13 while Lee added nine points, hitting 3-of-3 from 3 on his former team.