5 takeaways from Suns’ loss to Clippers
The Phoenix Suns head into the AllStar break with a 116-107 loss Thursday to the Los Angeles Clippers before a sellout crowd of 17,071 at Footprint Center.
“You want to win going into the break, but we’ve been playing pretty good basketball the last few weeks,” Suns coach Monty Williams said.
The Suns have won 11 of their last 14 games and Kevin Durant will make his Suns debut after the break as soon as Feb. 24 against Oklahoma City in Phoenix.
At least ESPN hopes so — or already knows so. Keep reading for an explanation of that.
Josh Okogie scored a team-high 24 points, going 6-of-12 from 3, for the Suns (32-28).
Devin Booker went for 19 points on 6of-16 shooting and dished out nine assists, Deandre Ayton added 18 points and Terrence Ross chipped in 16 in his Suns debut.
Chris Paul managed just five points on 2-of-8 shooting, but had a game-high 11 assists.
Terance Mann and Paul George each scored a game-high 26 to pace the Clippers (33-28), who now are fourth in the West and a half game ahead of the Suns. Kawhi Leonard added 16 points.
Here are five takeaways from Thursday that began with a morning shootaround, continued with Durant’s introductory press conference before thousands of fans at the arena and ended with a loss to the Clippers.
Durant debut
Durant wouldn’t say at Thursday’s presser when he’ll make his Suns debut other than it’ll be “soon” after the break.
“I’m going to follow the training staff and go on the schedule they got me on,” Durant said. “So hopefully soon after the break.”
Here’s what the league is saying.
The NBA sent out a schedule notice during Thursday’s game that ESPN is no longer showing the Bulls-Nets game Feb. 24 in Chicago and will instead televise the Thunder-Suns game at 8 p.m. in Phoenix. Hmmm.
The Suns are playing the team Durant started his NBA career with as the Seattle SuperSonics move to OKC in Durant’s second NBA season.
Odds are he’ll be ready to go for that one as Durant is listed out with a right MCL sprain, but is moving around in media viewing after practices and shootarounds like a player who could play right now.
Storylines are too good to pass up, but him making his debut Feb. 26 at Milwaukee against the team that beat the Suns in the finals with Jae Crowder facing his former team has even juicer storylines.
Okogie in overdrive
He knows what time it is.
Okogie continues to show Williams what he can do as a starter.
He scored 15 points in the first half on 6-of-8 shooting, going 3-of-5 from 3, to mark his fourth straight double-figure scoring effort.
His six 3s for the game established a career high for makes from deep.
Okogie is playing hard, physical and making effort plays, too, with a mask for a broken nose. He planned to ditch it after the All-Star break, but maybe Okogie should keep it when considering how he’s playing.
Torrey Craig still seems like the ideal guy to start as Williams has said he’ll base it on matchups on whether to start Craig or Okogie. Craig is just the bigger body at the four with Durant playing on the perimeter.
Craig and Okogie are trying to fill the void of Mikal Bridges going to Brooklyn in the blockbuster Durant trade, but Okogie has been the more productive offensive player of the two as of late.
Suns-Clippers first round?
The Clippers may never see the Durant version of the Suns this regular season.
They meet one more time April 9 in Phoenix. It’s the last game of the regular season for both teams.
Would you play your stars in that one even if it determined a higher seed? The Suns are 2-1 versus the Clippers this season.
Who knows, the Clippers and Suns could catch the Kings, who are third in the West, but only a game ahead of the Clippers.
Sacramento is 0-2 versus the Suns, 1-1 against the Clippers.
Durant going to Phoenix right before the trade deadline turned everyone’s heads, but the Clippers getting Eric Gordon, Bones Hyland and Mason Plumlee are under-the-radar additions that will benefit them.
Still don’t have a point guard, but they got everything else along with a great coach in Ty Lue.
Fast start for Ross
Ross has never been shy about getting up shots.
And when he’s making them, he can fill it up with the best of them.
Ross was rolling in the first half of his Suns debut, scoring 11 points in 13 minutes on 5-of-11 shooting.
He hadn’t played since Jan. 21 against Washington when playing for Orlando.
He finished with 16 points on 7-of-17 shooting in 25 minutes.
Bought out by the Magic, Ross signed with the Suns and showed in his first game the ability to score and the confidence to keep shooting. He went 1-of-5 from 3 in the first half, 0-of-3 in the second. He gets up shots, folks.
Again, Ross may wind up being that fifth guy out there with Paul, Durant, Booker and Ayton down the stretch of close games.
Back in Phoenix
Cam Johnson walked into the lobby of the the Suns practice facility during Thursday’s morning shootaround and talked to security at the front desk.
Had a huge roller suitcase. Looked fine. Spoke to the media there. Exchanged thank you and appreciations.
Johnson and Bridges are a week removed from being traded to the Nets in the Durant deal. They’re both back in Phoenix during All-Star break to surely pick up clothes and other essentials for the remainder of this season.