Suns hot minus Booker; turnovers resume
Scoring was not a problem Thursday night even without injured Devin Booker.
The Suns shot 51.2% from the field, going 15-of-35 from 3, led by as many as 19 points and never trailed in their 120113 win over Toronto before a sellout crowd of 17,071 at Footprint Center.
Kevin Durant cruised his way to a game-high 35 points as he went 11-of-12 from the line, Grayson Allen made seven of his eight 3s in the first quarter to set a franchise record for most 3s in a quarter and Bradley Beal added 20 points and a team-high eight assists.
Booker missed a third straight game with a right ankle sprain. Suns coach Frank Vogel said before Thursday's game he isn’t ruling him out for Saturday’s showdown against NBA-leader Boston, but he'll more than likely return during the four-game road trip beginning Monday at Cleveland.
Durant can find his offense in a number of ways, Allen is leading the league in 3-point shooting while Beal is doing more facilitating of late in an offense that needs someone to handle point guard duties outside of Booker and twoway player Saben Lee off the bench.
Here are takeaways from Thursday's win as Bol Bol added 11 off the bench.
Win can't hide turnover problem
A win can only make one look past it, but the Suns continue to have turnover problems.
They committed 16 that led to 27 Toronto points. The Raptors aren't even in the game if the Suns take better care of the ball and defend better after turning the ball over even if it's in transition.
Jusuf Nurkic is considered a hub in the offense, but he wound up with seven turnovers. Durant is the team's best player who draws a constant double, but committed four.
The Suns may just be who they are at this point when it comes to turnovers. Without a true point guard, the Suns are 25th in the league in turnovers.
Thought they may have found the answer with just 10 at Denver that yielded just 13 points for the Nuggets, but turn right around and are once again loose with the ball.
Last season with one in Chris Paul, the Suns were 11th in turnovers.
Vogel keeps saying very few teams can outshoot them. He better hope that's true for the remainder of the season and postseason because that's a way to overcome turnovers.
Allen opening up offense for Durant?
This is how good Allen is shooting the ball.
The Raptors coaches were staying with him and allowing Durant to play 1on-1.
Insane, but true.
Allen scored 26 points in the first half with a career-high 21 in a quarter coming in the first on 7-of-8 shooting from 3. He finished 8-of-14 with all his attempts coming from 3, but only chucked up two in the second half.
No, they're not running offense for Allen to get open 3s, but he's still impacting the offense by just being on the floor. It's like having a burner at receiver to keep the free safety out of the box to defend the run. Allen is keeping that defender honest so Durant can go to work 1-on-1.
Anyone who thought that'd be the case before the season began and actually said it, please, come forward and take a bow. Allen has not only been the best player the Suns got in the threeteam trade before the season, he's become one of the team's best players, period, who is now being asked to play some point guard to allow Beal to play off the ball some or when Beal is out the game.
Insane, but true.
Focused on Raptors, not Celtics
Vogel called it a trap game, but applauded his team for staying focused on the Raptors and not looking ahead to Saturday's showdown against the Celtics.
Vogel believes the Suns have lost too many games in which they came off a big win, had a big game coming up and just folded against the in between opponent. Toronto was without their best player, All-Star Scottie Barnes, though.
That helps, but the Suns handled business. Now they have a chance to show what they're really all about Saturday night against the Celtics.