Phoenix Suns forward Frank Kaminsky, left, and center Deandre Ayton, right, defend the shot of Boston Celtics center Tristan Thompson, center, during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2021, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ralph Freso)
After a win on Friday over the Detroit Pistons that felt anything but convincing, the Suns delivered on that front after grinding ou a 100-91 victory over the Boston Celtics Sunday.
Through a good defensive effort and stretches of high-level offense, it was an encouraging matinee showing by the Suns against a good team.
“We knew they weren’t gonna go anywhere,” head coach Monty Williams said. “They have two All-Stars who can make plays … We defended the way we know we can.”
Devin Booker is starting to look more like himself, which anyone who truly knows his game saw as inevitable. He registered 18 points, seven rebounds and a season-high 11 assists.
Boston began the game small in the backcourt, with the generously listed 5-foot-11 Carsen Edwards making his first career start and defending Booker. That led to Booker running the offense initially, and coincidentally, the Suns looking the most like last year’s offense they have all season.
Williams said that was all Booker and Chris Paul seeing something they liked and going after it, speaking to the working relationship his starting backcourt has established.
Phoenix had 25 assists and 10 turnovers.
The offense, though, couldn’t avoid poor play in stretches involving the second unit. That can be credited some to the Suns’ lack of depth. They were without Jae Crowder (right foot soreness), Abdel Nader (left ankle soreness), Cam Payne (right foot sprain) and Dario Saric (left ankle sprain).
The Celtics (12-10) hit enough 3s (17-of-44) to hang around in a game where a lack of shot creation really hurt them. Missing Jaylen Brown, who is putting up All-NBA numbers, was for sure a factor, as he had the night off due to soreness in his left knee.
Boston’s duo of Jayson Tatum (8-for-22) and Kemba Walker (4-of-20) did not have efficient afternoons.
The Suns led for almost the entire game, allowing Boston to get within five points in the fourth after a shaky few minutes (to which we will get to in a bit).
That’s where Phoenix’s two healthy wings showed up to hit big shots after being in their own respective funks.
Mikal Bridges entered the night 4-for-31 from three-point range in his last seven games, but hit two on Sunday and got up to 19 points through some of his midrange game as well.
The 10-foot fallaway is starting to become automatic for Bridges, and he nailed a tough one to put the Suns up eight at the 2:53 mark.
— Kellan Olson (@KellanOlson) February 7, 2021
Deandre Ayton succinctly covered why the occasional shooting slump for Bridges isn’t a huge deal.
“Mikal can miss any shots he wants to,” he said. “He plays his butt off.”
Indeed he can and indeed he does.
Cam Johnson has responded well to a second unit role, scoring 14 on Friday and 17 against the Celtics.
He picked up a tough and-one bucket and followed that up by hitting an open corner three after Bridges’ make to give Phoenix back an eight-point lead.
Johnson has missed a handful of open shots in crunch time this year. He emoted by far the most he has after any play — good or bad — in the Feb. 1 win over Dallas when he didn’t knock down a key opportunity. It became enough of a thing for it to be noticeable, so it was nice to see him get one to fall.
Paul had an off-night, if you want to call it that when he still managed 15 points on 6-of-14 shooting , and it included his worst two-possession sequence in Phoenix with the Suns leading by six and 90 seconds remaining.
He got the switch on a big and has deservedly earned the right to hold the ball that whole time, but all he generated was a difficult sidestep three-pointer on the wing that was contested well. After getting back on defense, Paul got stuck in the key, a huge no-no of transition defense. That left Celtics rookie Payton Pritchard wide open from deep, where the Oregon product converted on his fourth triple of the night to make it a one-possession game.
Fortunately, Booker made that forgettable by just about sealing the victory with an unguardable midrange pull.
With that five-point edge and 40 seconds left, the Suns closed from there.
Ayton’s perplexing play reached a boiling point in the fourth quarter. Possessions that include Ayton showing bad hands, missing bunnies or getting lost defensively off the ball outside of pick-and-roll coverage have trended back upward in his third season. That’s after he got better at that stuff throughout his rookie season.
He had a few of those come together to open the last 12 minutes and then decided to take a three-pointer in a single-digit game, which barely hit the rim before going out of bounds. Williams looked utterly bewildered on the bench, and a minute later, Ayton got beat badly down the floor by Boston’s Daniel Theis.
Williams got on Ayton after calling a timeout in a way we haven’t seen from him yet publicly in the Valley. The head coach, however, credited the big fella for responding after that and getting a few key buckets to close out the game.
“I told him after the game — we were walking in the tunnel — that his response out of that timeout was a great sign of growth and he doesn’t get enough credit for that,” Williams said.
Some coaches would bench a young player after that spurt, but Williams seems to approach things differently.
It’s almost become a trend now where Williams wants his franchise center to play through those stretches, showing the 22-year-old that he can still make positive effects on the game even when he’s fatigued. Ayton played the last 15 minutes of the game and finished with a team-high 39.
Ayton’s statistical offering of 16 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and three turnovers on 7-of-11 shooting was there. But those stretches for Ayton, even when they don’t result in runs for the opposition, have to be deflating at times for his team.
Frank Kaminsky started again and hit four of his six shots for nine points, adding nine rebounds as well in 19 minutes. Boston’s Tristan Thompson had six of the Celtics’ 13 offensive rebounds, as the insertion of Kaminsky hasn’t helped there yet, but the offense has flown well with the two bigs together and the defense held Boston to 26 points in the paint. Williams did not bring back Kaminsky for crunch time and used Johnson in the fourth.
With only 11 total players available, Williams elected to have rookie big man Jalen Smith be the odd man out. The 10th overall pick appears to be someone the Suns look at as more of a 4 than a 5 at this stage of his career, as Smith’s high-end value will ultimately come from being a stretch 5. At 20 years old, Smith obviously has some raw qualities but his shooting, rebounding and shot-blocking are traits that directly translate.
Williams mentioned throughout the preseason that he saw things moving too fast for Smith, a year after he said just about the opposite regarding Johnson, so it’s telling that Smith wasn’t on the floor Sunday.
It’s particularly noteworthy because the appeal of the 2020 draft class was instant impact role players. San Antonio’s Devin Vassell (No. 11 overall), Sacramento’s Tyrese Haliburton (12th), Miami’s Precious Achiuwa (20th) Philadelphia’s Tyrese Maxey (21st) and Memphis’ Desmond Bane (30th) are a few guys already doing that for their teams while Smith develops. It’s very early days, of course, and Smith also missed time due to COVID-19 and an ankle injury. But games like Sunday’s were ones where it stung to not have that contribution.
It still doesn’t quite feel like the Suns have stabilized and are where they need to be at this point in the season. But at the end of the day, they’re 13-9 and on a nice run of wins while missing key players.
That bodes well for what they’re capable of in the next couple of weeks. They’re going to get the chance to show that against premium competition as well, with premier Eastern Conference teams like the Philadelphia 76ers, Milwaukee Bucks and Brooklyn Nets coming to the Valley during this seven-game homestand.
