Phoenix Suns striker Mikal Bridges, center, pulls between center Portland Trail Blazers, Enes Kanter, left, and protects Damian Lillard in the first half of an NBA basketball game in Portland, Oregon, Thursday, March 11, 2021. (Photo AP / Craig Mitchelldyer)
There are many different identities that an NBA team can have to find much success in the regular season.
The plan for the Phoenix Suns, who have contributed to a handful of 25 wins this season, is in play, fighting and not getting upset before hitting when the opportunity is there in the second half. From there, one of the two All-Stars or both will take care of the rest.
That was the story Thursday night in Portland for a 127-121 victory over the Trail Blazers.
“The boys came into the gym and we had unreal juice and stability and we thought that’s what happened to our team tonight,” said head coach Monty Williams. “I just kept going … I just didn’t have any kind of crisis at all.”
After returning to the first half to fix the game at halftime, the Suns fell again by 11 in the middle of the third quarter. There, their second stellar unit, led by goalkeeper Cameron Payne and center Dario Saric, entered a 26-11 race to put Phoenix on four.
After a pair of free throws by Damian Lillard for Portland, All-Star goalie Chris Paul scored or assisted on the Suns’ next seven points. The other All-Star, shooting guard Devin Booker, picked him up. He scored or assisted 10 of Phoenix’s next 12 points.
“The book had an extent in which it just carried us offensively,” Williams said.
The ease of this process is largely helped by a very good defense, which allowed the fist one-two to seal the game at a Suns edge of 13 points, with 2:40 of course. Most importantly, this kept the game largely out of the clutch minutes, where Lillard was the supernova this year.
Booker finished with 35 points, five rebounds and eight assists in 12-for-21 shooting. He had one of those nights where you could see that he felt that his team might need that extraordinary piece of play from him to win. He delivered this, all with a left knee bum that included him as questionable in the injury report.
Paul said with a laugh after the game that after his daily conversations with Booker during the break, he didn’t think his partner on the backfield would play.
“He is different. Real, real. He is different, “said Paul. “Not only the fact that he played tonight, but also the 35 years he had tonight. Jae Crowder and I were there talking about it. He is different. ”
Booker injured his knee again late in the fourth quarter. He clearly suffered from falling to the ground, but limped and remained in the game. He said postgame that the time was “easier” than the last and that it is “right”.
Paul was one of the Suns’ seven double-digit players with 19 points, five rebounds and seven assists. The Suns shot 59.0% of the field and 54.2% (13 of 24) at three points.
Lillard needs a lot of defensive attention, so if his supporting cast makes the defense pay, this will be one of the main recipes for the Blazers’ success. This was the case in the beginning.
Lillard made either shots or the correct play on the ball screens, which Deandre Ayton of the Suns played well in his place. As part of the game plan, Ayton slipped a little higher to deny Lillard a lot of space and clung to him when he had to refuse his way to the rim. However, Ayton did this, leaving Enes Kanter of Portland covered by someone else in the pits.
“To try to counteract Dame’s ability to shoot from the grocery store, you give up 3s on the back and offensive rebounds,” Williams said.
Kanter is a force on the glass and proved that in the first trimester. Either he made the mistakes, or the Blazers made them with a good secondary movement of the ball from Lillard’s initial reading. Portland had seven of the 15 offensive rebounds in the first quarter, and Kanter had six overall in the game.
This led to a great quarter and a half from the Blazers, who photographed 10-of-20 from 3 at the time, and had Phoenix behind until 13. The Suns had some minor things going wrong in that stretch, but key principles, such as ball movement in attack and rotations in defense, were there.
Thus, a strong individual effort or two would probably cause a run and, indeed, it did in an increase through Booker and Mikal Bridges.
A 16-4 run to close out the first half and tied the game included eight points and an assist from Booker plus five extra points through Bridges, who led all scorers to the break with 16 of his 18 points.
In the third quarter, the Blazers made a slight change to continue going to Ayton by reintroducing him into their actions. Lillard made a few hard shots from this, and when Saric entered Ayton with 4:12 left in the third quarter, Ayton never came back.
That was despite the fact that the big guy got a few buckets in the third quarter, and as Portland headed for him, he was mostly out of the night with basketball hand problems. Ayton recorded 23 minutes, the lowest total of the season, which was not in an explosion, and added 11 points with four rebounds.
Saric scored 11 points, five rebounds and two assists. He gave the Suns a consistent source of good offense in the post, capitalizing on the inconsistencies while holding on to the defense.
“A lot of teams get to go from 1 to 5 and have someone like Dario there who can punish them inside, so they can’t do that,” Booker said.
As Good morning, it’s basketball Notice Tom Ziller, there are several ways to look at the dynamics of closing the 5, given the aspirations that the Suns have for the post-season.
Williams ends up with Saric for the second time in three games, after returning continuously to Ayton this year, and the last one is, again, remarkable. It should also be seen that the luxury of Phoenix is offered thanks to Saric’s great game, which should earn him a love from the sixth man of the year.
Speaking of this award, let’s give Payne a recognition there as well. It was a ridiculous plus-24 in 20 minutes and recorded 13 points, three rebounds, six assists and a steal.
Lillard finished the night with 30 points, seven rebounds, eight assists and two steals at 10-of-23, and it felt like the Suns did almost anything in limiting what they do, what the superstar is talking about.
On this note, the Suns (25-11) have now defeated the Blazers (21-15) twice and hold the tie over them in the standings. Beyond that, they faced a strong opponent from the West twice and did well.
Paul was asked if the Suns take everything into account, and the future Hall of Famer quickly noticed that Portland did not have CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkie, saying he had to focus on them.
His team was pretty nice in doing this, a surprising attribute for the group that gave everyone outside of Paul and Crowder lacks the great experience in the winning teams.
He talked about how they are able to do it, while also pointing out that the Suns will really show what it’s all about once the hot section of 17 wins in their last 20 heads.
“I think it’s trustworthy. I think our coaching staff, the culture of our team – we just have a wonderful group of men I’m telling you about, “said Paul. “And to see how well Cam Payne played when he was there, we just got one of those teams where everyone cheers on everyone. Everyone is happy for everyone. It’s cute.
“We will have some difficult moments, some adversities. When this adversity arises, I think then it will really be tested, but the spirit is definitely right for this team. ”