Phoenix Suns forward Frank Kaminsky on the left and center Deandre Ayton on the right defend the shot by Boston Celtics center pivot Tristan Thompson, center pivot, during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, 7 February 2021 in Phoenix. (AP Photo / Ralph Freso)
After a victory on the Detroit Pistons that seemed anything but convincing, the Suns did well on that front after beating the Boston Celtics 100-91 on Sunday.
Through a good defensive effort and high-level stretches of attack, it was an encouraging matinee display by Suns against a good team.
“We knew they weren’t going anywhere,” said coach Monty Williams. “They have two All-Stars who can play … We defend in the way that we know we can.”
Devin Booker is starting to look more like himself, which anyone who really knows his game considers inevitable. He scored 18 points, seven rebounds and the season record, 11 assists.
Boston started the small game on the backcourt, with the generously listed 5-foot-11 Carsen Edwards making his first career start defending Booker. This caused Booker to carry out the attack initially and, coincidentally, the Suns looked more like last year’s attack they had throughout the season.
Williams said it was just Booker and Chris Paul seeing something they liked and going after it, talking about the working relationship that their initial defense established.
Phoenix had 25 assists and 10 turnovers.
The attack, however, could not prevent a bad game in sections involving the second unit. This can be credited to the Suns’ lack of depth. They were without Jae Crowder (pain in his right foot), Abdel Nader (pain in his left ankle), Cam Payne (sprain in his right foot) and Dario Saric (sprain in his left ankle).
The Celtics (12-10) hit 3s (17 of 44) enough to stay in a game where the lack of kicking really hurt them. The lack of Jaylen Brown, who is releasing NBA figures, was certainly a factor, as he had the night off due to pain in his left knee.
The pair of Jayson Tatum (8 of 22) and Kemba Walker (4 of 20) from Boston did not have efficient afternoons.
The Suns led almost the entire game, allowing Boston to take five points in the fourth after a few unstable minutes (which we will talk about soon).
This is where Phoenix’s two healthy wings appeared to hit the big shots after entering their respective funks.
Mikal Bridges entered the night of 4 of 31 with a three-point streak in his last seven games, but hit two on Sunday and reached 19 points in some of his midfield games as well.
The 3-meter drop is starting to become automatic for Bridges, and he landed a hard blow to put the Suns at 2:53.
– Kellan Olson (@KellanOlson) February 7, 2021
Deandre Ayton succinctly explained why the occasional drop in shooting for Bridges is not a big deal.
“Mikal can miss any shot he wants,” he said. “He throws his ass out.”
In fact, it can and in fact it does.
Cam Johnson responded well to a second unit role, scoring 14 on Friday and 17 against the Celtics.
He took a hard bucket and one and then hit an open corner three after Bridges’ mark to give Phoenix an eight point lead.
Johnson missed some open shots this year. He was very moved after any play – good or bad – in the February 1 victory over Dallas, when he didn’t miss an important opportunity. It became big enough to be noticeable, so it was nice to see it fall.
Paul had a bad night, if you want to call it that, when he still got 15 points out of 6 out of 14 shots, and included his worst streak of two possessions in Phoenix, with the Suns leading for six and 90 seconds remaining.
He hit a big one and deservedly earned the right to hold the ball all the time, but all it generated was a difficult three-point pass on the right wing. After going back to defense, Paul got stuck in the key, a big no-no for transitional defense. That left Celtics rookie Payton Pritchard wide open, where the Oregon product converted into his triple room of the night to make it a one-possession game.
Fortunately, Booker made it forgettable, almost sealing the win with an unbearable midsize tug.
With that edge of five points and 40 seconds remaining, the Suns closed from there.
Ayton’s baffling game reached boiling point in the fourth period. Possessions that include Ayton showing bad hands, missing rabbits or getting defensive off the ball outside the pick-and-roll cover, tended to rise in his third season. That was after he got better at these things throughout his debut season.
He gathered some of them to open in the last 12 minutes and then decided to make a three-point shot in a single-digit game, which barely hit the edge before going out of bounds. Williams looked totally baffled on the bench, and a minute later, Ayton was beaten on the floor by Daniel Theis from Boston.
Williams caught Ayton after asking for a timeout in a way we haven’t seen publicly in the Valley. The head coach, however, gave the big guy credit for responding after that and picking up a few key buckets to end the game.
“I told him after the game – we were walking through the tunnel – that his out-of-time response was a big sign of growth and he doesn’t get enough credit for that,” said Williams.
Some coaches would place a young player’s bench after that outbreak, but Williams seems to take a different approach.
It has almost become a trend now, where Williams wants his franchise center to play for those periods, showing the 22-year-old that he can still have positive effects on the game, even when he is tired. Ayton played the last 15 minutes of the match and ended with a maximum score of 39.
Ayton’s statistical offer of 16 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and three turns in the 7 of 11 pitch was there. But these stretches for Ayton, even when they don’t result in runs for opponents, sometimes have to be emptied for your team.
Frank Kaminsky started again and made four of his six shots for nine points, adding nine rebounds in 19 minutes. Boston’s Tristan Thompson had six of the Celtics’ offensive 13 rebounds, as Kaminsky’s insertion still didn’t help there, but the attack worked well with the two great players together and the defense kept Boston with 26 points. Williams did not bring Kaminsky back to the critical hour and used Johnson in the bedroom.
With only 11 players available in total, Williams chose to have newcomer Jalen Smith as the stranger. The tenth overall choice seems to be someone that Suns sees as a 4 rather than a 5 at this stage in his career, as Smith’s peak value will turn out to be a stretch 5. At 20, Smith obviously has some raw qualities , but his kick, rebound and kick block are characteristics that translate directly.
Williams mentioned during the preseason that he saw things happening very quickly for Smith, a year after saying exactly the opposite about Johnson, so it is revealing that Smith was not on the ground on Sunday.
It is particularly noteworthy because the 2020 draft class appeal was an instant impact player role. Devin Vassell from San Antonio (11th overall), Tyrese Haliburton from Sacramento (12th), Precious Achiuwa from Miami (20th) Tyrese Maxey from Philadelphia (21st) and Desmond Bane from Memphis (30th) are some guys who are already doing it for their teams as Smith develops. It’s too early, of course, and Smith also lost time due to COVID-19 and an ankle injury. But games like Sunday’s were games in which it hurt not to have that contribution.
It still doesn’t look 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 are 13-9 and in a good winning streak, while losing important players.
This bodes well for what they’ll be able to do in the coming weeks. They will have a chance to show that against premium competition as well, with top Eastern Conference teams such as the Philadelphia 76ers, Milwaukee Bucks and Brooklyn Nets arriving in the Valley during this seven-game home.