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Every team in the NBA has dealt with it at some point this season, and quite a few teams are still going through it. In this COVID-infested, injury-riddled year, the Phoenix Suns certainly haven’t been immune.
Early in the year, there was Cam Payne’ quad injury and Deandre Ayton’s lower leg contusion. There were knee injuries for both Frank Kaminsky and Abdel Nader, on top of the obvious ACL tear that will probably sideline Dario Saric all season. Then Devin Booker tweaked his hamstring. Then Ayton, Jae Crowder, JaVale McGee, Monty Williams and Landry Shamet spent some time in health and safety protocols. Now Cam Johnson is on the precipice of shaking off a minor ankle sprain, and the Suns are hoping Ayton will be able to do the same after landing on Booker’s foot in the first quarter of Sunday’s matinee game against the Detroit Pistons.
The result of all these absences? A Suns team with the NBA’s best record, second-best defense and sixth-best offense, despite a combined 143 missed games — 12th-most in the league — split between 13 players.
Wait, what?
Every team talks about “next man up,” but few execute that mentality as well as this Suns squad.
“We do feel like the teams that have a chance to win a championship win a ton of games during the year, and they gain confidence through that,” Williams said. “They gain confidence on the way they win, different guys stepping up on a nightly basis. But we’re hopeful that all the stuff that we’re doing right now, which I feel like is part of the mission that leads to the goal. And we try not to lose sight of the mission, thesis, everything that we do every night that leads to where we want to go.”
Boasting a 33-9 record following their rout of the Pistons, the Suns have suddenly opened up a 2.5-game lead over the Golden State Warriors for the 1-seed in the Western Conference. And though “Detroit Basketball” isn’t what it once was, Sunday’s win was yet another example of Phoenix’s ability to roll with the punches.
Already playing without the usuals (Saric, Kaminsky and Nader), as well as the red-hot Cam Johnson, the Suns suffered another blow when Ayton rolled his ankle on Booker’s foot late in the first quarter. DA was ruled out for the rest of the game with an ankle sprain, and while Williams didn’t have an update on the severity of the injury after the game, it feels unlikely he’ll be ready to go for the second night of a back-to-back in San Antonio on Monday night.
And yet, the Suns didn’t miss a beat. McGee filled in beautifully, finishing his night with 20 points and 6 rebounds on 9-of-10 shooting. Jalen Smith, who’s been trying to fill Johnson’s minutes as the backup 4, spent time at his more natural position at the 5, and Bismack Biyombo got 14 minutes of run as well.
Phoenix’s center position is remarkably deep, and it was only the Pistons, but that readiness rings true throughout the roster.
“I mean, that’s team basketball,” Devin Booker said. “That’s culture, that’s environment, and we take pride in that, in the next man up mentality. Obviously, I’m fortunate. I think DA stepped on my foot, actually, which I don’t like, but it’s just the road to recovery. We’re gonna get him back, and in the meantime, next man up.”
It wasn’t long ago that the Suns were attempting to power through a 4-4 stretch that Ayton, Crowder, McGee and Williams mostly missed. Stix had to start at center, assistant coach Kevin Young stepped into the big chair, and the Suns put up a pair of stinkers against the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat trying to navigate through some topsy-turvy availability.
During the rough patch, people wondered where Chris Paul’s offense had gone. Booker shot 28 percent from the field over a forgettable three-game stretch. Buyer’s remorse with Landry Shamet was running rampant, and even fan favorite Cam Payne floundered.
It’s funny how getting two starters, a key backup and your head coach will shift perspective, especially when the players in question are able to get back in game shape and put guys back in their more natural positions.
Teams don’t often “find themselves” on a five-game road trip, but that’s what the Suns have been pushing toward since the Heat embarrassed them at home. Admittedly, Phoenix got off to a rocky start in Canada, giving up 22 offensive rebounds and committing 20 turnovers against the Toronto Raptors. But they persevered through self-inflicted wounds and Booker’s 4-of-13 shooting night to pull out a win, with a Booker jumper, a CP3 middy and Ayton’s defensive rebound sealing the deal against an opponent that had won six straight.
The Indiana Pacers weren’t on any kind of hot streak, but their frontcourt duo of Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner posed a threat to Phoenix’s undersized starting five, which had just given up a boatload of offensive boards.
And yet, Phoenix won the rebounding battle by nine, holding Indy to just nine offensive rebounds. Ayton’s 27-point, 12-rebound performance signaled his return to full form. Booker’s 35-point detonation — with 22 coming in the third quarter when his team needed it — proved to be a nice bounce-back game. And Crowder, who had led the team in scoring against Toronto, heeded Williams’ message by snagging 11 boards against the Pacers’ super-sized frontcourt.
On all fronts, it felt like the Suns were finally starting to get back to home base, especially with Payne and Shamet blowing the Pacers game open before Paul started tossing daggers left and right. All of that carried over to Sunday: Crowder supplied another 11 rebounds, Payne had his best scoring outing since mid-November, Shamet got to the free-throw line seven times and the Suns got terrific production from the center spot even after Ayton’s departure.
“Two games in a row where we’ve had to just fight for the win,” Williams said. “We’ve been talking about how solid and details and everything counts. Those three words have been a big part of our vocabulary lately, because when you’re playing against teams like that, if you can just stay solid with the offensive guys we have, at some point, we feel like we can win games because solid tends to overcome some of that at times.”
After his bounce-back performance in Indiana, Booker moved firmly back into “solid” territory, putting up 30 points in 29 minutes on 11-of-18 shooting. Coming off that dismal three-game stretch, he’s responded with 32.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game on 22-of-43 shooting over his last two contests.
“Just making shots, for real,” Booker said. “That’s what it comes down to. Coach putting us in the right situation and big fellas setting good screens and Chris getting the ball there on time, on target.”
Perhaps most encouraging is Book was finally in his mid-range bag again. So far this season, he’s only hit 43 percent of his middies — down from last year’s elite mark of 50 percent, per Cleaning The Glass. But on Sunday, he hit 10 of his 13 shots from inside the arc, despite only going 1-for-5 from 3-point range.
Essentially, nature is healing.
Booker’s midrange shot-making was bound to bounce back, but Payne finding a bit of a groove over the last few games has been just as comforting. His struggles this season have been well-documented, and it’s part of the reason Phoenix should consider a number of potential trade targets approaching the Feb. 10 deadline.
With that being said, Payne seems to be playing more composed basketball over the last week or so. He’s averaging 10.6 points per game on 47.8 percent shooting over his last five games, including 46.7 percent from downtown. Granted, a 20-5-5 outing on 8-of-12 shooting boosted his numbers over that small sample size, but the Suns will happily take those numbers over the .404/.333/.867 shooting splits he’s posted all season. As a bench guy whose teammates feed off his never-ending supply of energy, Payne tapping into last year’s efficiency bodes well for Phoenix’s constantly-shifting second unit.
“I feel it a lot, when I’m scoring the ball, they love it,” Payne said. “They might love it more than me. But it does get us going a little bit more. They see me attacking, then the next guy want to do the same thing. It’s kind of like a trickle-down effect. That’s why I gotta bring it every night, especially for the bench.”
So of course, right when the Suns were on the verge of getting Cam Johnson back and finding their rhythm again, Ayton went down with an ankle sprain. Assuming it’s not anything too serious, Phoenix will still have to grapple with being almost whole, but not quite there. After weeks of not having a fully healthy Suns team, it’s agonizing how tantalizing that prospect feels.
Then again, given their experience in navigating uncertainty to this point, all while compiling the NBA’s record, it’s probably time they started earning some recognition for their ability to roll with the punches…and how dangerous they might be once they get to start throwing some of their own.
“We have a ways to go as far as being the kind of team we want to be,” Williams said. “We certainly are trending in a good place with our offensive and defensive efficiency, but great teams, great players make consistent plays, solid plays all the time. And that’s what we’re pushing for, is to become the kind of team that plays to a certain identity, certain standard, every game. This road trip has been indicative of our team being able to win in different ways. As far as where we are as a team, we just can’t settle. We’re happy about where we are, but we certainly aren’t satisfied.”
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