Through the first three quarters Tuesday night, the Phoenix Suns looked like…well, the team they’ve looked like for the majority of the season.

A solid first quarter deteriorated into another listless collapse in the second, their defense put up such little resistance against the LA Clippers that Stan Van Gundy repeatedly ripped it for being “pathetic” on the broadcast, and the Suns trailed by as many as 23 points, including a 19-point deficit going into the fourth quarter.

But then they did something we haven’t seen them do against a playoff-caliber opponent since January: When they got punched in the mouth, they hit back. And it all started with the guy who’s been repeatedly (and often unfairly) slammed for his lack of leadership.

Phoenix’s 119-117 comeback win was one of the best games Kevin Durant has played in a Suns uniform — and quite possibly the most important of their season, if the not-so-lofty goal of reaching the play-in is to manifest itself. Through the first three quarters, Durant had 15 points on on 4-of-13 shooting. In the fourth alone, he scored 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting, scoring the Suns’ first 8 points of the period after watching how flat they came out to start the second quarter.

But perhaps most important of all, it was one of those special moments where the oft-criticized superstar urged the crowd to follow his lead with more than just his play. After the Suns had cut the deficit to 10 and Mason Plumlee got fouled at the rim, Durant turned to the fans, spread his arms out wide, and gestured to the crowd to get up and get loud.

“It looked like they were having a terrible time, and I hate putting that type of product on the court,” Durant said. “I know we should focus on the game and focus on the game plan and not look into the crowd and not engage with the crowd, keep it professional, all of this shit they tell us, but I surveyed the crowd and I see — ‘cause we need them. We need that energy. So I looked around, and it just looked dead. And the only way to spark it up is to make some plays, make them see the ball go through the rim, and we did to start that fourth.”

Everyone knows Durant can get buckets, and it was obviously his play that won over a crowd that had been booing just a few minutes earlier. But it was also the rare moment of vocal leadership that fans have criticized him for, at a juncture of the season where Phoenix needed it most.

A 20-point loss to LA would’ve solidified the horrendous vibes of the Suns’ 3-11 record in February and all but extinguished any remaining hope of this team pushing for a play-in spot. Instead, Durant told the crowd to get their asses up and follow his lead. And they did, all the way to what might be the most pivotal win of the season.

“That was my thing once I started talking to the crowd, it was just like, yeah, booing has been a part of sports culture for the last 50, 60 years, but I think it’s about time we put that up, you know what I’m sayin’?” Durant opined. “Just get up and leave if you don’t feel like watching this team play, if it’s bad basketball. And we would understand, and that would make us feel even worse, seeing y’all getting up and leaving.

“But the energy that they show, how loud they get on a good night, I mean, it’s second to none. So I wanted to ignite that as much as possible, and I’m sitting there like, ‘Yo, what the fuck? Like, get y’all ass up, let’s do something for us.’ So they responded well. It’s nothing but love with this fanbase.”

Convincing this particular fanbase — or any fanbase in sports, for that matter — to refrain from booing when their team plays poorly is a fruitless endeavor. But there was no question that Durant won over the home crowd Tuesday night, reminding everyone how fun Suns basketball can be when this team is actually executing, defending, and playing with some real passion.

“The fourth quarter was special, man,” Durant said. “Footprint was on fire.”

It may not be called Footprint Center anymore, but after a few weeks of underperforming, trade rumors and outside narratives, Durant’s visible outpouring of emotion felt as much like oxygen as the win itself.

Kevin Durant and Mike Budenholzer address heated exchange

Of course, early in the game, that emotion and desire was quickly twisted into something more sinister when TNT captured a heated exchange between Durant and coach Mike Budenholzer.

The two were arguing about something as Durant went to the bench during a timeout in the first quarter, and when coach Bud grabbed his arm, KD jerked his arm away and kept walking. The two continued to chirp, and the clip went viral, further fueling all the trade speculation that hasn’t died down since early February.

After the game, however, Budenholzer and Durant both tried to contextualize the incident.

“He and I, we’re like old friends or whatever, we’re always probably grabbin’ and talkin’ to each other,” Budenholzer joked before giving a more serious response. “I think there was some kind of play, offensive play. He wanted something, I wanted something, and it’s the beauty of basketball. But I think, really, from that moment, his voice and him talking — feedback, ideas, suggestions — was really a big part of the night.”

Durant has spoken on heated exchanges with teammates and coaches during his time in Phoenix a few times now, and he’s always been consistent about the nature of those conversations — no matter how intense they may appear — being about competitors coming together and working through those issues for the good of the team. After all, even family members fight, but they still love each other at the end of the day.

“That’s what usually happens when you don’t know the dynamics of a relationship,” Durant said. “You catch something on TV, you get a quote, and now you’re pushing that narrative as if me and Bud don’t do that shit all the time. We competitive as two individuals who want to see things done the right way. And sometimes my way ain’t the way that Bud wanna do it, and vice-versa. He allows me as a player on the team, a veteran on the team, to voice my opinion. If we both didn’t care, we wouldn’t never have stuff like that.”

Had the Suns carried on with a 20-point loss, that combative moment would’ve been the only story worth remembering from the night. Fortunately, a win helps take some of the heat off for at least a few days.

“I’m glad that the win is gonna sweep all of that stupid stuff under the rug, ‘cause people couldn’t wait — even some people in Phoenix in here couldn’t wait to run with that, and say, ‘Oh, this is the reason why the team isn’t playing well, ‘cause of that specific thing!’ But come on, man. That shows that me and Bud really care about trying to right this ship and trying to win basketball games. So he understands where I’m coming from, I understand exactly where he’s coming from, it’s just the people on the outside that don’t know the dynamics of the relationship.”

What the viral clip didn’t show is something that 12 Sports‘ Cameron Cox captured. After that initial heated exchange, Durant and Budenholzer continued talking to reach a solution, and their body language was far more cooperative and amicable.

Of course, that clip didn’t spread nearly as far.

Budenholzer and Durant going back and forth on the sideline is not an uncommon sight, especially for a team that’s been struggling lately and is desperate to find answers. Throughout Tuesday’s game, Durant and Budenholzer were seen animatedly talking things through, and KD expressed his frustration that all of their positive collaborations went relatively unnoticed.

“I wish they’d cut to that and slow-mo that, when me and him are coming to a solution together, and we smilin’ on the bench and we tappin’ each other on the chest and we slappin’ hands hard,” Durant said. “I wish they would post that on Instagram and Twitter and say, ‘Wow, this is leadership right here!’

“But when we do that other shit, that gets attention. That’s just the nature of the world we in. That’s the nature of content and the NBA in general. So it’s frustrating when you see shit like that, and you see the reaction to it, but I know deep down what it is between Bud and I. And he knows it too.”

Collin Gillespie provides spark for Suns

Of course, the win wasn’t just about Kevin Durant. As much as the Suns superstar fueled their comeback, they also got a pretty huge spark from one of their two-way players. After Bradley Beal sat out the second half with left calf soreness, Collin Gillespie got a rare opportunity to earn some minutes.

He checked in for the first time all game with just under three minutes to go in the third quarter, and he played so well that Budenholzer left him in for the rest of the game. In those 15 straight minutes of playing time off the bench, Gillespie put up 10 points and 3 assists on 4-of-6 shooting overall, including the dagger 3 in the game’s final minute that came off an assist from Durant.

“I was open, and I was just gonna shoot it and shoot it confidently,” Gillespie said. “I work on it a lot, so why not?”

“I thought he was aggressive getting to the basket,” Budenholzer said. “He took advantage of opportunities to go downhill, had a couple layups, and then obviously the big 3 late. He really came through when we needed him.”

But perhaps just as impressively, the 6-foot-1 guard showed real effort on the other end of the floor too.

“I think it starts with Collin’s defense,” Budenholzer said. “I think he brings a little bit of an edge. If we look at the film, I feel like there’s a couple of instances where he’s tapping or getting balls.”

Though his final numbers didn’t leap off the page, they made an impression on the brightest star of the night. Durant said he loves playing with Gillespie and praised his heart.

“I always love how Collin is poised, and he’s a dog,” Durant said. “He cares. He was one of the loudest in the locker room after last game, and he ain’t even contribute a minute to that disaster. And he came out and was pissed off after the game last game. So you could tell when he got another opportunity, he was gonna make the most of it and go out there and play his game.”

So how, exactly, did Collin Gillespie become one of the heroes of such a vital win? What mindset did he bring to the table that seemed to stick out in such a noticeable way?

“Just play hard.” Gillespie said. “Compete. I don’t know what we started down, but we were down, so just try to inject some energy, some life, playing hard, competing, talking to the guys, getting stops, being physical, being aggressive. So just trying to do all the little things to just change the game in whatever way I could.”

Gillespie noted that playing with someone like Durant — an all-time great he’s been watching since he was growing up — instilled a certain amount of confidence in him, especially since KD was telling him to be aggressive. But it’s telling (and kind of sad!) that simply “competing” is enough to make him stand out on this Suns team…even if it’s an objective Gillespie takes to heart.

“I take pride in that stuff,” Gillespie said. “I play that way, I’ve always played that way. I compete at a high level, or I try to, at least. Play hard, and normally when you play hard, you compete, good things happen.”

Suns can’t waste this potential turning point

The Suns entered the night 3.5 games out of a play-in spot, and even with the devastating news about Kyrie Irving’s season-ending injury, this team still has ground to make up. After a 3-11 February, everyone’s aware of how bad Phoenix needed that type of comeback win to rally behind.

“There’s no doubt,” Budenholzer said. “Everybody knows where we are. To go on that run, I thought the competitiveness on the boards, guys getting in there, mixing it up, scrambling for each other, rotating, getting out, running — this was much-needed.”

“Man, this was a fun win,” Durant agreed. “It was two ends of the spectrum, it was about the worst you can get. The first three quarters, just how we played in that second quarter and that third quarter, and then just to change the tide that quick and play that type of basketball. We were playing faster. We were covering four each other on defense. We got shots early in the clock as opposed to late in the clock. We didn’t turn the ball over much. We were swarming on defense, getting rebounds. Man. That’s Suns basketball right there. And that’s how we need to play moving forward.”

The question is, can the Suns actually bottle that lightning strike of a fourth quarter and unleash it on the NBA’s toughest remaining schedule? Or is this a Lucy and the football situation just waiting to repeat itself?

When someone shows you who they are, you’re supposed to believe them. Tuesday’s win over the Clippers conjured up one last ounce of goodwill when it comes to believing that this Suns team is still capable of being more than they’ve shown all season. And that last drop of hope will evaporate if Phoenix wastes this potential turning point and follows it up with another dud on Friday.

“That’s been our magical question: How can we do it for more of the 48?” Budenholzer said. “That’s gonna continue to be our push. How do we capture that good team? It’s every team’s challenge. And so we gotta continue to fight to find our best for 48.”

For all the Suns’ heightened awareness of their situation and the fact that every one of these must-win games now has a playoff feel, Durant also doesn’t want his teammates viewing Tuesday’s win as some season-turning, landmark moment.

“I told the guys, man, we should not even focus on the big picture,” Durant explained. “Everything should be right in the moment. The next possession should be the most important. We would love to say that this win is gonna ignite us and push us to win some in a row and have a storybook ending of us going to the play-in — all that stuff, it sounds good to say, but for us, it’s about the next possession.

“Next day matters. Next possession matters. We can’t focus too far down the line, ’cause we don’t got that luxury to do that. So stay in the moment as much as we can, enjoy where we are, and put your best effort in that moment and see what happens.”