Booker, Durant, Beal too much, turnovers, closers: Takeaways from Suns' win over Cavaliers

CLEVELAND – The Big 3 is back – and delivered in an even bigger way Monday night.

Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal combined for 88 points with elite shot-making in a 117-111 win over Cleveland before a sellout crowd of 19,432 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

Durant cooked a game-high 37, going 5-of-10 from 3 with 19 of that 37 coming in the third quarter, Booker scored 27 after missing four games with a right ankle sprain and Beal went for 24.

This isn't the most points they've churned out as a collective. The Big 3 generated 94 in a loss on Jan. 26 at Indiana the night Booker popped a season-high 62. Durant had 20 and Beal only managed 12.

Monday's performance not only resulted in a win, but was more like what the Suns envisioned when putting this collection of premiere perimeter scorers together. The Suns are 15-9 with the Big 3 in the lineup.

Darius Garland paced the short-handed Cavaliers (41-24) with a team-high 30 points with 21 coming in the first quarter while Caris LeVert added 17. The Cavs led by as many as 19 point with 4:50 left in the second quarter before Phoenix answered with a 19-5 run.

Trailing, 70-63, at the break, the Suns outscored Cleveland, 34-21, in the third when Durant caught fire in scoring 19 points on 6-of-8 shooting (3-of-5 from 3) in the quarter as Phoenix went ahead, 97-91, going into the fourth.

This was the second of a back-to-back for Cleveland, which lost Sunday at home to Brooklyn. The Cavs were without Donovan Mitchell (knee) and Evan Mobley (ankle).

Here are takeaways as the Suns (38-27) have two days between Monday's game and Thursday's rematch at Boston. The Celtics topped the Suns, minus Booker, 117-107, Saturday in Phoenix.

Big 3 spacing, creativity

Sometimes iso. Sometimes catch-and-shoot.

Felt like his turn, your turn at times, but Booker, Durant and Beal shot a combined 35-of-67 from the field against the NBA’s third-best defense without being in each other’s way. They create spacing just by being such scoring threats.

Then when they worked together, an open shot usually followed.

Case in point: Late in the fourth quarter with Phoenix up four, Booker penetrated and kicked out to Beal, who penetrated and found Durant for a wing 3 he had been hitting all night.

He splashed another one to give the Suns a 113-107 advantage with 3:43 left in the game. Going 5-of-10 from 3, Durant hit three straight in the third quarter, leaving himself and Booker wondering how the Cavs could leave one of the game's best scorers ever open from deep after the first hit.

The bigger test will come Thursday to see if the Big 3 can score at the same clip against the NBA’s second-best defense. The Suns want to put defenses in a precarious position.

Double one of the Big 3 and give up open shots or play straight up and let them go one-on-one. The Celtics chose to hug up on Grayson Allen and take away his 3 and just play Durant and Beal more straight up. Durant scored 45, Beal added 25, but the Suns lost.

See if they stick to that strategy with Booker now back in the fold.

Overcoming turnovers

The Suns are who they are when it comes to turnovers. They've been committing them to rank 26th in the league in turnovers and will likely continue to do so.

It's one thing to cough it up 14 times. It's another to allow 20 Cleveland points off the turnovers. That's the bigger issue because the Suns either have live ball turnovers or don't respond well to making mistakes.

Sounds like a broken record, but it's perhaps their biggest weakness.

Having a true point guard would help, but you really think they're paying Durant, Booker and Beal a total of $130.4 million this season to have someone less run the offense? Nah, it's on those three to initiate the offense, create for others and score against any matchup.

Having Jusuf Nurkic helps, but he can be turnover-prone, too.

At least there wasn't a Phoenix player who had five or more turnovers Monday. Durant and Nurkic each had a team-high three. The Suns only turned it over nine times after yielding five in the first quarter, falling behind by as many as 11 points.

Their formula for overcoming them is great shooting. They connected on 54.8% of their shots, going 12-of-32 from 3, but the Suns know the fewer turnovers, the more shots they can get up, which tend to be good ones.

That's when you know it's a problem. When the entire team knows how much more potent the offense can be when they protect the ball and they're still loose with it.

Closing lineup

Not sure if Suns coach Frank Vogel is going to stick with taking Booker out right before the end of the first quarter and third quarter, but their closing lineup may be in the making.

They could go with Nurkic or Drew Eubanks at the five, or Durant. Having Durant there helps defend pick-and-roll and smaller teams, but makes the Suns more vulnerable on the glass.

So that's the dilemma there. Royce O'Neale could very well be the answer.

He rebounds, makes hustle plays, defends bigger guys and protects the ball. For a team that can be careless, O'Neale is a perfect fit there and he doesn't need to score to make an impact.

With the Big 3 healthy, the Suns need a shooter out there with them. That's Grayson Allen, the league's best 3-point shooter who went 4-of-5 from deep in scoring 14 points.

Then you need a defender. That's O'Neale, who is capable of knocking down 3s. Allen showed his defensive ability in checking Garland 1-on-1 late in the game, but gave up his share of drives to the rim for Cleveland buckets.

The Suns not only need time for their Big 3 to build chemistry and for everyone to build cohesion with how they play, but determine who is going to close the game and if that's going to be matchup-based or one lineup regardless of what the matchup is.

Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Big 3 too much: Takeaways from Suns' win over Cavs in Booker's return