Bradley Beal emotional leader, 'Not a good passing team': Takeaways from huge Suns win at Kings

SACRAMENTO – Bradley Beal wanted this one more than anyone else.

He scored 12 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter and came up with two huge steals on De’Aaron Fox with the latter one sealing the 108-107 win Friday before a sellout crowd of 17,832 at Golden 1 Center that keeps the Phoenix Suns alive for the sixth seed in the West.

He screamed and yelled at center court with the entire team around him at midcourt cheering and celebrating a huge win as the Suns look to avoid the play-in tournament.

Beal came to Phoenix to compete for a championship, something that never happened in his 11 seasons in Washington and wasn't going to happen anytime soon. He battled injuries early in his first season in Phoenix, heard criticisms from some fans saying he wasn’t worth the five-year, $251-million contract he signed with the Wizards.

The three-time All-Star made his way back from the injuries, took on the role of point guard, defensive stopper and is now becoming the emotional leader this team desperately needs.

He huddled the remaining four starters together late in the fourth quarter with a simple message of getting stops and then took it upon himself to make to major ones late in the game.

The Suns shouldn’t have survived this one.

For starters, they committed 19 turnovers that led to 22 Sacramento points.

Second, the Kings led by six points with 3:35 left in the game before the Suns closed them out with an improbable 9-2 run that Beal capped with the strip of Fox with his off hand. Kevin Durant scored a team-high 28 points and Devin Booker added 21 as all five starters scored in double figures.

Grayson Allen returned to the starting lineup to score 19, hitting 4-of-8 from 3 while Jusuf Nurkic went for a double-double of 10 points that included the game-winning free throw with 8.7 seconds left and 10 rebounds.

Now back to Beal.

This is a man who hasn’t been past the first round of the playoffs since 2017. He left Washington D.C. where he grew up in the NBA and became the one the Wizards’ greatest players and brought him and his family across the country to Phoenix to compete and win a championship.

The Suns haven't looked like a title contender all season, have underachieved when considering the preseason expectations, but wouldn’t be in a position to earn a top six seed without Beal.

Here are takeaways from Friday's game as the Suns face Minnesota for their final regular season game Sunday at Target Center in Minneapolis with major playoff/play-in implications.

Suns need a win, need help from Lakers

Real quick.

The Suns can capture the sixth seed with a Sunday in Minnesota coupled with the Pelicans (49-32) losing to the Lakers in New Orleans. Los Angeles is 2-0 against the Pelicans this season.

The Suns have the head-to-head tiebreaker over New Orleans, but if both teams win, Pelicans take the sixth seed and the Suns host the 7-8 play-in game. Both lose, same scenario.

The T-Wolves and Lakers both have something to play for, too, thus adding to the drama of the final day of the regular season.

Minnesota is still in the running for the No. 1 seed in the West while the Lakers are looking to avoid the ninth seed that would force them to win two play-in games to make the playoffs as an eighth seed.

Karl-Anthony Towns returned from a knee injury in Friday’s win against Atlanta. A little rusty, but Towns should be sharper with a game under his belt.

That could be a problem for the Suns come Sunday in Minneapolis.

They’re 2-0 against the T-Wolves, but Towns didn’t play in the second game. Even though Towns has the skill set to play on the perimeter with the 3s, he can be monster on the inside, but Rudy Gobert comfortable resides in the paint rent free.

Curious to see if Minnesota has Towns play more on the inside Sunday, but Phoenix still has to deal with that Anthony Edwards. He’s struggled last game, scoring just 17 points as Phoenix allowed a season-low 87, but with a No. 1 seed on the line, this is an opportunity for the young man to show the world he’s that guy.

‘Not a good passing team’

The Suns have been near the bottom of the NBA in turnovers all season long as they're 25th right now. They don’t have a true point guard and are calling for multiple ball handlers to share that duty.

That initially sounded OK in theory before the season. They wanted to hit ahead in transition, play fast, but the Suns have more times than not played with great pace, particularly in the fourth quarter.

Their Big 3 lead the team in turnovers. Not good because Booker, Durant and Beal have the highest ball usage of anyone on the team.

Vogel stresses making the extra pass, but that’s led to guys who would normally take a shot look to find a teammate and sometimes force the pass, especially in traffic.

So, Vogel saying the Suns aren’t a good passing team isn’t breaking news.

The Suns aren’t going to suddenly flip a switch and commit 10 or less a game, but Vogel has even tied taking more 3s as a way to reduce turnovers. Can’t turn the ball over if you’re shooting it.

As he explained before the game, the Suns tend to force passes inside. So that in a way is discouraging the Suns from taking it to the basket even though Booker, Durant and Beal can get to the rim and draw fouls to fully maximize being a great free throw shooting team.

Been saying all season turnovers is this team’s kryptonite. There are two sure ways they can overcome that. One, shoot the ball lights out, which the Suns have done, but hard to knock it down at a high clip every night, especially in the playoffs when a team knows your plays, personnel and tendencies.

Phoenix shot 52.6% from the field Friday night. That certainly helped their cause.

Two, defend. That’s the surest way the Suns can overcome turnovers. It’s how they won Friday despite committing 19 that led to 22 Sacramento points.

Eight-man rotation for postseason?

Looks like Vogel has really settled on an eight-man playoff rotation.

Bol Bol is on the shelf right now as Eric Gordon, Royce O’Neale and Drew Eubanks as Vogel’s three guys off the bench.

Dude is such a unique offensive talent who can score on all three levels and even at times is a presence on the defensive end just due to being a 7-footer, but his lateral movement remains a liability and lack of strength prevents Vogel from using Bol at the five.

Seeing Ivica Zubac, an active and physical big, just go right at Bol on the interior and dunk in Wednesday’s loss to the Clippers may have been the final straw for Vogel to keep playing Bol.

Vogel has also made it clear Thaddeus Young’s minutes will be matchup based as he’s stuck with Eubanks as Nurkic’s backup big. Young can rebound, particularly on the offensive glass, and make the correct reads in the pocket, but won’t play unless it’s an ideal matchup.

This eight-man rotation isn’t as simple as just the number of guys playing.

The Suns are having Durant play the five more and more as he did on the game’s final play. He was joined by Royce O’Neale, Allen, Booker and Beal.

This has been the save-the-day lineup with Durant at the five, but it may turn into much more in the postseason. A key to this is Nurkic staying out of foul trouble.

He committed just two fouls in 32 minutes. The Suns can always go to Eubanks or Durant, but Nurkic gives the Suns the rebounding and a physical presence on both ends.

Now Vogel’s next challenge should be figuring out when to not only bring each guy off the bench, but how many minutes to play the starters and read when to stick with one if they have the hot hand.

Booker and Durant will probably see 40-plus minutes from here on out with Allen right up there close to that, but Beal is the wild card. He’s playing around 33, 34 minutes. Will that number rise because he’s been the first guy to come out of the game, but return to end the quarter and start the next.

If he has the hot hand, will Vogel stick with him for a minute or two longer and have Gordon play a minute or two less? Just because Vogel is shrinking the rotation doesn’t mean it’s going to be easier to determine the rotation.

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: Beal emotional leader, 8-man rotation: Takeaways from Suns huge win