Deandre Ayton's career night not enough to push Suns past Nuggets

The Denver Nuggets had no answer for Deandre Ayton on Saturday night.

Well, at least for 12 minutes they didn’t.

The former No. 1 overall draft pick dropped 24 points in the second quarter of the Suns’ game against the Nuggets in Phoenix on Saturday, and could literally do anything he wanted inside. He went on a solo 10-3 run, and shot a near-perfect 12-of-13 from the field in that quarter.

However Ayton’s big night — he finished with a career-high 33 points, shooting 16-of-20 from the field, and grabbed 14 rebounds — wasn’t enough.

Despite cutting it to just three points with less than two minutes left, the Nuggets held on to grab the 122-118 win.

“We played hard, but it’s kind of hard to play behind, especially by 20 when you’re playing a good team like those guys,” Ayton said. “It kind of took us a while to really lock in on the defensive end and really get it going on the offensive end as well.”

Devin Booker dropped 27 points, shooting 11-of-18 from the field, and T.J. Warren added 22 points for the Suns — who didn’t hold the lead once in the loss.

Jamal Murray, on the other hand, dominated for the Nuggets. Murray dropped 46 points, shooting a career-high 9-of-11 from the 3-point line.

“Once he sees that ball going in, he starts shooting into a very big basket like he did tonight,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said, via the team website. “46 points, we needed every one of them. Terrific performance, but, once again, I can wait to watch film and learn and teach about all the things that we did wrong to not allow it to be a four-point game.”

Nikola Jokic — who surpassed the 4,000 points mark in the game — added 23 points and eight rebounds, and Malik Beasley added 15 points from the bench.

Even though they lost, Ayton’s performance mirrored what he’s done nearly all season long. The rookie has averaged a double-double 16.3 points and 10.8 rebounds in just his 36 games in the league, and is shooting nearly 60 percent from the field. He also became the first rookie since 1994 to score 30 or more points and grab 10 or more offensive rebounds.

Ayton’s big night, though, isn’t something he’s paying attention to. He wants to win.

“It went down the drain. It don’t matter to me,” Ayton said. “We’ve got more tough games. The schedule is super tough. So the only thing I can possibly do and this team can possibly do is try to keep fighting. Teams are going to come up in here and try to think we’re the team from the beginning of the year, but it takes a lot to beat us now.”

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