Devin Booker has 'knack,' Royce O'Neale great fit: Takeaways from Suns-Kings game

Bradley Beal suffered a third injury this season, the Sacramento Kings dominated the paint, but the Phoenix Suns overcame both and more in Tuesday night’s 130-125 win before a sellout crowd of 17,071 at Footprint Center.

Kevin Durant and Devin Booker each scored 10 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Suns, who trailed by as many as 11 points in the third quarter before closing it on a 22-9 to take a 94-92 lead.

Durant posted a double-double of 28 points and a season-high 11 rebounds, while Booker scored 25 points in becoming the second all-time leading scorer in franchise history and added nine assists.

Passing Alvan Adams, Booker now has 13,918 points to Adams’ 13,910. The late, great Walter Davis is the all-time leader with 15,666 points.

Beal injured his hamstring within the first five minutes of the game and checked out with five points on 2-of-2 shooting. He didn’t return and has already been ruled out of Wednesday’s game against Detroit in the second of back-to-back. Eric Gordon responded with 20 of his 23 points in Tuesday’s first half.

The Kings (30-23) ravaged the Suns' interior with 72 points in the paint as De’Aaron Fox scored a game-high 40 points and Domantas Sabonis posted a 35-point triple-double accompanied by 18 rebounds and 12 assists, but the Suns evened their season series at 2-2 with one matchup left in April in Sacramento.

The Suns (32-22) are playing the Kings five times this season as they faced each other in the NBA In-Season Tournament following quarterfinal losses.

Here’s what we learned as Suns are fifth in the West while the Kings are eighth. Only 1 ½ games separate the Suns, Pelicans (32-22), Mavericks (31-23) and Kings.

Booker has ‘a knack’

He’s proven it before and just showed once again the ability to overcome a poor shooting performance and still deliver when it matters.

Booker delivered down the stretch in scoring six straight points to give Phoenix a 128-123 advantage with 11.4 seconds left. He started this run with a 22-foot jumper over Harrison Barnes to push Phoenix ahead, 124-121 with 33.5 seconds remaining.

Before that, Booker found Royce O’Neale for 3 that gave the Suns a four-point edge, 122-118, with 47.2 seconds left. How he was able to jump over a double team from Malik Monk and De’Aaron Fox at the top of the key to get the ball to O’Neale on the wing was crazy.

Booker started the season being the main facilitator but has shared the load more with Beal in recent games. With Beal out, Booker resumed that role and came through. The great ones have “that knack” as Suns coach Frank Vogel calls it to read the game and then figure out how to make winning plays.

Kings are a bad matchup for Suns

The series is tied 2-2, but Phoenix’s two wins haven’t been convincing.

Exciting, yes, but Sacramento could easily be 4-0 against them right now. The Kings squandered a 22-point, fourth quarter lead in last month’s 119-117 loss in Phoenix and fell this time despite scoring 72 points in the paint, 26 fast break points and shooting 51.6% from the field.

Shooting 9-of-31 from 3 led to their fall Tuesday, but the Suns struggle handling Sacramento’s pace, can’t matchup with Fox and Sabonis and Malik Monk can get it in against them, too. He scored 22 on Tuesday.

The only reason the Suns would be favored in a series is because Sacramento is worse on defense. Phoenix is 15^th in defensive rating and the Kings are 20th.

The defensive-minded Vogel has come to grips with the idea of playing good enough defense just to outscore teams. He’d really have to live by that rule in a series against the Kings and be OK with losing some hair by Game 2 or 3.

O’Neale trade looking even better now

Vogel said he “scripted” O’Neale to play just 15 minutes after he logged 11 in his first game with the Suns on Saturday at Golden State.

He must have improvised on Tuesday.

O’Neale played 30 minutes and put together one of the most unique stat lines you’ll ever see – nine points (3-of-7 FGs, 2-of-5 from 3) with eight coming in the fourth quarter, five assists, four rebounds, four steals, a block and zero turnovers with plus-13, the highest of anyone who played.

When the guy said he does a little bit of everything, he wasn’t kidding.

His versatility, ability to hit shots and defend multiple positions fills several voids for the Suns.

Up next – Monty Williams return

The Suns face the Pistons in their final game before the All-Star break as Williams will make what will likely be an emotional return.

He coached the Suns to the 2021 NBA Finals, a franchise-best 64 wins the following season and three straight playoffs appearances before being fired after losing to eventual NBA champion Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals.

There will be a tribute video, Suns officials confirmed to The Republic.

The Pistons (8-45) are coming off a 125-111 road loss Tuesday to the Lakers. So this will be the second of a back-to-back for Phoenix and Detroit.

Phoenix won the first matchup in Detroit, 120-106, on Nov. 5 as Durant scored 41 points.

More Suns: Mat Ishbia talks new NBA G League team for 2024-25 season, Player 15 Group brand

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: Devin Booker clutch, Royce O'Neale great fit in Suns win over Kings