Five things learned from Phoenix Suns' win over Utah Jazz minus Devin Booker, Bradley Beal

Kevin Durant sat the entire fourth quarter Saturday night — and that was a good thing.

The Phoenix Suns bounced back from Thursday’s road defeat to the Los Angeles Lakers with a convincing 126-104 victory over the Utah Jazz before a sellout crowd of 17,071 at Footprint Center.

Without Devin Booker (ankle) and Bradley Beal (back) for a second straight game, the Suns (2-1) led by as many as 33 points in their home opener.

Durant scored a game-high 26 points while Eric Gordon scored 21 all in the first half.

Here are five things learned as the Suns have a couple of days before facing rookie phenomenon Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday at home.

Eric Gordon is going to stay aggressive

Shooting 4-of-17 from 3 in his first two games didn’t discourage Gordon from continuing to let it go.

Remaining aggressive, Gordon put seven more up from deep Saturday, making three in continuing to torch the Jazz over the course of his career.

His career high for points in a half is 26 on Jan. 27, 2020, at Utah. He finished that game with a career-high 50.

Gordon’s night wasn’t just hoisting 3s.

He scored off curls, got to his floater and he did a better of job of finding the lane to drive instead of looking to bully through the opposition.

Gordon shouldn’t have to take as many shots when Booker and Beal are back, but even through cold streaks, he can’t stop letting it go.

No worries. He won’t.

The Suns need him to lead the second unit and be ready to shoot when sharing the court with the Big 3. That huge 3 he hit late against Golden State was on a 2-of-9 night from 3.

Kevin Durant the facilitator

Booker is likely going to be the primary ball handler.

Beal will do so when he’s out there with four reserves say in a three-guard look and Jordan Goodwin does a solid job of finding teammates, but Durant is the most natural facilitator on this team.

The Suns and Durant just need to find the mix of him scoring and finding people. If he’s being asked to do both at a high rate as was the case against the Lakers, that’s not ideal.

Can Durant do it? Sure, but him having that balance, particularly with Booker and Beal out, works better.

He had five assists in the first half and took just six shots, making four. He found Goodwin, Gordon and Allen for 3s in the first quarter.

Durant finished with seven assists that accounted for 19 points with Allen hitting a trio of 3s off them.

Having better spacing in the halfcourt helped the Suns rack up 31 assists. Durant led the early charge of that.

Lesson learned from Thursday’s loss to Lakers.

As long as the proper spacing is there, Durant will find the open man.

The Suns still only shot 10-of-37 from deep, but they made some in the first half to create early separation against a team in the second of a back-to-back.

Suns buying into defensive identity, so far

Yes, Golden State had a 40-point third quarter in the opener.

Anthony Davis gave them the business with 30 Thursday night.

The Suns gave up open drives largely due to miscommunication in Saturday’s home opener, but they haven’t allowed an opponent to shoot over 45% so far this season.

Warriors – 36.5% (10-of-23 from 3).

Lakers – 42.9% (5-of-29 from 3).

Jazz – 44% (12-of-37 from 3).

Vogel’s defensive schemes aren’t as simple as just switching everything. Guys must be in the right area in the right coverage for certain sets the opposition in running.

Staying in front of your man is what every team demands, but great players hit tough shots. What Vogel is searching for right now is playing with effort on that end.

The Suns did that in the second quarter when limiting the Jazz to 36% shooting (3-of-12 from 3).

If Phoenix can defend on an above average level with the offensive firepower it has, scary.

If they defend to Vogel’s standards, that’s Halloween for the rest of the league.

Run and fun

Josh Okogie thought the Suns had zero fast-break points Thursday night.

Turns out they were credited for six.

Okogie still can’t find them, but the Suns turned up in transition Saturday with 23 fast-break points.

As Okogie put it, they placed greater emphasis on it.

Here’s the deal. Phoenix doesn’t want to play in the halfcourt.

Hell, no one really does, but without a true point guard, the more they can score in transition, the better because that means they’re spending less time setting up an offense.

Now that all starts with getting stops. The Suns forced 19 turnovers and scored 30 points off them.

Utah is like Phoenix in that it doesn’t have a true point guard, either. The Jazz ended up with just six fast-break points.

Bet they wish they spent more time in transition than the half-court.

Again, everyone wants to run, but for teams without a traditional floor general, it’s more of a necessity to push the ball.

Free throw line

The Suns didn’t make too many stops at the free throw line in recent years.

2022-23 season – 21.7 FTAs per game (27^th in NBA).

2021-22 season – 19.9 FTAs per game (27^th in NBA).

2020-21 season – 18.7 FTAs per game (29^th in NBA).

This season, the Suns are 12^th in the NBA in free throw attempts at 22.7 as they went 26-of-28 Saturday against Jazz.

This is without Booker for two games and minus Beal for three.

Check the numbers after they’ve returned and played more than a handful of games. The Suns should spend even more time at the line.

One last thing

The Suns brought back their 'Ring of Honor' inductees and family representatives of those who have passed away to unveil the new banners in Footprint Center.

Charles Barkley and Steve Nash got the loudest cheers, gave speeches and the group photo at the end was nice finishing touch to the halftime ceremony.

Plus it's always good to see Al McCoy.

Suns team owner Mat Ishbia continues to make moves that's making him even more endearing in the Valley. If he can bring a championship to the city this season?

Might as well induct him into the 'Ring of Honor" the following year.

Have opinion about 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: Five things learned from Suns' win over Jazz minus Booker, Beal