Kevin Durant, Frank Vogel say Grayson Allen excels beyond tying Suns' 3s record twice

Devin Booker said after the Phoenix Suns' fourth-quarter comeback over the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday it was among their season's biggest wins.

Grayson Allen's game-high 29 points and tying the Suns' franchise record nine 3s — again — gave their Footprint Center crowd smidgens of hope as the team fell into deeper holes during the game.

Eight of Allen's treys were assisted by the Suns' Big 3 of Booker (16 points, game-high 11 assists), Kevin Durant (27 points, five assists) and Bradley Beal (13 points, five assists) and one from starting center Jusuf Nurkic (10 points, game-high 15 points, three assists).

Allen credited Nurkic's playmaking in creating separation on pick and roll plays, drawing defenders toward Phoenix's three stars' penetration. That fostered extra passes to Allen, who was ready from his sweet spots along the wings and corners to reach the record for the second time since Phoenix's Jan. 5 home win over the Miami Heat.

"A lot of good offense, a lot of good ball movement, and a lot of them were off of somebody else collapsing on defense and kicking out," Allen said. "Nurk made a lot of good passes being that roller. When they want to trap the ball, we can get it to Nurk really quick on that half-roll and let him be a decision-maker. To finish at the rim, hit a cutter, hit someone in the corner for three, he did a great job of that tonight. A lot of them were assisted."

The Kings precipitously gained larger double-digit leads through the first three quarters and had a 22-point advantage as eight minutes left to play approached.

It was an epic swing engineered by Suns coach Frank Vogel and stars Durant, Beal, Booker, Nurkic, Allen and sixth man Eric Gordon for the colossal 32-8 run that decided the game.

Plus, it proved that the Phoenix (22-18, eighth in the Western Conference), which has won eight of its last 11 games and three straight, can reverse the stigma as one of the NBA's worst-performing teams in the fourth quarter.

"We won a fourth quarter, finally," Allen said. "It took us being down 20, whatever it was, but we won a fourth quarter. That was our focus and what we have been talking about was closing out games and winning fourth quarters.

"Usually, it is us being up 10 or 15 and letting a team come back. We got on the other side of that tonight and won a fourth quarter."

Allen's 48% has not only surpassed Durant's 47.1% as Phoenix's top 3-point shooter, but he's now second in the league, barely trailing Milwaukee's Malik Beasley (48.1%).

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Allen's flourishing this season, producing career-high averages of 13.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 0.7 blocks, 0.9 steals, and 50/48/91 shooting splits in 35 starts, which all his appearances for Phoenix have been.

Allen was traded from Milwaukee to Phoenix during the off-season in a three-team deal that sent Phoenix's former No. 1 overall pick, Deandre Ayton, to Portland.

Durant said that Allen has brought more to Phoenix than just nailing 3s and being a hard-nosed defender, which many Duke products are known for.

“He’s come here to Phoenix and showed everybody in the basketball world the different parts of his game. We all looked at him as a 3-and-D guy but he can pretty much do it all on the offensive side of the ball,” Durant said.

He continued to praise Allen for “expanding his game,” and his confidence in shooting the ball in helping boost the team’s 3-point attempts to match their opponents' total, increasing their chances of cutting deficits and winning (Phoenix shot 17-of-37 to Sacramento's 18-of-40 from deep).

In addition to hitting at least eight treys in four games this season, Allen's attacking the basket more compared to his previous two years as a Milwaukee starter.

Allen is behind only the Suns' Big 3 at 6.2 drives per game. That's up a bit from his 4.4 and 5.5 over the past two seasons.

“A lot of this stuff is situations. A lot of the times you have to sacrifice your full game to help maximize somebody else’s game, and that’s what Grayson was doing in Milwaukee," Durant said. "He had to be a space-out shooter guy. They got guys that can handle, Giannis (Antetokounmpo), Jrue (Holiday), Khris Middleton, and I think here, we try to have a multiple ball handler attack and we want everybody to be at their best.”

Hitting 3s can quickly cover up offensive breakdowns, defensive mistakes and start runs. As Durant's 15 fourth-quarter points sparked that 32-8 surge, Allen made two triples, added three assists, two defensive rebounds (five overall), one steal and a block.

That level of versatility was a bit unexpected from him, about as much as the Suns' wild finish was on Tuesday.

“He’s making nine 3s every other game, so I wasn’t expecting that,” Vogel said and chuckled. “In a lot of ways, honestly, he’s a better shooter than we anticipated. He’s better putting the ball on the floor and making plays, and he’s probably better defensively guarding top matchups, and those things have been invaluable for us.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Durant, Vogel say Allen excels beyond tying Suns' 3s record twice