'Somebody got to do it': Bradley Beal defending, finding teammates for Phoenix Suns
SAN ANTONIO — Maskless Bradley Beal was on the Footprint Center floor right at the baseline, thankful he only took a blast to the jaw Thursday night from Dejounte Murray instead of the nose he had broken in January.
“If I would’ve gotten hit in the nose, I’d walk my ass right to the hospital,” a laughing Beal said. “Just go ahead and get this surgery over with.”
Beal has been sticking his face in the middle of the opposing team’s offenses by guarding its best perimeter player, a move that greatly factored in the Phoenix Suns winning their last two games. He led the team effort in limiting Philadelphia 76ers All-Star Tyrese Maxey to a season-low six points Wednesday on 3-of-13 shooting (0-of-4 on 3s).
The next night, Beal took on the challenge of guarding Murray as Atlanta Hawks All-Star Trae Young has been out due to injury. Murray went for 29 points, but he took 26 shots (made 11) with Beal checking him the majority of the night in Phoenix's 128-115 victory.
“Somebody has got to do it,” Beal said. “I’ve kind of shifted my mindset the last couple of games. The offense will be there, but I’ve been worried about our defensive efforts. Shutting down guys on the other team and just making an impact on that end.”
Between raising his defensive level and playing more of a point guard role, Beal is making the most sacrifices of the Suns' Big 3 heading into a five-game road trip beginning Saturday at San Antonio (15-54).
The Suns (41-29) are 18-11 with Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Beal in the starting lineup.
“Brad is really sacrificing for the betterment of this team,” Suns coach Frank Vogel said. “I think it’s worth pointing out. Him playing point guard. Him touching the paint as much as he’s touching the paint, not always looking for his shot. He took seven shots (Thursday against Atlanta) and he was arguably our most dominant offensive player, creating things for others."
Beal finding teammates for 3s
Phoenix splattered Atlanta with a season-high 22 made 3s in Thursday’s win with six coming off Beal’s assists. Delivering a team-high nine for the game, Beal found Booker on his final two 3s to close out the Hawks in the game’s final minute.
“These last two games, the ball has been hopping and it’s just been great energy,” said Booker, who scored a game-high 30 points Thursday, hitting 6-of-8 from 3. “The more passes, the more swings that we get, the better energy and better shots we get.”
Royce O’Neale nailed two of his four 3s off Beal’s assists while Eric Gordon and Durant each got one after receiving the pass from Beal. Gordon ended the night with four made 3s and Durant connected on two.
“Was a plus-17 overall and he guarded Dejounte Murray, primarily,” Vogel added about Beal. “He did it back-to-back nights. Can’t speak highly enough about the job Bradley Beal is doing.”
Scoring is not the Suns problem. They are 10th in the NBA at 117.1 points a game and 8th in offensive rating.
Stopping teams is another matter. They’re 16th in points allowed at 114.4, 13th in defensive rating, but gave up 82 points in the first half of a 140-129 loss Sunday at Milwaukee to end a four-game road trip.
Since then in their last two games, Suns have given up an average of 108.5 points and are eighth in defensive rating with Beal taking a more defensive mind approach.
'Defense is where we need to lock in'
“It’s been kind of my focus the last two games,” Beal said. “It’s an adjustment for sure. Probably seems like I’m not as aggressive. I’m still engaged, I’m in the game, but defense is where we need to lock in on. We score 120 points a night, but we’ve got to improve that defensive end.”
A proven scorer who averaged 30-plus points in back-to-back seasons starring for Washington, Beal had just three points against the 76ers on 1-of-6 shooting, but he posted seven assists, six rebounds and led a collective defensive effort on Maxey, who fell 20 points short of his career-high season average.
"He was the guy at the point of attack and he did a phenomenal job,” Vogel said. “We saw him come in the second half on Damian Lillard the other night and do a great job. We had Grayson (Allen) on him early and we decided to start Brad on Maxey and he did a great job and our bigs did a great job just being up in all his pick-and-rolls, not let him get comfortable coming off shooting 3s.”
Beal isn’t known for his defense, but he has good hands in terms of generating steals, deflections and can play physical. He did as good as anyone could standing 6-3 and weighing 207 pounds in guarding the Thanos-built Zion Williamson when Phoenix won Jan. 19 in New Orleans.
Williamson scored 24 points, but only had three rebounds with just one of those on the offensive glass while Beal finished with seven rebounds with six on the defensive end.
Beal is three inches shorter and at least 70 pounds lighter than Williamson.
“This was probably our best defensive game all season from start to finish,” Vogel said after the 123-109 victory back in January in New Orleans. “Guys were really locked in.”
'Three phenomenal plays'
Vogel is managing Beal’s defensive duties with his offensive workload. Against the 76ers, Beal’s lever tilted heavily on defense.
“He wasn’t having the best offensive night both with his actions and he was the one who didn’t get a lot of shots in terms of trying to balance the Big 3 and he didn’t let that slow him down at all,” Vogel said after Wednesday’s game. “He had three of the best defensive plays of the year all in sequence at the end of the third quarter.”
In the final 1:48 of the third, Beal forced Buddy Hield into a turnover, stole the ball from Maxey from behind and blocked Maxey’s transition layup as Phoenix took a 90-66 lead into the fourth.
“Three phenomenal plays,” Vogel continued. “We’re trying to go for the kill, you know, in the middle of the third quarter to put this team away and what he did during that stretch was phenomenal for us.”
The next night, Beal scored 12 on just seven shots (made four), dished out nine assists, one shy of tying his season high, and added four rebounds.
He’s had five straight games with at least seven assists for 37 total in that stretch.
Latest Big 3 sacrifice
Having Beal in more of a facilitator role is helping Durant and Booker, in particular, play more off the ball. On previous teams with three stars, one has usually had to make a big adjustment.
With Boston’s Big 3 of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, it was Allen.
With Miami’s Big 3 of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, it was Bosh.
With this year’s Suns, it has been Beal, the second all-time leading scorer at Washington with 15,391 points in 11 seasons.
Now Beal’s also committed five turnovers in each of his last two games as this has been a problem for the Suns all season, but he is also looking more to facilitate than in recent years.
Injuries have limited Beal to just 41 games in his first season with the Suns, who traded Chris Paul to Washington for him. The Wizards later dealt Paul to Golden State and got Jordan Poole in return.
He’s played 11 consecutive games since returning from a hamstring injury suffered Feb. 13 against Sacramento that sidelined him five games. Beal is averaging 18.5 on 53% shooting, hitting 42% of his 3s, 6.1 assists, 1.1 steals and three turnovers during this 11-game stretch.
For his career, Beal is averaging 21.9 points on 46.2% shooting, connecting on 37.2% of his 3s, 4.3 assists and 2.5 turnovers. Along with taking on defensive challenges and dishing out more assists, Beal is launching more catch-and-shoot 3s.
Out of Beal’s 4.4 3-point attempts, 3.1 of them have been catch-and-shoot this season. Last season, on the same number of hoists from deep, 2.2 were of the catch-and-shoot variety for Beal.
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: Bradley Beal making sacrifices for Phoenix Suns, Big 3
