Suns handle 1st playoffs test with Devin Booker, Kevin Durant injecting 'juice, toughness, grit'
PHOENIX — Some of the scar tissue from last spring’s shocking letdown against the Dallas Mavericks still hung in the air for the Phoenix Suns and their fans — so much so, they didn’t just need to salvage a split against the Los Angeles Clippers but the method was just as necessary.
Devin Booker was helpless in that Game 7 on his home floor, but the same fate wasn’t to be in Game 2, as he put on his Point Book hat and picked apart the Clippers in a 123-109 win at Footprint Center on Tuesday night.
Headed into the game, so much of the focus was rightly on Kevin Durant’s slender shoulders, considering how few touches he got in the waning minutes of the series opener. But Booker was sitting right there, waiting to take control.
Durant didn’t have to take center stage, although his repeated midrange jumpers kept things close early when the Suns were teetering — finishing with 25 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists.
A jittery first half needed a confidence boost, as the Clippers were comfortable with Kawhi Leonard on the floor and taking a rest, and this close to placing real doubt in the minds of the highly ambitious Suns.
Booker’s buzzer-beating triple tied the game, pulling the Suns back from a 9-point deficit in the last two minutes. He went on a full-on heater in the third, scoring 18 of his game-high 38 points along with 9 assists in 45 minutes.
That was only part of the evening, though. The Clippers played in the wounds of last May’s failure Sunday night, out-hustling and out-toughing a team many feel has a great chance of emerging through the muck and getting to the NBA Finals.
It wasn’t lost on Suns coach Monty Williams that a resounding response would soothe the pain and give his team a little juice before two games in Los Angeles.
“After halftime it was just juice, toughness, grit,” Williams said. “Offensive execution was decent, but I thought we were able to get stops in a row and that gave us a lot of energy.”
Winning in a shootout would’ve evened the score, but it likely wouldn’t have done them any good or placed a sliver of doubt in the minds of a deeper opponent that knows itself better than this Durant-led group.
The perfect record Phoenix had with Durant in the lineup was impressive, but the Suns needed to get punched in the mouth and experience some adversity to test them a bit. It just so happened it was a costly lesson that puts them one step closer to elimination.
So, Tuesday they were agitating. Durant and old teammate Russell Westbrook chirped a bit headed to their respective benches. There was holding, clutching and grabbing — general playoff fare. The Suns didn’t need to play in perfect weather, but had to get some dirt underneath their fingernails to show they were capable, at least to this point, of matching the Clippers’ intensity.
TNT audio caught Williams telling his team during a timeout to draw their “line in the sand.” Westbrook and Bones Hyland were getting downhill at will and Leonard was looking, and probably feeling, unstoppable for the first two quarters.
“People talk about adjustments all the time and we make them all throughout the game,” Williams said. “But a lot of basketball is sit down and guard the ball, keep a guy from getting to the basket, contest a shot.”
Chris Paul seemed to reemerge from his own slumber, hitting 6 of 8 — most of them late in the fourth quarter to keep the Suns from feeling too much heat, finishing with 16 points and 8 assists.
“In that second half and fourth quarter, they really took over,” Clippers coach Ty Lue said. “We tried to blitz, we tried to fire, we did a lot of different things. Like I said, they played great.
“We think we can win this series, and that’s the biggest thing.”
That has to be a model of sorts for the Suns before the Clippers really start pecking away. Paul can no longer quarterback a game, defend a speedster on the other end and have enough in the tank left to be a full-time closer. He has to allow Durant and Booker to hunt, then feed off the oversized attention the two demand.
“You want him to take those shots,” Williams said. “He took the shots that mattered. That’s just Chris. Kevin, Book, everybody’s telling him to shoot those shots and he can make them at a high level. I do like him attacking the basket, too, because he can pass it or get to his [midrange].”
With no Paul George, it leaves the Clippers a star down and Leonard to serve and volley on defense between Durant and Booker. It may be too much to ask him to be a nightly fire extinguisher for two lethal weapons and carry the offensive load as efficiently as he does.
Leonard didn’t show much signs of fatigue in 39 minutes — only the 10th time he’s played that long in this season and playoff combined. Everything was a plus for him with 31 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists, but he wasn’t able to be as devastating as he was late.
Westbrook wasn’t as ghastly as he was on the stat sheet, but one could argue he had a greater effect on winning two nights ago. He looked the part of a vintage Westbrook with all the fixins — surprising shooting, getting out into the open floor for scores and taking the space defenders give him in daring to shoot only to turn it into an open runway for his athletic jets to take off.
Westbrook finished with 28 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists but wasn’t the terror to loose balls that was the catalyst the other night.
The Suns outrebounded them by three after being outboarded by seven on Sunday. It seems like a modest improvement, but when you consider Deandre Ayton being the one, true big man and Durant having to play some backup five on occasions, it could be a harbinger for the rest of the series.
Every game is a delicate act of learning each other through high-pressure wins or devastating losses. This time last year, or thereabout, the Suns seemed to be coming apart at the seams. This year, it had better be the opposite — those heated timeouts better be constructive and focused — and feelings better be left in pockets, not on sleeves.
“There’s going to be situations where there’s going to be breakdowns and you got to put the fire out. Emotions are high,” Williams said. “I like the guys the way they’re getting after each other because they’re holding each other accountable. That’s the sign we’re a close team. So all that stuff is just a part of playoff basketball.”
