Devin Booker (1) of Phoenix Suns (1) goes to court over Andre Iguodala, of Miami Heat, left, and Tyler Herro, right, during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Saturday, August 8, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. .The Suns won 119-112. (AP photo / Ashley Landis, pool)
With the Phoenix Suns missing Kelly Oubre Jr. and Aron Baynes, two pieces that ran their depth, it was hard to imagine them winning a game in Orlando if their best players were not playing well.
And you could argue that three of their best four are not on Saturday against the Miami Heat. And yet, they calculated a way to win 119-112 for the franchise’s first winning streak since December 2014 to keep the league’s only unbeaten record in the bubble.
Devin Booker was sensational as usual, with 35 points, three rebounds and six assists. He committed only one turnover despite Miami aggressively double-teaming him when they could.
Booker’s scoring bursts throughout the game kept the Suns on the floor, while a Heat team without three of their four leading scorers still managed to stay in control. The biggest discrepancy in the score in a quarter was just seven points, and Phoenix did not lead by at least five points until there were eight minutes left.
Jevon Carter was massive off the bench, hitting six three-pointers for 20 points, four rebounds and three assists, giving the team a pressing push in the fourth quarter to make a difference.
But the story was the bad play of namely Deandre Ayton, but also Mikal Bridges and Ricky Rubio for streaks of the game. The Suns were defensive enough as a unit that they did not have to chase this game at all, but they did.
The Heat had a game plan to stop the Suns’ offense through Ayton, and it worked.
“I think this slowed our pace in the first half,” Booker said.
It was not the only reason Ayton had one of his worst games of the year, as much of it as always was at his low levels of involvement, but it is fair to say that it had an impact.
Miami’s strategy was to switch the ever versatile center Bam Adebayo on all the ball screens and then the other defender who stood in front of Ayton in the post, with help always there under the court.
If Ayton got the ball, that would require a high entry pass out of reach and keep him the ball high. Adebayo can defend most of the guards decently enough so that most misunderstandings are eliminated here.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra essentially challenged Ayton to defeat him like that, and Ayton could not.
After a stretch of the second quarter in which he did not get the ball on a few possessions where he was not in front, Ayton put on both ends and was responsible for a few buckets in a row.
Meanwhile, Bridges and Rubio started shooting together with 0-for-8.
Williams took responsibility for his team’s struggle with the concept, noting that he expected the Heat to go into a zone a bit, which Miami often does, but not once on Saturday.
When the half came out, Williams tried to manipulate the switches by getting the Miami Jae Crowder on Ayton in the switches for a more favorable mismatch. The way they did so was also an adjustment to their normal crime, one that opened the floor a little more to discs in a way that did not happen in the first half.
Booker said it was discussed in half and he liked the way they adjusted.
It didn’t necessarily work immediately in terms of helping Ayton, but he had an offensive handball in his lap and then Rubio set him up for a dunk to get something for him in the third quarter.
With that in mind, you might feel that the Suns forced themselves to get Ayton on his spots. Bridges threw a ridiculous lob attempt when Ayton called around, and Bridges held his arms up in the air for a second when Ayton made the jump misty.
The Suns’ crunch time foul caused Adebayo to continually switch to the ball dealer, which made little sense, given how Ayton never took advantage of the mismatch, even when the fronting strategy disappeared. Again, however, it also opened the floor more, a profit they were willing to take at the expense of that.
‘We need to figure out what things are like when teams change so much [by finding] ways to punish them, ”Booker said.
In the fourth, Carter made enough shoes, while Booker, meanwhile, ‘best player in the arena’ did leave out ‘Phoenix’.
Carter has played an Orlando more marked basketball mark, he avoids dribbling and is more of a willing passer on fast ball rotations.
If he does that while maintaining his 38.5% shot from three-point range and making a few key defensive plays from the game, that’s the secret sauce for him to place as a bench piece in the league.
Carter had his sequence of the season in the middle of the fourth quarter, stole an Adebayo drive and then took it the other way to find Ayton, a four-point swing that put the Suns five up.
Carter said the game summed up who he is.
“If there’s one thing you know about me, or that you need to know about me, is that I never stop, I never give up,” he said.
“That’s who he is,” Williams said as the play unfolded. “He’s a fighter, he’s a fighter.”
Carter hit his fifth three-pointer shortly thereafter to give it an eight-point lead with 5:50 to go, and his sixth a minute later gave the Suns a grip on the game they had been missing all night.
“It was great for me,” Carter said. ‘Every game I feel like I’m playing a game like that. That’s exactly how much work I put into it. It may come as a surprise to everyone, but for me it was something that happened. “
Ayton still got his 18 points and 12 rebounds, but it was undeniable how his performances nearly cost the Suns the game and their playoff chances.
Rubio worked his ass in the second half during some of those named possessions to see Ayton around the court. He even made it out to seven points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.
Bridges shot 3-of-11 from the field for 10 points and had enough mistakes on defense to mark you, once every few times a season-type performance for him.
Without Jimmy Butler (foot), Goran Dragic (ankle) and Kendrick Nunn (personal reasons), the Heat still got enough scores from rookie Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson (25 points each) to stand a chance.
Adebayo was excellent, proving his All-Star status with 18 points, seven rebounds, nine assists, a steal and three blocks.
For the Suns, it’s now five bubble games and wins down that were most fierce and fought hard. Those are the situations the Suns wanted to commit themselves to, but they certainly wanted one of these to be a little easier because their playoff odds jumped back to another win. They will have to perform at least a little better if they really want to get off to the play-offs, which will probably require three wins in the last three games.
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