The Suns escaped with a four-point win over the then-four-win Wizards to salvage their season while Bradley Beal is out for an extended time.
The Phoenix Suns escaped with a narrow 116-112 win over the Washington Wizards Sunday night, concluding a five-game homestand 2-3.
The Suns, who lost four of five and six of eight entering Sunday’s game, started off very slow. Phoenix trailed by as many as 16 points in the second half before it rallied in the fourth quarter to save its season.
Phoenix is tied with the Miami Heat for the worst fourth-quarter margin (-3.3). Yet, the Suns played their best ball in the final period, in which they played excellent defense and saved their home stretch from ending with just one win.
Suns forward Kevin Durant, who was incredibly frustrated following the team’s blowout 139-122 loss to the New York Knicks Friday, had a positive interaction with Arizona Sports’ Amanda Pflugrad regarding the team’s win.
“We didn’t splinter, we came together,” said Durant, who finished with 28 points, five rebounds and five assists in the win.
Suns coach Frank Vogel, whose defenses have been a staple of his success to this point, spoke about the team’s fourth quarter when it limited the Wizards to 7-of-27 shooting.
“Washington has a lot of fire power, despite their record and we knew they could do the same thing with us if we didn’t step up, so we had a much better performance on the defensive side of the ball,” said Vogel.
Vogel said he spoke with Suns guard Devin Booker, who is the team’s defacto point guard, during the third quarter. That conversation seemed to spark a turnaround for Booker, who in the fourth led the Suns with 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting (2-of-4 from 3) and three assists.
“He’s an assassin,” Vogel said.
Booker has carried a huge load for the Suns without Beal, who is reported to be out for the next three weeks due to a right ankle sprain.
Beal returned for the Suns’ 119-116 win over the Golden State Warriors Tuesday from a low back strain. Unfortunately for him, he suffered the ankle sprain four minutes into Phoenix’s loss to New York Friday, which was the second game he, Durant and Booker all played together.
Booker is averaging a career-best 8.3 assists in 2023-24. However, since he made a comment that he is the team’s point guard and Durant is the scorer, he has averaged just under 20 field-goal attempts per game while Durant in the same stretch of games played is averaging 20.
“You just have to keep coming in, keep working, keep talking to each other,” said Booker, who is the Suns’ only player remaining from their last three seasons combined. “Don’t get over frustrated about it but definitely feel it. You want to protect homecourt and New York came in here and kicked our ass on our homecourt. We were on our way to that after the first two quarters of tonight. We just have to get it together.”
Phoenix has to find a rhythm now. The Suns are 14-12, good for 10th in the Western Conference, and will be without Beal for another extended stretch.
“All three of our guys have had ankle sprains,” Vogel said. “So, you know you are disappointed for him because you know how much he wants to be out there. But we don’t want to spend a lot of time frustrated with injuries. We focus on the guys that we have, and we go win games with those guys.”
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