The Phoenix Suns defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 117-111 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday, in the first game with Devin Booker back in 10 days.
Booker missed four straight games because of an ankle sprain before making his return against the Cavaliers on the road. He shot 11-for-22 from the field to score 27 points for the Suns. Though he missed six of his seven attempts from downtown, the 27-year-old excelled with eight of his 12 jumpers within the 3-point line. He also grabbed four offensive rebounds and delivered seven assists, both team highs.
The Suns had to come back from a 19-point deficit (63-44) on Monday night, stemming from their incorrect defensive policy for Darius Garland and their poor ball movement during most of the game. In the first half, whenever Garland called a screen, his defender always chose to go around the screen, and the screener’s defender chose to drop back. As a result, Garland could easily shoot open threes during half-court offense in the first two quarters.
Big men like Jusuf Nurkic or Drew Eubanks understandably didn’t want to close out too aggressively out of concerns over Garland’s speed, but they should consider improvising after Garland went 5-for-6 behind the arc in the first period to get 21 points for the Cavaliers.
The Suns were sloppy at dealing with the ball in the first half too as they committed eight turnovers in the two quarters, allowing the Cavaliers to turn most of them into easy buckets in transition. The opponents’ excellent ability of exploiting chances for fast breaks aside, the Suns had themselves to blame for their poor performances, including slow returning to defense and containing early offense.
Fortunately for the Suns, they altered their way of guarding Garland by switching to hedging to keep Garland from shooting open threes and feeding cutters toward the rim for easy buckets. As a result, Garland got only five points and three assists in the second half, failing to hit any of his four field goal (FG) attempts in the fourth period. The Cavaliers got no more than 20 points in this quarter.
Nonetheless, improved defense was not the only reason behind the Suns’ rally in the second half. Durant shot 6-for-8 in FGs, all jumpers, to score 19 of his side’s 34 points in the third period. At 35, he averaged over 38 minutes per game in March and scored 35+ points in four straight appearances by Monday. He is the second player in NBA history to have such dominant offensive performances at this age, after LeBron James.
Golden State Warriors 112-102 San Antonio Spurs
The Warriors got revenge for the home loss on March 9 by beating the Spurs at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas. Six of their players reached double-digit points, led by Jonathan Kuminga’s 22, who took 14 of his 18 shots in the paint. He also knocked down two triples out of three attempts. Chirs Paul, who continued to start to fill in the absence of Stephen Curry, contributed 19 points, nine rebounds and eight assists with only one turnover.
The Spurs’ super rookie, Victor Wembanyama, played on Monday night after resting for two games. He got a double-double of 27 points and 14 rebounds plus two blocks, but shot at only 40 percent from the field and missed five of his nine free throws. Furthermore, Wembanyama found himself become the background of a poster after being dunked over by the Warriors’ rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis.
Toronto Raptors 119-125 Denver Nuggets
The Raptors led by as many as 22 points (64-42) over the Nuggets in the second quarter and still sat on a 17-point lead (68-51) after the first half at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado, on Monday. Such difficulty might have given them the misplaced belief that they could upset the reigning champions on the road.
However, the double-digit deficit of the Nuggets also forced Nikola Jokic to turn on his full-power mode. He went 7-for-11 from the field to get 19 points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals in the third quarter alone, leading his side to outscore the Raptors 42-30 in this period. Jamal Murray took over the load from him in the fourth quarter with 12 points and six assists. The two helped the Nuggets come back to win in the second half with absolute dominance.
Charlotte Hornets 97-114 Detroit Pistons
Dallas Mavericks 127-92 Chicago Bulls
Boston Celtics 121-99 Portland Trail Blazers.
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