Phoenix Suns head coach Jordan Ott said after Monday’s win he was particularly proud of the way his team overcame the potential distractions that come with a game around the holidays.
Those concerns awoke on Friday in an ultra-sloppy affair, one the Suns were able to survive in a 115-108 win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
The Suns (17-13) had 18 turnovers, gave up 42 free throws and shot 8-of-40 (20%) from 3-point range. They were able to do just enough in the closing stages to hold on for what otherwise would have been a bad loss.
Phoenix had seven turnovers in the first quarter and was fortunate New Orleans (8-24) only generated three points off them.
While the Suns led throughout the first quarter and the Pelicans merely hung around, what it did was allow them to be in the game and offer a chance to build up some confidence. All the Suns needed was any type of half-decent run to really be in a good position to win from there.
The largest Suns lead to that point grew to nine shortly into the second half, and right on cue, a few turnovers sprouted up to bring it back down to four.
A quick timeout by Ott and whatever ensued in the Suns’ huddle following seemed to get a handful of guys playing with more energy, including Dillon Brooks, who sparked a kerfuffle after trying to deflect a pass to an official by a Pelicans player.
This got a half-asleep Pelicans crowd back in the game, ready to boo Brooks and cheer on the team trying to beat him.
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Ott had to take another timeout after Brooks missed a deep heat-check 3 (that did not have the prerequisites for a heat-check attempt) and led to a New Orleans triple that cut Phoenix’s advantage to a single point.
There were more than 15 minutes of game time still left, but from then on, Phoenix’s window to seize control had closed. Many of the controllable elements of a game were now muddled into a wild and foul-heavy flow.
Within that, the Suns entered the fourth quarter with 21 second-chance points while giving up 16 free-throw attempts in the third quarter alone It was the type of canceling out of their margins work that has been a worry in December.
Phoenix proceeded to commit four fouls in under two-and-a-half minutes, placing the Pelicans in the bonus for the majority of the final frame. Three of them were drawn by Zion Williamson, the type of fouls the Suns are OK with taking in isolated possessions, but they quickly piled up.
After one of those earned Williamson a trip to the free-throw line, he flew up the court off a Suns miss to set up an open Trey Murphy III corner 3 that put New Orleans up five.
There will be talk of officiating because this was a poorly called game, but the Suns came into Friday 27th in free-throw rate and 25th in opposing free-throw rate, per Cleaning the Glass. It’s not really a contest as to which team plays more physical getting downhill driving to the basket, either. The Suns are 28th in rim frequency, compared to New Orleans sitting first.
It remained a one-possession game for most of the period before a Collin Gillespie middy, Ryan Dunn block and ensuing lob to Mark Williams in transition got Phoenix up five with under a minute left to just about seal it. Williams’ rim runs were huge all quarter in finding Phoenix some space for the ball on a bad offensive night.
Williams was Phoenix’s best player with 24 points, 13 rebounds, two steals and a block in 27 minutes. It was his second straight bounce-back performance and we’ll see if he makes his debut in a back-to-back on Saturday in New Orleans.
Booker ended up with 30 points (10 for 16 shooting) with nine rebounds, five assists, four steals and two turnovers. Brooks added 14 points (5 for 12).
Dunn had a teammate land into his right leg under the basket in the early second quarter, and immediately grabbed at his right knee. Dunn went back to the locker room, and out of the timeout, rookie Rasheer Fleming got his third opportunity of the season at rotation minutes.
Fleming missed two corner 3s, but then right after that, scored two buckets in transition. Ott then kept him in once four starters got back in, and Fleming scored on an offensive rebound while taking on the marquee perimeter defense assignment on Pelicans rookie Jeremiah Fears. It was a total of seven minutes in the first half that were merely fine, but those types of shifts will really help him build up confidence once more consistent minutes come.
Dunn was available to return in the second half and did before Fleming got three more minutes in the fourth quarter.
It’s been a tough few weeks for Royce O’Neale, who at this point in his career struggles as an on-ball defender.
He’s the guy getting picked on the most these days, and on top of that, is prone to mental lapses on both ends of the floor. At his best, he’s a two-way connector that helps glue everything together and is a part of helping Phoenix’s 3-point volume sticking in a good spot.
But once this Phoenix group gets healthy, he’s the standout so far when it comes to the perimeter guy that could see his minutes come down. He contributed there points, two rebounds and three assists in 25 minutes.
Grayson Allen continues to be sidelined by something with his right knee. It was initially listed as soreness, the standard for the first few days of an injury, before it was updated to right knee injury management.
A questionable designation in the first two games he missed was the type of indicator for this being a quick bounce-back, but he was then listed as doubtful for Monday’s loss before a plain-old out label ahead of Friday. That indicates the opposite of progress.
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