PHOENIX — “I think just as the season goes on, I get more comfortable and as a team we start figuring things out together. That’s how you want it to be. You want to get better as the season progresses, and I think we’ve done that. We’ve taken steps in many directions in a positive way.”
Whatever it is, when the clock strikes midnight and we get a new year, that’s when Devin Booker really starts to take off for the Phoenix Suns.
After an uneven few weeks with his play, Booker maintained the trend of resurgences in January with 33 points in 28 minutes of Friday’s 129-102 win over the Sacramento Kings.
Booker’s career splits take a hike up once the ball drops. His monthly points per game from October to April are 24.6, 22.6, 21.9, 25.9, 24.2, 26.9 and 25.4, with that 25.9 marking January. Most seasons, there is some type of conversation about Booker’s quality of play not matching his usual stellar levels, and it almost always takes place in November and/or December. Rinse and repeat for the 2025-26 campaign.
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Booker has also has been unusually average in the first quarter, when he normally sets the tempo from the jump. His season high for the opening period coming into Friday was a dozen and he nearly doubled it against Sacramento with 20, his most since April 2024.
Add on the seven more points in the second quarter and 27 is his best first half since Nov. 2024, according to Stathead.
The Suns (20-14) needed it early on.
On top of some signs of regression over a hellish stretch of the schedule, the exiting of that stretch in the last five games has seen their defensive connectivity drop off drastically. That persisted on Friday against a horrible Kings (8-27) squad without Zach LaVine (left ankle sprain) and Domantas Sabonis (partial left meniscus tear).
Phoenix’s transition defense in particular was terrible and the amount of Sacramento possessions yielding way-too-easy good looks was troubling yet again.
“Did not like our pick-and-roll defense to start the game. … They can’t feel like they can just get to any spot they want. Did not like it to start,” head coach Jordan Ott said. “I think the second quarter we changed some of that. No coverage change. Just intent, purpose, force defensively.”
The Suns were up six at the half, and while the defense was better coming out of halftime, it wasn’t a noticeable uptick. Instead, an offensive flurry of 10 makes on their first 16 shot attempts lifted the lead up to 18 late in the third quarter.
From there, it was about containing a healthy enough lead until the Kings weren’t interested in chasing the game anymore, an understandable potential detachment considering how much they stink and how this was the second game of a back-to-back and their fifth in seven nights.
No rally came, with the Suns’ lead holding at double digits throughout the fourth quarter.
Collin Gillespie’s consistent scoring punch has been imperative to the Suns continuing to win games shorthanded. This was his eighth straight game with at least 15 points, posting exactly that number on Friday.
Dillon Brooks added 18, while it was 15 points apiece for each center, Mark Williams and Oso Ighodaro. Ighodaro also produced two steals and two blocks as he keeps up his best form of the season.
Even with the consistent hiccups on defense, Phoenix still managed to force 21 turnovers. It’s always a great sign that the giveaways can keep sprouting up even when the Suns’ own defensive standard isn’t getting met for all four quarters.
Grayson Allen missed his eighth straight game due to right knee injury management but played in 5-on-5 on Thursday, a solid indicator that he is rounding third base in his recovery and should be back soon. Jalen Green’s 2-3 week re-evaluation period for his right hamstring strain has the timeline open up on Monday.
The Suns have now won six of their last eight games, a big boost with how the schedule takes yet another difficult turn. A cruel back-to-back with Oklahoma City and Houston kicks off that turn on Sunday. From there, two games each against average-to-great teams in the East like Detroit, Miami and New York are in there, as well as the second of two meetings with Atlanta and Cleveland, who the Suns have already lost to earlier this year.
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