PHOENIX — After exceeding even the highest of expectations and pacing for 50 wins through over half the season, once it became clear the regressing Phoenix Suns would be a play-in team, the hope for them was relocating that previous form before the tournament began.
That has not and will not be happening.
Wednesday’s 112-107 win over the Dallas Mavericks was not all that inspiring, even though it resulted in Phoenix clinching the No. 7 seed for the play-in tournament that it will host its opponent for on Tuesday.
To escape the short-term reactions for a brief moment, it’s an unbelievable accomplishment considering how bleak the outlook was for the franchise’s next couple of years.
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“I see it from both sides,” Suns guard Devin Booker said. “We look at this bad stretch that we went through and think about what it could have been. We definitely could have been in that four or five spot, maybe even three. I’ve always been the type (to have a) next-day mindset. We’re in the position that we’re in and we have to take full advantage of it and we have to get in the same page in a hurry.”
The Suns (44-36) on Wednesday played a tight first half against a team with 10 active players, not creating real separation until the start of the third quarter with a 10-0 run to go up 18. Then, 18 of the next 19 points were scored by Dallas. It then began the final frame with a 15-5 spurt to go up two with 8:16 to go.
Dallas (25-55) entered the night tied in the loss column with two other teams, so there are major lottery ball implications if it mistakenly wins a game.
While the Mavericks haven’t been nearly as blatant with tanking tactics like Utah, Washington and others, they used the second night of a back-to-back to list Daniel Gafford (right shoulder impingement), Naji Marshall (left hip contusion), Caleb Martin (right plantar fascia strain), Klay Thompson (rest), P.J. Washington (left elbow strain) and Brandon Williams (illness) as doubtful. All of them sat.
When looking at Dallas’ stats in the 15 games prior to Wednesday, rookie Cooper Flagg was the only guy to play out of the Mavericks’ top-six scorers across that time.
Their front office was surely aware of how winnable this game still was given what Phoenix has shown lately, so it would be interesting to see if Dallas would stoop to the level of sitting Flagg and others in the fourth quarter if it was a close game.
As we covered, it was, and then they did.
Flagg, Max Christie and Ryan Nembhard started the fourth quarter and kept the Mavericks in it before a slight Suns surge got Phoenix a seven-point lead with 4:37 remaining.
Everyone watching knew there was plenty left up in the air, especially Dallas, so it sat all its starters for the rest of the game.
That was embarrassing enough for the Suns.
And yet, the Mavericks’ lone five other players active cut the Suns’ lead to three at three different points: 2:10, 1:32 and 1:08 to go.
Phoenix still closed it out, but the thought of an extremely high-stakes game less than a week out hovered over those closing minutes when players even dedicated NBA fans wouldn’t know by name were forcing the Suns to earn the victory.
The Suns will either face the Los Angeles Clippers or Portland Trail Blazers in the matchup between the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds. Those two squads play each other on Friday in Portland, and it’s likely that the winner will be the No. 8 seed for the play-in tournament.
Booker, in his first play-in appearance, told Arizona Sports he will very much be scouting this like a playoff series. He will be locked in on Friday and then be diving in the rest of the weekend like he would if it was a seven-game series.
Jalen Green injured his right knee just a minute into the game, checked out a few minutes later and didn’t return. He was flexing his right leg over that time and wasn’t necessarily immobile, so he at the very least appears to have avoided something serious. Green received the rare “questionable” injury designation after spending some of the game sidelined, something Phoenix’s medical staff doesn’t really do.
Jordan Goodwin played most of the first half before injuring his left ankle and also did not return. He was ruled out shortly after halftime.
Both guys were doing some movement on the court during halftime to see how those injuries were feeling.
Collin Gillespie and Ryan Dunn started in their place.
The Suns continue to have massive issues offensively. In this latest five-game stretch, which began with the trio of Dillon Brooks, Booker and Green together, they have failed to crack 25 assists in any game and have a total of 103 in these five contests after 20 on Wednesday.
The only other portion of the season where those numbers were worse came in late February when Booker missed four games of a five-contest stretch when Phoenix only totaled 98 assists and failed to hit 25 in all five of those affairs too.
That 25 number is critical because the Suns have a 27-9 record when they reach 25 assists. That adds up to a 17-27 record when they don’t.
Grayson Allen (right quad contusion) and Mark Williams (left foot injury management) were both out, naturally allowing rookies Rasheer Fleming and Khaman Maluach to get back in the rotation.
Maluach got bumped all the way to the starting lineup for the first time in his rookie season. While Maluach has absolutely earned it, this was more about maintaining Oso Ighodaro’s minutes with the second unit and specifically Gillespie. Those two relocating their chemistry as an offensive pair would go a long way in making a bench that has tons of potential more lethal.
But then Maluach played his ass off and was the better center of the two. He grabbed a career-high 14 rebounds in 30 minutes, looking the part of a rookie significantly progressing with his feel for the game. Ighodaro has been more inconsistent as of late and Maluach has more than earned consideration for minutes in the postseason.
The Suns will hope this was a breakthrough performance for their bench. Gillespie was once again missing shot after shot before reaching 13 points, while Royce O’Neale added 14 points.
Booker scored 37 points on 13-of-27 shooting while Brooks was 11-of-22 for 28 points. Your star duo combining for 65 points against a tanking team should be smooth sailing, but it’s a different equation for a Suns team that can’t consistently generate stops and doesn’t have flow with their ball movement offensively.
By clinching the No. 7 seed in the play-in tournament and having nowhere to move, the Suns can give their key guys some rest in the remaining two games on Friday in Los Angeles and Sunday in Oklahoma City.
Suns coach Jordan Ott said the Suns haven’t talked about it yet and will balance rhythm versus rest, while also noting the number one thing is health.
That begins with Booker, and he acknowledged that he will probably come up short on the 65-game rule to be eligible for end-of-season awards, due to part of the qualification being 20-plus minutes played. Booker is now at 64 games played but had two when he played under 20 minutes. There is apparently an appeal process some teams are going through, like the Lakers are with Luka Doncic, but Booker sounded in favor of rest anyway.
“Right now I feel that way,” he said, noting it’s something the team will discuss over the next 24 hours.
It’s also worth noting that Booker is not seen as a consensus All-NBA selection and his odds of making it are low. He’s not in the running for any other awards.
Players dealing with recent injuries like Allen, Brooks, Goodwin, Green and Williams are all rest candidates. So too are the likes of Gillespie, Ighodaro and O’Neale, all of whom could use some nights off through a grueling season. Ighodaro hasn’t missed a game; Gillespie sat for one and O’Neale has been out for just three.
Those three have been rocks all year.
“With the amount of injuries we’ve had from some key guys, it’s put a ton on those other guys and they’ve responded by having career years,” Ott said.
The argument for everyone playing, of course, is the extra reps this group could use to get its quality of play back on track. With that said, two rather meaningless regular-season games aren’t exactly the best ecosystem to find those improvements in.
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