PHOENIX — While the injuries have continued to pile up, we knew this Phoenix Suns basketball team well enough to not place all of their recent unrecognizable performances on solely that.
A reward for that faith was given on Sunday in a great 111-99 win over the Charlotte Hornets, one without Grayson Allen (right knee injury management), Dillon Brooks (left hand fracture), Jordan Goodwin (left calf strain) and Mark Williams (left foot stress reaction).
Wouldn’t you know it? This one was fueled by the defense, a defense that started to look like itself again.
“I think it’s back to closer than what it was,” Suns coach Jordan Ott said. “We talked about it this morning. Fourth in defense in January (and) our overall defense hasn’t been good since Feb. 1. Part of that is the rebounding piece but also it’s just us guarding the basketball better. 1-on-1, guarding the basketball and knowing you have support behind.”
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This was about as complete a game the Suns have played since getting in a real funk at the start of February. The individual performances matched the team play.
Devin Booker had one of his best outings in weeks, posting 30 points, 10 assists and two turnovers on 7-of-18 shooting. His 15 made free throws (on 15 attempts) tied the third most of his career. Jalen Green had a strong first half and finished with 24 points (8-for-19) while Collin Gillespie also added 24 points.
Rookie Rasheer Fleming scored a career-high 16 points with four 3s, and buyout addition Haywood Highsmith made his rotation debut with 21 minutes that earned him a well-deserved game-high +19.
Charlotte is one of the best teams in the league and had zero injuries coming in, which should make this all the more impressive. This is only the fifth time all year it has been held under 100 points. And yes, that is not a typo, nor are you hallucinating if you haven’t kept up on the league the last few months for one of its constant bottom dwellers beginning to emerge.
Since the turn of the new year entering Sunday, the Hornets were 21-10, first in offense and fifth in defense, per Cleaning the Glass. Top-5 draft picks Brandon Miller (2nd, 2023) and Kon Knueppel (4th, 2025) would have been All-Stars had Charlotte done this in the first half of the year. LaMelo Ball (3rd, 2020) is still a work in progress when it comes to the volatility of his play, but he is proving he can play winning basketball, while a supporting cast that includes the underrated Moussa Diabate and trade deadline acquisition Coby White round out an impressive young group.
They’ve been an outstanding rebounding team on both ends, a big bonus when the 3-point margin is as absurd as it tends to be. Over those 31 games, Charlotte was shooting 39.2% from deep on 43.9 3PA/G. That includes a combined 30 attempts a night on 40.3% efficiency from the trio of Ball, Knueppel and Miller. Playoff experience is a major roadblock but in a muddled-up East there’s no large reason to shoot down some optimism that the Hornets could win a playoff series, maybe even two.
So when taking that into consideration, plus the injuries for Phoenix, this was about as good of defense as the Suns have played this year.
Phoenix dictated things from a physicality standpoint, using aggressive schemes on the perimeter and staying more attached to guys than usual. The Suns defenders all did a good job of making Charlotte’s players earn just about every bit of separation. Ott credited his defenders for “heating up” some of Charlotte’s passers by pressuring the large amount of off-ball offensive sets the Hornets work through.
They are sets and an overall offense that the league is having a hell of a challenging time trying to stop the last two months.
The intent was there in the first half, sparked by Highsmith off the bench. He and rookie Khaman Maluach put together a handful of great possessions that halted Charlotte after it produced 21 points in the first 5:54 of the ballgame. Highsmith was stopping guys as an on-ball defender, a foreign act by any Suns defender since Goodwin got hurt.
More with Haywood Highsmith. The multiple efforts & in velcro to the handler navigating PnR which keeps Maluach from being engaged.
*Then* the peel switch on the re-drive from Green, doing the same.
Maluach is then able to shift to the big on the 2nd jump for the block. pic.twitter.com/dG9mbFlleu
— Stephen PridGeon-Garner ? (@StephenPG3) March 9, 2026
More impactful Highsmith multiple efforts with his length impacting things at the point of attack, & impacting passing windows.
Maluach then PUNCHES this shot attempt to halfcourt after the pressure up top. pic.twitter.com/DzbEzK4d1h
— Stephen PridGeon-Garner ? (@StephenPG3) March 9, 2026
“We had to up the physicality,” Booker said. “I think they were getting whatever they wanted.”
Phoenix needed that and 51% shooting in the first half to be in slight control, up two. Twenty of Green’s 24 points coming then was a huge help too.
Out of the half, the Suns juiced the tempo further. Their team defense was magnetic. Forcing a shot clock violation a few minutes into the third quarter was the signature possession of the night.
Watch the defensive rotations for the Suns here. Best possession of the night, and maybe the last few weeks pic.twitter.com/jTKcilD5pc
— Shane Young (@YoungNBA) March 9, 2026
Charlotte responded with its own defensive juice, led by Diabate, who is unbelievable to watch defensively when he reaches his peak. It felt like he was affecting every play, and the Hornets countering it led to a rock fight 21-19 Suns third quarter. Booker and Green combined to shoot 3-of-14, setting up a pivotal fourth to get some sort of rhythm going offensively.
Insert Collin Gillespie, who after Sunday is now shooting 48.7% from 3-point range in the fourth quarter.
After Fleming scored seven of the Suns’ first nine points of the fourth quarter and the Suns went up nine, Oso Ighodaro brought the ball up and told Gillespie what to run, a dribble handoff with Gillespie finding space going right to left near the top of the key.
Gillespie drilled that 3, then punished more drop coverage from Charlotte’s backup big to get another clean one in the same spot.
Once that put Phoenix ahead 13, the hammer would come a few minutes later when Booker got doubled off the ball and forced Gillespie to toss up the grenade with the shot clock almost expired. Cash.
The captain was jubilant.
Valley vibes ? pic.twitter.com/Lx7xiHmmUS
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) March 9, 2026
“He gamed us a couple times in training camp — I think it was two days straight where he hit two game-winners and it just continued onto the season,” Booker said of Gillespie in the fourth quarters this season. “He’s obviously not shy in those big moments.”
Fleming also knocked down a 3 before that one for Gillespie, also assisted by Booker, who had three big buckets as well prior to that hammer.
Fleming has now played seven straight games in the rotation and is shooting 13-for-25 (52%) from deep over that time. While that is obviously not sustainable, that speaks to a rookie (whose swing skill in many ways is that shot) starting to see the floor piece together. He’s clearly getting better every game, and the best part for the Suns is, it doesn’t really feel like it to him.
“I ain’t gonna lie I’m just playing right now,” Fleming said. “Just seeing what’s coming from it, just staying in the moment, not thinking too much of it. Just playing basketball.”
He admitted he still thinks he’s rushing a lot in games, which speaks to how much more growth there is left to untap. Players of his physical profile start to get dangerous once they can naturally have their skill and talent impact the game. It’s way harder to unlock than you think, and yet, he’s done that in a few recent games already.
Rasheer Fleming with a career-high scoring against the Hornets:
? 16 PTS ? 6-8 FG ? 4-6 FG pic.twitter.com/gLyu7NvZi2
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) March 9, 2026
“It’s super impressive,” Booker said of Fleming. “Just a willingness to wait, wait for his moment and then so far seize it. He’s still all ears, he still wants to learn more and he’s had a big effect on us winning basketball games.”
To that point, Fleming closed the game over Green. Ott confirmed that was not due to injury, a ginormous step for Fleming and acknowledgment of the trust he has built up with his head coach. Even with Highsmith’s emergence in doing exactly what Ott needs out of him, Fleming’s not going anywhere in the rotation. Instead, it doesn’t bode well for Ryan Dunn, who might have just ran out of time with the many chances he had to cement his role. He played 10 minutes.
Ott called Highsmith’s outing “fantastic,” noting how he made “basketball plays.” On both ends, he made plays that Ott has been searching for out of his supplementary wing group for weeks.
It was four points, nine rebounds and two blocks for Maluach in 20 minutes. This was easily his best game so far, given how much he limited mistakes.
Allen had his knee flare up in the morning before getting through shootaround fine. That initially led to the Suns adding him to the injury report as probable before it did not improve like they thought it would. Allen’s had this type of thing happen before, so assuming the knee cooperates on Monday, he should be in a good spot to play on Tuesday.
Goodwin played in 5-on-5 at practice over the weekend, which should have him in position to return at some point during the front half of the Suns’ six-game road trip.
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