The Phoenix Suns won their fifth straight game against the Miami Heat Saturday night. We know about Jevon Carter’s big night, but how about everyone else?
The Phoenix Suns got out of the gate slowly against the Miami Heat on Saturday evening. Nearly every shot they put up clanked off the rim and they finished the first quarter 8/23 from the field (34.8 percent) including just 3/11 from 3.
The Heat, on the other hand, were led by Tyler Herro who you could tell from the tip was out to make a statement against his fellow Kentucky alum and basketball role model, Devin Booker. Herro played aggressively and finished the game with a near triple-double, notching 25 points, 10 assists, and eight rebounds.
Combine the poor shooting and opposing rookie trying to make a name for himself and the Suns fell into a hole early, but just kept clawing back. Eventually, their tenacity (and Jevon Carter’s 3-point barrage) propelled them to their fifth straight win, the most in Booker’s young career.
This wasn’t a game where everyone was hitting on all cylinders and they rolled a weaker team. There were definitely times where everyone looked off, but as Monty Williams told his team afterward, these guys fought, and they keep fighting their way up to the standings.
The Suns are just 1/2 game behind Portland and two games behind Memphis. If the Suns win out and go 8-0, they need either two losses from the Grizzlies or one loss from the Trail Blazers to land in the play-in game. Each team has three games remaining.
For now, though, let’s focus on the big win versus Miami and grade out each player starting with the game’s MVP:
Jevon Carter
Grade: A++
What is amazing about Jevon Carter’s performance on Saturday is that he didn’t really do anything out of the ordinary. He just played with the same blueprint he always does: provide tenacious defense and knock down open shots.
He just did a lot of the latter.
Carter hit six of his eight 3s and gave Monty Williams no choice but to keep him in the game late in the fourth quarter when the game was tight, allowing him to finish with the starters in place of Cam Johnson.
In addition to his shooting, he played his usual intense defense, but that isn’t all. After the game, he borderline called out his teammates to get on his level.
"“I hate when I’m sitting on the bench and I see our guys doing the NBA thing, being lax, trying to preserve their energy so they can go score…I try to tell our guys if we stay locked in on defense, good things are gonna happen more often than not.”"
He’s not wrong.
Maybe a game like this will give a little more credence to his mindset and make it more contagious to the rest of his teammates. That isn’t a sleight to everyone else, but this team is at its best when the defense is at its pique.
Devin Booker
Grade: A
Another game, another masterful scoring performance from the first-time All-Star, and he did it while being cold from the outside.
Booker shot 0-7 on this 3s, a far cry from his norm, but he balanced that out by shooting 15-19 on his 2s. That is a level of efficiency rarely seen. If he were to have even made a couple of 3s, he would have had over 40 points (he had 35 anyway) and the game wouldn’t have been as close as it was.
There were two deep 2s he hit later in the game with a toe on the line which is a huge pet peeve of every coach on the planet, but I have a feeling Monty Williams will let those slide this one time.
Booker also dished out a casual six assists continuing his trend of being much more than a bucket-getting, and it has all translated to winning as he has never seen in his NBA career.
"“Since I’ve been in Phoenix, we haven’t had the win success, but the support has been there. This is what we owe to the fans, we owe it to the organization. It’s been a long time for us.”"
Don’t tell me Book doesn’t want to be here, no matter what Draymond Green says (who is now $50,000 lighter).
Deandre Ayton
Grade: B
Did you see it? Deandre Ayton dunked in his game! And kind of hard. It was a welcome change to the delicate ways he often places the basketball in the basket.
DA is a walking double-double, and the Miami Heat game was no exception. He finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds, but what stuck out was his inside play. The Heat didn’t have anyone who could match up with Ayton’s size and the Suns made a conscious effort to get him the ball early in the paint.
It kind of worked.
Ayton still put up his fair share of middies, but by making more moves around the rim he was able to score over smaller Heat players, and moreover, it led to five, yes five, free throw attempts.
For those of you who might not think five free throw attempts is a lot, consider it is more than he had in the other four bubble games combined.
Like most games, I still left this game wanting more out of Ayton. He is just too talented and too gifted to not be a dominant force every minute he is in the game. The flashes are there, but Suns fans keep waiting on those flashes to turn into the norm.
Rest of Starters
Ricky Rubio: B-
Mikal Bridges: B-
Cam Johnson: B-
Ricky Rubio, Mikal Bridges, and Cam Johnson all played decently. Not great, but decently.
Rubio got in foul trouble early, which may have affected his aggressiveness. Still, he almost tripped into a triple-double managing eight assists, seven points, and a surprising 10 rebounds.
Cam Johnson hit his two 3-point attempts, but the assertive rebounding we saw in the previous three games wasn’t there, as he only had three on the night. Evidently Ricky Rubio stole them all. In the end, the red hot Jevon Carter finished the game in place of Johnson in the lineup.
As for Bridges, he played nearly 40 minutes. That is a lot of time to have to guard the opposing team’s best player. Maybe that led to some heavy legs as he missed all four of this 3-point attempts and finished just 3-11 from the field. No one is worried about Mikal Bridges, though. Even when he isn’t scoring, he is a huge cog in the Phoenix Suns win machine.
Dario Saric
Grade: B
Saric, once again, came in off the bench and played a very solid game. He cruised to a run-of-the-mill 10-point, eight-assist performance, once again proving himself to be a more valuable asset than many people give him credit for.
He knocked down two of his three 3-pointers on a night where the starters were off and helped contribute to 35 total bench points for the Suns. Keep in mind, Monty Williams has essentially shortened the rotation to eight players, considering Frank Kaminsky’s minutes keep getting squeezed out.
Frank only played four minutes against the Heat and while a lot of that may have been based on matchups, Dario provides size and an inside presence for the second unit when Deandre Ayton is out, so Williams doesn’t feel obliged to sub in a struggling Frank Kaminsky just because he’s tall.
Off-the-bench Dario might very well be the best version of Dario.
Cameron Payne
Grade: C
Cam Payne for President! Cam Payne for President!
Payne has turned Phoenix Suns Nation into his own personal rally with his dynamic play and grasp of the backup point guard position. Against the Heat, he proved every campaign has its bumps.
It isn’t that Payne played poorly, but his shots weren’t dropping with the consistency they were previously. He finished just 2-7 from the field.
Part of that could be because he played more minutes with the starters due to Rubio’s early foul trouble. It is one thing to make hard drives to the basket when the only other scoring threat on the floor is Dario Saric, but when Devin Booker is out there, passing him the ball is often the better option.
Cam did just that, as he dished out five assists on the night.
Still, the Phoenix Suns have seen more from him and the problem with playing well early is that everyone starts to expect that same level of play every night.
As a great philosopher (probably) one said: Today’s favor is tomorrow’s obligation.
That goes for the Suns’s winning too. After five straight, everyone is now expecting them to win their next one. And their next one. And their next one. The thing is, they just might do it.