Kevin Durant, Suns continue crunchy brilliance

On By Littum

PHOENIX — For a game full of complexities and nuances, NBA basketball doesn’t need to be complicated, even in the tightest moments.

The Phoenix Suns did two incredibly simple things on the same, repeated play in crunch time to get Kevin Durant the ball in a 115-112 victory over the Miami Heat on Wednesday. And that was all they had to do.

“Sometimes you just have to get out of the players’ way,” Suns head coach Mike Budenholzer said. “Try and let them be their best.”

Big NBA teams are never afraid to spam a play call that works, and with the contacts the Heat gave up, the Suns had Bradley Beal set a screen on Tyus Jones to get Tyler Herro to defend the ball. From there, Durant laid one down on Herro to either make Herro defend him or force his defender Haywood Highsmith to get back to him.

Durant hit his patented one-legged fadeaway over Herro to put the Suns up five with 2:53 left. He then missed a deep 3 before a reset on the same play had Durant finding room on the elbow moving toward the baseline. That followed directly after Highsmith came over to get Herro away from Durant, as that plus pass allowed Durant to get leaner in rhythm. Credit to Devin Booker for the feed, allowing Durant to step into his shot while Highsmith held back the other side on his recovery.

“He’s an all-around passer who can make those reads at any time,” Durant said of Booker’s feed. “Unselfish, at the end of the game that would give me the ball.”

Miami was done allowing Herro to be put in that position, so next time Highsmith had to hold back Jones’ driving lane before returning to Durant. It was too much space to cover and Durant fouled Highsmith’s free throw.

With under 35 seconds left and the Suns up by two, they went back to the well one last time. Highsmith this time did a much better job of tagging back to Durant. But Durant caught the ball at the top of the key, repositioned a little in the triple threat and just towered over him in the most Kevin Durant shot you’ll ever see. Money.

A look at all three buckets:

Free throws and fouling hi-jinx closed it out from there. Miami actually had a chance to tie it at three when Booker’s attempted foul was not called. But the Heat’s pass that took Jimmy Butler inside the 3-point line with three seconds left because of a leaping Royce O’Neale. As Butler stepped back to the line, O’Neale came flying in for another big rush in seconds to force a pass that ended the game.

Durant is now shooting 10-for-15 in clutch time this season, meaning the final five minutes when it’s a five-point game or less. Phoenix is ​​6-0 in those games, the only NBA team with at least five such wins.

“I think these moments are good, we’ve been in a lot of close, close games,” Durant said. “I’m sure Suns fans are on edge every game, but I think it’s good for our team that we can play these games in the fourth quarter and get an understanding of what it’s like in times of crisis. It’s a good victory for us.”

The Suns were 20-21 in clutch games last season, and the late execution is a dramatic turnaround from the fourth-quarter night terrors of the year before.

“I don’t want to compare it to last year,” Booker said. “I feel like we’re organized, we find what works and Kevin Durant is a (expletive) to deal with.”

Durant scored 23 of his 32 points in the second half with eight rebounds, three assists and six turnovers. Two of those turnovers came in a segment in the middle of the third quarter when the game really got away from Phoenix. It trailed by 15 and began to falter defensively before a 15-3 surge in the final 2:54 of the period put the Suns back within three.

“It was huge,” Durant said of the end of the third quarter. “I think that was the game right there. … We cut that lead pretty quickly. The turnover kept them in the game. They had 20 points off our turnover. That’s the stat that stood out to me. … For the most part, I think we did a solid job on defense.”

They would then take a four point lead via a Durant 3 at 7:04 to go and maintain control from there.

This follows what has essentially become the script for a Suns run in 2024-25: Play somewhere between below-average to above-average basketball for the majority of the game, get an elite spurt somewhere in there, then win the game in during the last time.

Jusuf Nurkic had his best game of the season with 20 points and 18 rebounds. He played a role in a dreadful 5-of-21 shooting night for Heat All-Star center Bam Adebayo.

Booker added 22 points and nine assists, and while Beal’s box score wasn’t pretty, this was another great defensive game for him. He finished with seven points, two rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks.

Rookie Ryan Dunn knocked down his first two 3-point attempts, a good sign that his confidence didn’t dip after failing to convert on his last nine shots from deep. However, Dunn sprained his left ankle in the second half. He will be evaluated on Thursday.

Herro was nearly the star of the show with 28 points and was the standout performer before Durant’s exit.

It is the fourth time in franchise history that the Suns have started a season 7-1. A look down memory lane with this franchise is always fun because of how many sneaky good repeats the Suns have had.

The 1980-81 campaign was smack in the middle of the highly successful John MacLeod tenure on a team with three All-Stars: Walter Davis, Dennis Johnson and Truck Robinson. The 2000-01 Suns only had Penny Hardaway in four games in January, but were still good through Jason Kidd in his prime, a rising Shawn Marion and the always underrated Clifford Robinson. Finally, the 2009-10 Western Conference finalists were the last hurray for the seven seconds or less Steve Nash era.

The 1980 group got off to the best Suns start ever, 11-1, and even went 23-4. All three of those teams won at least 50 games.