Suns Survive Another Close Win, Keep Running Late vs. Mavs

On By Littum

Some teams have to go through an entire NBA season to figure out how to win games. Some teams, like last year’s Phoenix Suns, never find out.

This iteration already has it a few weeks before Thanksgiving, with Friday’s 114-113 win over the Dallas Mavericks marking Phoenix’s latest crunch-time victory.

The Suns are now 7-0 in games designated clutch time when the margin is within five points and the game is under five minutes. They improve to 8-1 overall on the season and have won seven straight.

While Kevin Durant has led them in most of those instances, and he started that window with a pair of 3s, this was more of the sloppy and disjointed variety of winning times that often occur.

He and Dallas’ Kyrie Irving were putting on a clinic that would qualify as an art exhibit before things got weird.

The cinema that unfolded devolved into something of the aforementioned chaotic flow, and the defining segment came when Jusuf Nurkic stripped Irving on ball-screen defense on a draw, giving the Suns the ball with 36 seconds left. Durant got an open 3 on the sideline out of bounds, but missed it. However, Bradley Beal got up on the offensive glass to get a partial piece of the ball, so it landed in Nurkic’s hands for a free dunk to go up two with 31.4 seconds left.

Mavericks guard Luka Doncic created a free lob on their possession and brought it out, seemingly giving the Suns the final possession of the game. During it, Royce O’Neale screened for Durant to get to a floater he had made earlier in the night, but armed it, only for Nurkic to get another big offensive rebound and foul out with 0.8 seconds left.

Nurkic made one of two, and after a Dallas timeout to advance the ball, Doncic’s touchdown shot from more than 30 feet landed short.

While Durant finished with 26 points on 8-of-14 shooting, six Suns players recorded at least 13 points, including 18 off the bench for O’Neale and a season-high 17 for Tyus Jones. Devin Booker and Beal combined to shoot 2-of-15 from 3 and were 11-of-30 for the game as a whole.

This was the rinse, repeat we’ve seen now nine games into this Suns season. The game’s best spurt came in a first quarter where they shot 8-of-13 from 3 to lead by 10. From there, Phoenix was mostly just fine and did enough defensively to stay in the game before executing in crunch time.

The beginning of the game was one of those nights against Dallas where the duo of Doncic and Irving exclusively generated offense individually, the majority of which did not include the paint. When those two did it, it wasn’t to trigger ball movement, and it really simplifies what a defense has to do against them. The Mavericks can easily fall into this trap, especially when Doncic is dealing with an ailment like his recent groin injury.

That was the story in the first half before Doncic and Irving went on a 15-2 run out of the break to tie the game at 65. Both found a rhythm, so it was all about Phoenix’s initial 1-on-1 defense and rotations after that. Outside of Klay Thompson, Dallas has shooters that help the Suns just fine, especially with the poor start to the season from deep for Spencer Dinwiddie, Quentin Grimes and Naji Marshall. Marshall’s driving game was a difference as he scored nine of his 18 points in the third quarter.

Phoenix was 3-of-17 from 3 in the middle quarters, a stretch that included a decent downtick in the quality of those looks. The Suns weren’t able to produce enough offensively outside of that, totaling 51 points over that time frame to make it another tight one.

Doncic and Irving each got a bucket in the first two minutes of the final frame, indicating that this would be a rough ride for the Suns if the shooting woes continued. They missed their first two attempts, making it look like it would come down to either Durant or Booker getting hot to save the game.

While Durant rested in the front half of the fourth quarter, a key swing came with two possessions when Beal (who was struggling) was unable to score on Mavericks center Dwight Powell, and then Jones (who was great in this game) an open 3 and driving lane. Dallas scored on that Jones possession to go up by six with 7:39 left and Durant checked in again.

Beal then drilled a pivotal 3, Phoenix’s second 3-pointer of the second half, to cut it to three. Marshall hit a 3 for Dallas before a Jones floater made it a one-score game. It was a necessary response to not let Dallas take complete control until the crunch time started, where Phoenix has been nailed thus far and continued to be.

Beal made two more field goals and then it was officially clutch time, then on cue Durant converted on two 3s to match seven straight Irving points to make it a one-point game at 3:17 before the whole went a little crazy.

Doncic (30 points) and Irving (29) combined for 59 points.

Nurkic contributed 15 points, 10 rebounds, two steals and a turnover, his third straight very good game.

Booker was a late addition to the injury report Friday afternoon with an illness that had him listed as questionable. In what is now a full decade of covering Booker, I don’t recall ever seeing him listed with an illness, and a quick search of past injury reports didn’t turn up any results either. He’s definitely played through some bad colds and such over the years, so for this to come up and leave his status in doubt at some point, it should be about how the weather was.

He added 12 assists (with zero turnovers) and six rebounds to his poor shooting night, while Beal’s 6-of-17 outing for 15 points was his worst performance in a season where he has been terrific to begin the year.

Dallas’ depth was really put to the test in this one. Starting centers Dereck Lively II (right shoulder sprain) and PJ Washington (right knee sprain) have both been injured recently, while Maxi Kleber (right hamstring strain) has played just two games this season and Dante Exum (right wrist surgery) has yet to make his debut. This caused the Mavericks to expand to the end of their bench, which includes Powell, who went from their starting 5 to their fourth string 5, and former 2023 first round pick Olivier-Maxence Prosper.

Prosper did not play in the second half, and Dallas had only two reserves over 10 minutes: Dinwiddie (28) and Powell (25). Doncic (42) and Irving (41) went north of 40.

Ryan Dunn did not play after spraining his left ankle. Suns sideline reporter Amanda Pflugrad reported on the telecast that Dunn hopes to play in Sunday’s home game against the Sacramento Kings and that Dunn moved well in the shootaround. Josh Okogie was given the ninth man spot in the rotation. Phoenix has dialed back just that amount after backup point guard Monte Morris logged back-to-back DNPs in the last two games.