Suns win late again, top 76ers as Durant closes the show, scores 35

On By Littum

game

The Phoenix Suns does not lack dramatic endings – or victories.

They again found themselves in a tight one late to come away with a fifth straight win, 118-116, over the Philadelphia 76ers before a sellout crowd of 17,071 Monday night at the Footprint Center.

Kevin Durant completed a game-high 35-point performance with a driving basket to put the Suns (6-1) ahead by two with 24 seconds left. Durant scored 15 of his 35 in the fourth on 6-of-8 shooting.

Phoenix closed the game with a defensive stop when Paul George missed a jumper and Tyrese Maxey missed a desperation 3 at the buzzer.

Six Suns reached double figures as Bradley Beal went for 17 points. Jusuf Nurkic posted a double-double of 15 points and 15 boards.

Royce O’Neale scored 15 points, going 3-of-4 from 3, Grayson Allen chipped in 13 and Devin Booker added 13 on a dismal 3-of-18 shooting.

Maxey led 76ers (1-5) with 32 points, hitting 6-of-15 from deep, Guerschon Yabusele went for 19 off the bench, while George added 15 in his 76ers debut.

Philadelphia is still without Joel Embiid, who has not played this season as he has been ruled out with a left knee injury.

Here are five takeaways from Monday’s game. The Suns conclude a three-game homestand Wednesday against the Miami Heat at 19.00

Durant in the clutch

Suns point guard Tyus Jones spoke after Monday’s morning shootaround that Booker, Durant and Beal are a luxury because they can “help you out” with their ability to score.

Hours later, Durant did just that with back-to-back baskets to win the game.

Jones also said being organized on offense is necessary.

“The more we can put them in better positions to give them room to put the ball in the basket, the better,” Jones said. “To answer your question, you can probably get away with it more, but we also don’t want to rely on it or put too much pressure on them to bail us out of tough situations.”

Durant is always up for that challenge as are Booker and Beal. The problem is, one of them shouldn’t do what Durant had to do in the fourth against a team that is without their best player.

The Suns have improved from a season ago, but they still need to find a way to win in the end. Their biggest margin of victory has been 12 points.

The rest of Phoenix’s wins have been by single digits.

As great as Durant is, the more the Suns can put teams away earlier, the more he’ll have in the tank when the time comes to take down some of the better teams with heroics down the stretch.

14-3 finish

Don’t know if Philadelphia lost this game or if Phoenix won it.

The 76ers led by nine, 113-104, on Yabusele’s fifth 3-pointer with 5:16 left. Yes, the guy who killed it for France at the Paris Olympics. It’s him, fro, headband and all.

Philadelphia missed five of their next six shots.

The Suns contributed to that when Beal did a yeoman’s job guarding Maxey all night, even with a bruised elbow and shoulder, but the 76ers should have shut this one out.

Even with that, the Sixers were up five with 2:04 left and then committed back-to-back turnovers. Kelly Oubre Jr. committed two fouls with 1:40 left.

Durant and Allen each made two free throws to pull the Suns within one, but here’s the crazy part. All that happened in 24 seconds.

Had Philadelphia taken care of the ball and at least gotten a shot up, the Suns would have had less time to mount their comeback and might be behind by five if the 76ers scored on those two possessions.

Started to think Philadelphia was losing it, but Durant supplied Phoenix’s final two possessions with baskets and Allen came up with a huge offensive rebound to give the Suns another shot.

Durant sizes Yabusele up.

Grill chicken. Durant to the rim.

So maybe it’s a case of both. Then again, maybe not.

What happens to Booker?

Booker is on pace to win Western Conference Player of the Week after averaging 33.7 points in three wins last week, but he has been ice cold the last two games.

He went 9-of-23 from the field in Saturday’s win over Portland, went 2-of-10 from 3, but scored 28 points. Booker followed that up with an even worse shooting performance Monday, an 0-of-6 effort on 3s.

Looks good, but he’s looking to attack the rim more than in the past. It has allowed him to get to the line more, but he has also taken more falls to the floor.

He finds his shot. It’s never been a problem as Booker has had bad stretches before, but he can’t seem to find a rhythm.

It could be the replacement patterns. Booker has gone from playing the entire first quarter to coming out midway through the game. Suns coach Mike Budenholzer has talked about taking into account what can happen at the end of a game and keeping guys fresh.

This could pay off down the road for Booker.

Nurkic double-double, but turnover issues?

Double-double is nice for the big guy.

Hitting another 3 is good, even though he’s now 4-of-19 from distance, but turnovers are a problem.

Nurkic coughed it up five times Monday. Just being careless with the ball.

That can’t continue if the Suns are going to use him as a facilitator. The 7-footer has 26 turnovers in seven games, but he had the highest plus/minus of Monday’s game with a plus-16.

Weird isn’t it?

The Suns went down the stretch with him instead of going small, but Nurkic had a really bad turnover late. He needs to be better so the Suns don’t become even more reliant on small ball.

George debut, role in Philly

George made his 76ers debut after sitting out with a bruised left knee suffered in a preseason game.

We know the skill set. He can score at all three levels. He is 6-8 with the size and ability to get in the paint. Handle.

76ers coach Nick Nurse went into the game to play him in short bursts early and tried not to have George log heavy minutes.

He ended up playing 32 minutes. Not sure if he was slated to play that many, but Philadelphia will need him to perform at an elite level to compete with Boston and New York.

He will be the third option when Embiid comes back because Maxey is the clear No. 2 on this team.

Maxey is not only an All-Star, but one of the hardest guys to cover because of his quickness, acceleration and trickiness with the ball. Also much stronger this year.

The offense will run with Embiid, but Maxey will likely have the ball down because it’s a guard league. So George will have to come in where he can fit and deliver in those moments when opponents double Embiid or Maxey.

This may be George’s last chance to win a championship. If the 76ers do it, he will be the X-factor. If they don’t, he will shoulder a significant portion of the blame.

Do you have opinions about the current state of the sun? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at [email protected] or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.

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