Elite Kevin Durant Performance Leads Phoenix Suns To Bounce Back Win In Houston

Elite Kevin Durant Performance Leads Phoenix Suns To Bounce Back Win In Houston

The Phoenix Suns got the bounceback they’ve been looking for on Wednesday night in Houston on today’s episode of Locked on suns how the win came together and why this just might be the best we’ve seen from Durant in his son’s Jersey let’s go you are locked on suns your daily

Phoenix Suns podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every Day we are back this is lockon Phoenix Suns we are part of the lockon podcast Network I’m your host Brendan clean a credential media member covering the Suns for the past seven seasons a writer ATS suns.com and the host of the just basketball show wherever you get your

Podcast a big thank you for making locked on suns your first listen here on a victory Wednesday night maybe Thursday morning when you’re catch cing the show appreciate each and every one of you joining me to celebrate the W Today’s Show is brought to you by prize picks

The easiest most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports go to priz picks.com lockon NBA use the code all lowercase locked on NBA for a first deposit match up to $100 the Phoenix Suns w129 to13 we’re diving into every angle of the win and Kevin Durant’s virtuoso performance today if you have not

Already hit follow or sub subscribe get this show in your feet every single Monday through Friday become an every dayer get locked onto the Suns right along with me all season long we have two moments of the game today two the first one well they go they go hand

Inand they are the beginning of the second quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter where in both cases because of the Stagger that the Suns use Durant was the only of the star players on the court the suns were up the beginning of the second quarter 30 to 24 when Booker checked

In they were up 49 to 33 so that is a 19 to9 run to open the quarter the first six minutes of the quarter Durant had let us see five five points and four assists on those during that stretch so he created nine points 14 points by

Himself in the beginning of the fourth quarter the suns were up 104 to 84 to start the the quarter when Booker checked into the game the suns were up 113 to 98 they lost that but they withstood the beginning of what would ultimately become a little bit of a hot

Streak for the Rockets from Deep tar een cam Whitmore twice cam Whitmore three times and on down the line that stretch even having the lead go from 20 to 15 losing that stretch quote unquote in the first four minutes and 45 seconds with Booker on the bench that is

A moment where the Suns have collapsed time and again right and to go through the numbers I did in that second quarter for this stretch Durant had five of the Suns nine points as well as okay no assists but still five of nine points got to the free throw line and made a

Three those two moments get you to a dominant double digigit win the suns were plus 17 tonight in Durant 41 minutes which means they were minus one in the minutes he did not play Devin Booker who was also solid but not nearly as special on this particular night as

Durant the Suns only outscored the rockets by 13 in his minutes right which means that in the 12 minutes that Booker did not play the sun’s actually won those minutes right so that that Stark reality show or Stark difference I should say shows you how this game mapped out the

Suns as crazy as it may be this is how this team is going to win they don’t need 276 and 10 from Kevin Durant in order to win games but they need at least one of these guys to be special every night and tonight Durant was that

We’ll get into some more specifics about how in the next segment but during these stretches to open the second and the fourth where he basically was just sort of able to cook it went a long way toward the Suns winning this game right he was out there with Sabin Lee chimi

Metu a little bit of nurkic nir little it was sort of it you know Brooklyn Nets style lineups Durant plus role players and he made it work fourth quarter he’s out there with Lee with again nir little again chimi metu and maybe in that case Grayson

Allen no he he he entered the game later on Gordon I believe yeah Gordon so the ball was in his hands the Rockets were desperate by the fourth quarter for sure and we’ve seen sometimes where that doesn’t work because guys don’t make shots or the flow is not really there or there’s some

Bad decision making or leaky defense Suns just figured it out and Durant was a huge reason why and without those two stretches especially the second quarter when the Suns piled up 43 total points this game is not in hand the way that it ended up being with that

Said there’s much more to celebrate on a night like this when the Suns get out of a rut and show up what they’re capable of once again so next up my big takeaway from this game which was not unlike what Eric Gordon said postgame to Amanda flugrad

On the broadcast we’ll get into what that all means next first Today’s Show brought to you by prize picks who have come in and what they have done is that they fixed daily fantasy sports for you for me for everybody with this basketball season here you can also now

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Finally have a win to hang their hat on I understand that it is Houston I understand that it is the second night of a back toback I understand that Jabari Smith went out even I think this is one to be proud of I was actually listening

To some podcast or watching some show I don’t know where they tried to say that the Suns or maybe it was just on Twitter I have no idea where the Suns don’t have a like a signature win because when they beat Minnesota the one seed by the way

At home well the Wolves were on the road on the second night of a back toback so that one doesn’t really count okay BS the Rockets were also on the second night of a back toback tonight they had just lost to Indiana last night I don’t

Care first of all this was a home game for them the Suns raised their road record to seven and six pulling above 500 in that category meanwhile the Rockets prior to tonight had been 12-2 at home young team on the second night of a backtack I don’t care this is a win to

Be proud of both because it got them out of a rut but secondly because this is a quality team this is a team whose record is better than Phoenix’s right now and a team who has a clear identity and on one side of the ball is typically dominant right excuse me

Houston has a great defense Dylan Brooks was out tonight that obviously gave the Suns an advantage if you’re a locked on suns Insider subscriber which you can sign up for at the link in the in the show description below or at join subtext docomo on suns for exclusive content

Reactions to every Suns rumor and a weekly video breakdown there’s the plug but if you already are a subscriber there you would have known that I felt pretty good about this game for Phoenix I felt like it was a pretty good opportunity for them to come in and

Seize the moment because of Brooks’s absence because of the second night of a back-to-back but also because I did not think Houston could keep up with them offensively the point is this is a team whose defense tends to be pretty strong what the Suns went out and did is scored

73 points in the first half 129 total despite a bunch of turnovers and showed the League what they’re capable of showed this fan base showed themselves what they are capable of and to Circle back to Gordon’s comments which I teased at the end of that last segment he was

Asked about his performance about the team’s performance by Amanda flugrad postgame and he said this is how we need to play every night and that brings me to the other obvious takeaway that you would have to have from a game like this they didn’t just win by getting hot

From Deep or running up against a bad team or getting lucky the Suns won by doing exactly the things that they need to do to execute starting with the opening roster uh lineup announcement all right um I know nurkic had foul trouble but I’ve been plugging on this show and on

Twitter and everywhere just how good this fiveman unit is of Booker Allen Gordon Durant and nurkic that fiveman unit is hugely in the positive POS for the Suns and they finally started it tonight nurkic was a plus two in the minutes he did play so I would imagine

The 14 minutes not all of them were this whole fiveman unit but let’s say it’s like eight it performed well it proved exactly what the numbers have been telling us that it can work right and it worked because the ball movement was aggressive you had Durant leading the away with incredibly quick decisions

And simplifying the game for the team all I mean I don’t want to say all some of them probably must have been in transition I believe there was that little dunk that Durant assisted on but just about every single assist that this man had tonight was on just immediate snap second perfect

Decisions in simple situations pick and roll and high post isos that was how Durant got his assist tonight enter the ball to him in the high post double comes make the right pass and a lot of the time he was so on top of it that those assists

Came immediately right that they were credited to him because he just got it to a pass ahead of the defensive rotation not Swing Swing Swing but Durant said I’m going to deliver this where it needs to go that person is going to shoot the ball and they

Did pick and roll picking up where metu and others left off a couple nice feeds to nurkic multiple nice feeds to asabuki couple de metu on that short roll because again the defense blitzed SL hedged against Durant when he was handling the ball in those pick and roll

Situations the big man comes up Durant dump it off buckets right Gordon huge part of that being a guy when the ball got to him to immediately pull that trigger similar to what Grayson Allen was doing on Christmas day all of those things led by Durant led by

Gordon that is why this starting lineup can be so dangerous that is why wins like this are possible and that is why Gordon said this is what the style needs to be the mentality needs to be the approach needs to be every single night that’s why this wind was so

Impressive because the Suns did the things that they ought to be doing every night and it worked and honestly it felt like they were having fun I mean the players of course it’s fun to win it’s fun to score but the bench during a lot of these stretches especially the second quarter

When they put up 43 the bench is going crazy guys like Jordan Goodwin who didn’t even play Bradley Beal who obviously is stressed and frustrated that he’s not out there they are hyped Beyond hype because they felt the weight lifted off the shoulders the execution finally coming together and everything

Else the other part of why this is so impressive and exciting is they still made mistakes right 19 turnovers they allowed the Rockets to make 17 threes and okay not all of those are breakdowns you know like Jaylen green if a you know average to above average player

Which is what green has really been this year is going to bomb pull-up threes on you you’ll live with that now if he had kept doing it and made even more you probably need to do something about it but overall he wasn’t that efficient and that’s kind of the only shot he was

Really making tonight so you live with it but some of them were like that others were breakdowns they allowed nine offensive rebounds for Houston now some of those came late in the game from jock landale in garbage time but you catch my drift here the the nerkish foul trouble this was not a

Perfect game remember I said they did not get lucky here this was not a Confluence of events of everything lining up and you Crown the team on accident no the Suns earned this despite mistakes and it leaves you pretty excited for what can continue to come out

Of playing this style putting the right players on the court being decisive being aggressive being smart Frank vogle said pregame before the Dallas game postgame after the Dallas game at various practices throughout the week that the team was close and that probably felt crazy but I told you guys when I broke

Down the Dallas game on Christmas that there were reasons for optimism this game was a cont a continuation of that and without making excuses because some of these turnovers were still ugly and there’s still plenty of things to be figured out they are still a team of entirely new

Players and this is only month 10 but obviously you don’t count the summer this is you know month five really a Booker and Durant playing together some of these mistakes are natural even the games that they were winning early in the season when we all got so excited first off during the win

Streak and everything else featured a lot of turnovers featured a lot of mistakes featured some breakdowns but when they play like this they can overcome all of that because that’s why this team was built this way and that’s why this team had our attention coming into the year not

Everything is fixed one game does not get you fully on track there will be ugly moments there will be questions to be sorted out but a lot of things were trending toward this game happening they put it together and they earned a win they can be proud

Of let’s zoom in on the starting lineup the rotation some of the other numbers that have defined this stretch of Suns basketball that trended the other direction tonight next first Today’s Show brought to you by FanDuel the best place to head all winter long because as the weather stays

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NFL closing out the show a couple of things to hit talked about the turnovers let’s do the box score odity to start with here that is going to be the threes okay the Suns made 14 Gordon and Durant made 10 of those and all 14 were from the starting

Lineup which is sort of crazy but the bigger thing as we’ve talked about many times is that the Suns got up 33 threes that is a good number I I think it can even go higher Allen for instance only took four nobody on the bench really got it going from Deep not

Chimi metu not nir little and Bradley Beal is not of course playing still and you would imagine he helps there so I think 33 is sort of a b a baseline it should be the floor almost but that is a good number nevertheless a lot of the time when you

Make a lot of Threes your assists will go up and the Suns had 28 of those compared to just 20 for the rockets that is all exactly what you would like to see last but not least the Suns had 12 points off turnovers but 10 fast break points 50 points in the paint

However you want to slice at this was an incredible offensive game their halfcourt offensive rating was 122 points per 100 possessions that would lead the league by a mile that is not that’s that would lead the league as a total offense including transition opportunities and that’s what the Suns

Did against a top 10 defense on Wednesday night there is no other way to put what they did tonight other than Elite bench mob Vibe check to close us out the Suns mixed everything up tonight and then they had Yousef nerkish foul trouble but we are starting to learn what this rotation

Version 7.0 is going to look like for the foreseeable future foreseeable future could be two games I don’t think Bradley Beal will be back Friday I know that I said that probably at various points on this podcast but that was partially because of his weird comments uh to Mark Spears over at The

Undefeated about returning soon trying to return on Christmas uh I don’t think that was ever in the cards Frank vogle this week called him hobbled and referenced a timeline of the month of January whatever that means obviously the Suns play Friday they play New Year’s Eve so would be neither of those

Games and then I I believe that they have a backtack on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week against Portland and the Clippers maybe they try to bring him back for that I would think ideally you only play him in one of those games but

What do I know that is a tangent I just wanted to clarify because I keep saying something that is outdated now I don’t expect to see him on Friday but it’s the freaking Hornets who should still win and I think the the rotation is also being built to absorb

Him a little bit better than it was and stylistically this team’s approach the past definitely two games feels like one that he can step into more cohesively right away so let me get more specific rather than being so vague the most interesting thing from the rotation to

Me is not udoka asabuki playing over Janks or even playing so much over metu tonight cuz shenon played and shenon is somebody you have to handle what surprised me more than that over the past two games and and tonight is how little a kogi and Goodwin played right Ki barely played the other

Night I know it’s his first first game back maybe they’re trying to bring him along slowly I think it’s more because of the offensive struggles but they wanted an answer for for Luca and the Mavs offense so Goodwin ended up playing but both of them were 10 or

Fewer minutes same thing tonight 10 for aogi zero for Jordan Goodwin and then we got 12 from Sabin Lee the reason that’s all interesting to me is because it sort of backs up what I thought we were headed toward early in the season even during the win streak as

We looked toward Beal’s first return to the court when it felt like the suns were assuming an offense first identity an offense first identity does not have a whole lot of room for a coar Goodwin it just doesn’t is Grayson Allen a perfect answer as a point of attack Defender no he’s

Not the amount even that Booker had to work tonight when green started to get hot not not ideal necessarily but if those guys can work hard and the defensive structure can hold up and effort is there we are seeing that that unit can survive because the offense is going to

Be so hard to handle the ripple effect of that down to aogi or Goodwin or Sabin Lee is you don’t want to disrupt what you’re doing and so there’s only so much space for guys who can’t score what’s interesting to me about the Sabin Lee minutes lately is he’s smaller

Sure but he I don’t know if I guess I guess I’ll just say it I think he might be the best offensive player of the three even though he also is not really a shooting threat he doesn’t even want to take him because his release is so

Slow and he’s not going to make a lot but he can do more with the ball in his hands driving to the basket and dishing than those guys he gets to the free throw line because he’s so physical guys have to opponents have to foul him and he’s a better passer right

So I kind of get it now he’s only on a two-way the sun’s played it’s a little Rocky and and weird when two of your more impactful rotation players in a game that you win are two-way guys but hell I will take it and I think everybody in that locker room will take

It today too I don’t know if it continues with Sabin specifically but the especially with Beal coming back but the point bigger than that is the dwindling of aogi and Goodwins minutes there will be matchups where they simply need it I would imagine those guys will continue to get some

Spot minutes because you need to have them be ready you need to have everybody be used to playing with them in case they need to play in the playoffs but this team is realizing that it is an offense first team and that Booker playing hard on defense Durant

Playing hard on defense eventually Beal playing hard on defense and the scheme helping them out has to be how the defense comes together it is it is not going to be viable to give Josh aogi 30 minutes because teams like Dallas just did are going to make him shoot make him

Make decisions and he is not the type of player this far into his career that is going to be the answer there that’s where we are right now the other takeaway from that rotation observation is that it highlights the need as we approach trade season for a player who provides the defense is

Especially on Perimeter playmakers that aogi and Goodwin and Lee do but who is more playable on offense that is why the Suns have likely been interest interested in TJ McConnell in the past even though he’s also a small player but let’s think bigger than that

Jon Tate who we just saw start this game for Houston can guard guards can guard Wings makes threes comfortable with the ball in his hands think he’s better than all three of those guys Delon Wright is somebody that I’ve talked about on Twitter I think I may have brought him up on the

Podcast he would probably be a nir little trade but he is a solid point of attack Defender who can make good decisions with the ball in his hands a veteran and makes open threes just planting the seed we’re not doing a trade show but that’s where my head was at watching how the

Rotation broke down not only tonight but against Tuesday against the Mavs on Tuesday as well we’ll see how that shapes up we’ll see what Beal does and how that continues to transform this team but that will wrap us up for the day thank you for listening hit follow

Hit subscribe wherever you found the show be back Thursday sorry be back Friday with Aaron Edwards to close out the week be on the lookout for an announcement about the future of this show on Twitter and on here on the feed before along enjoy your Thursday everybody and I will catch you next

Time

Kevin Durant was at the peak of his powers as the Phoenix Suns got a much needed road win over the Houston Rockets.

Brendon Kleen of @justbasketballfans breaks down how KD led bench units to maintain the Suns’ momentum as part of his virtuoso night, all the reasons the Suns should be proud of this win, and what a new rotation tells us about the Suns right now.

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