The Phoenix Suns escaped Madison Square Garden with a 116-113 victory over the New York Knicks, their seventh straight victory and their best of the season.
Phoenix was missing Grayson Allen (illness), Bradley Beal (lower back strain) and Kevin Durant (right foot soreness), two members of the Big 3 and the best player outside that trio, through 16 games. The Knicks were completely healthy.
This required Devin Booker to break out his shoulder pads to handle the added weight of carrying his team, a piece of equipment that has now become worn out since he’s been asked to put it on so many times over the years, and he still gets the job done .
Booker scored 28 points, 10 of 25, on a rather inefficient evening for him. In his role as point guard, he provided 11 assists with only two turnovers, plus seven more hockey assists (i.e. the pass in preparation for the assist), five rebounds and two blocks. Phoenix was +15 in a three-point win when Booker was there.
In a game in which the Suns had a 14-point lead late in the first quarter and got back to 13 points midway through the third quarter, they stayed within two possessions over the final 17 minutes.
Jalen Brunson scored 20 of his 35 points in the first half, while Julius Randle added 17 of his 28 points in the third quarter to keep New York in the game.
According to several posts from other Suns, which we’ll get to later, Booker was double-teamed early on most of his possessions, and the Knicks’ effort with less than a minute down two forced a violation with 41 seconds left the shot clock.
At the end of the shot clock, Brunson got free on the other end without a squeak and tied the game with a middy with 21 seconds left.
After a Suns timeout, Booker waited for the clock 40 feet from the left wing. With 10 seconds left, the run-and-jump defense that Booker has known for half a decade came after him to try and force him off the ball. Booker passed to Jordan Goodwin to his right, and as the backup defender retreated, Booker ran toward Goodwin to win it back via handoff. Booker then moved from west to east to get far enough downhill to avoid the double. He found just enough space on the right wing, where he rose up and scored the game-winning three-pointer with 1.1 ticks left.
GAME WINNER. pic.twitter.com/70qt2XqCLa
– Phoenix Suns (@Suns) November 27, 2023
The basket was Booker’s sixth career goal with three seconds or less remaining, the second-most in the NBA since he entered the league in 2015, according to Stathead. He is tied with Los Angeles guard Russell Westbrook Clippers, and Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, while Chicago Bulls guard DeMar DeRozan has a lead over the leader.
Brunson’s 32-footer made all sorts of bets to seal the deal.
A shooting performance that was below Booker’s standards and big shots from Brunson and Randle quickly reduced the Suns’ margin of error. Without that trio of injured players, they would need a great effort from Eric Gordon and to hit enough threes to inevitably get Booker some extra attention. They got just enough.
Gordon’s season-high 25 points and six 3s led the team, but great efforts from Jordan Goodwin (14 points, two 3s) and Nassir Little (11 points, three 3s) made 11 of the Suns’ 16 triples (16 for 38, 42, 1 %).
Goodwin also had seven rebounds, five assists, one steal and one block in 29 minutes, his second straight big game on the road trip. Little has really taken advantage of his first real break with consistent playing time over the last five games and has cemented a role in the wing rotation.
Head coach Frank Vogel kept big backup Chimezie Metu in the rotation after filling in for the injured Drew Eubanks in the last two games. With the return of Eubanks, Metu moved to the four-man line, where his great athleticism gives him a chance to hold up defensively while creating space for his developing 3-point shot. The sixth-year USC product is something of an in-betweener in that regard, where he’s not quite big enough to protect the rim as a 5 but lacks the perimeter skills that today’s power forwards must have.
Metu at the 4 gave Phoenix another good rebounder with great size, and since Metu spends his time outside against other reserves, he isn’t really put in problematic positions defensively as long as he completes his help assignments. He did, and on the weak side of the dribble attack, Metu scored a 3 and also had a great two-dribble floater around a finish.
Mezie shows the touch. pic.twitter.com/hBfPY4ZijD
– Phoenix Suns (@Suns) November 26, 2023
Metu fended off both attempts from deep for eight points and grabbed four rebounds.
Phoenix’s defense was a bit inconsistent, but overall was very good for the game. Jusuf Nurkic played a big part in this. Yes, his shortcomings will show and we will see how much he is targeted in the postseason. But he has been reliable and borderline good on defense in recent weeks. He contributed eight points, ten rebounds, four assists, one steal and four blocks in 33 minutes.
Although Keita Bates-Diop (0 of 5 from 3) and Josh Okogie (0 of 3) were unable to make 3-pointers as starters, they combined for a handful of impactful plays, including three of 18 Phoenix offensive rebounds. The Suns, whose main initiators included only Booker, limited turnovers to 11 and collected 27 assists.