PHOENIX – We should try to give Devin Booker different problems and see how he would solve them. I don’t even question whether he could or not. My car now makes this strange noise when I start it. The bedroom door keeps getting stuck. Our air conditioning is broken.
He would manage to fix everything. This man might as well have had a toolbox on the court Wednesday, as his return after a five-game absence healed the Phoenix Suns on the court and dampened the mood in a 133-115 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Despite a minutes restriction, Booker finished the game with 31 points on 12 of 22 shooting, four rebounds, five assists and two turnovers in 26 minutes.
With Minnesota (8-3) playing better basketball than anyone else, Booker had complete control of the NBA’s top defense.
“The pop was there, I just played with the tempo,” Kevin Durant said. “This is what we need. It’s good to have our point guard back.”
Those who haven’t been lucky enough to witness his progress over the years will have nights like Wednesday where they watch Booker orchestrate and think this is a gigantic leap from ninth-grade guard, but he’s had this for a while in itself.
Nevertheless, as expected, he has improved again and the prospects are good for him to be successful in a role as host of the show this year.
His pace in dissecting the defense was masterful, changing pace to create the gaps he wanted before capitalizing on them. Rudy Gobert, one of the greatest rim protectors of all time, has returned to Defensive Player of the Year form, and you wouldn’t have guessed it given the way Booker broke the anchor.
Booker was forced to miss five games with a right calf strain and was +17 when he shared the court with Gobert for 17:40 of game time. Gobert had a -25 total for the game and Booker had a net equalizer.
The best part is that Booker has made everything a lot easier for his teammates through the so-called Steve Nash effect in this area. Durant was able to score within a few minutes of the game, which he preferred to dominating the ball, which he was forced to do at times this season. Phoenix’s glaring turnover problems were gone, with only three of the nine turnovers occurring in the first half, and all of those occurred either right at the start or at the end of the half.
“Adding Book just makes everything easier for everyone,” Durant said.
Those factors combined gave Phoenix (5-6) a lead of 14 midway through the first quarter, a lead that grew to 20 in the second quarter after Minnesota initially cut the deficit to six by the end of the opening period. The Suns quickly got up to 28 points in the third quarter and ended up with 110 points.
Minnesota had just picked up a hard-fought victory against a severely undermanned Golden State Warriors team in the Bay the night before, prevailing at the crucial time and putting themselves in another position where they had to really fight hard to win .
There was no such battle on Wednesday, despite the Suns’ gigantic problems in the fourth quarter of late.
Durant scored 31 points (11 of 15) with six rebounds, six assists and two turnovers.
On the night that the Suns’ Big 3 of Bradley Beal, Booker and Durant were expected to play together for the first time this regular season, Beal (lower back spasms) arrived late, dampening the excitement Building up Booker helped turn things around again.
Beal was originally listed as likely and rumored to be a prospect to make her debut with the Big 3. His first appearance of the season came three games ago after defenses kept him out for the first seven games of the season, and he still hasn’t looked like himself. Head coach Frank Vogel said Beal pinched his back in the first half of Sunday’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, with whom Beal continued to play. Vogel said Beal woke up Wednesday with some “residual tension” that didn’t ease several times an hour before the tip.
This is the second time since preseason that plans for Beal’s availability have had to change due to his back. Given that, the injury seems pretty sensitive at the moment and Beal can’t play through it without some level of discomfort. Phoenix certainly got Beal to the point where the risk of re-injury was as low as possible and he could only make it three games. Unless we see Beal play grimace-free and avoid any flare-ups over a decent game, this is a cause for concern.
Even if Beal and Booker were on a minutes restriction, the matchup would have been an intriguing game right from the start, forcing the Timberwolves’ jumbo frontcourt of Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns to defend more on the perimeter and have someone like the 36- The 1.80 meter tall Mike Conley, like Beal, should take on a first-class assignment.
The opposite was how Phoenix would handle that size, a dynamic we could clearly see after the Suns decided to start Grayson Allen and Eric Gordon. Despite being down 16-5, the Suns didn’t have much trouble with offensive rebounding and, more importantly, they had plenty of floor space thanks to the extra shots.
Phoenix’s supporting cast included some great performances, including Josh Okogie’s comeback with 12 points (3-for-3 on 3) after missing 12 straight three-pointers in the last six games. Gordon (15 points) and Allen (14) also hit a trio of three-pointers, and Drew Eubanks added 13 points off the bench, a team best of the season so far.
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The Suns did a fantastic job executing their game plan to limit the dynamic Anthony Edwards by cutting off his space with big players who played high screen plays and creating the necessary rotations on the back end. He was unable to find room to maneuver all night, a reflection of Vogel’s abilities on defense and concerns about how Gobert-Towns operates in the best postseason environments. Okogie and Jordan Goodwin played big roles in holding Edwards to a season-low 13 points on 4 of 16, and Vogel also specifically called out the bigs as part of that effort.