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Phoenix Suns Cam Johnson (23), Devin Booker (1) and Chris Paul (3) celebrate Johnson’s last-second 3-pointer to complete the third quarter against the Portland Trail Blazers in the second half of a NBA basketball Monday, February. 22, 2021, in Phoenix. (AP Photo / Darryl Webb)
PHOENIX – Since an epic collapse against the Brooklyn Nets last Tuesday, the Phoenix Suns have been conscious of keeping the lead.
This has been said repeatedly by several players after a 132-100 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday.
The suns are just locked up.
The result was three straight wins in unbalanced quarterfinals. In 12-minute bursts over the past week, Phoenix beat New Orleans by 29, Memphis by 18 and the Blazers by 20.
In the third quarter against Portland at the Phoenix Suns Arena, the Suns used a pressure defense, 12 points from Devin Booker and nine more from Deandre Ayton to call it a night start.
Phoenix (20-10) held Portland at 7 of 23 (30%) and hit 60% themselves to beat the Blazers in the period.
“I love it when we defend the way we did it,” said Suns head coach Monty Williams. “They had 17 points in the third quarter. It was the game for me, right there.
Booker had 34 points at the end of his night. He was 10 more than Damian Lillard of Portland, a viable MVP contender who averages 30 points and carried a team without CJ McCollum, Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins to an 18-12 mark.
Lillard still scored 24 points and added seven assists in 29 minutes.
The Suns, however, used small doses of pressure all over the Mikal Bridges field to disrupt the Portland offense, then aggressively covered themselves on screens, prompting Lillard to drive.
“It’s a term we use: cut off the snake’s head,” Devin Booker said of the Lillard-centric defense. “With guys like him, if there are guys like him, you have to keep going.
“Just make it difficult for him.” No man can stop it.
The Suns’ assist defense held up well, aside from instability in the second quarter against the pick-and-roll. After that “murky” period, in Williams’ words, Phoenix came out of halftime on a tear, scoring 10 points on four turnovers.
“We have a lot of respect for this team and for Damian,” said Williams. “He’s tearing the league apart right now.”
One game after holding second-year point guard Ja Morant to 12 points – conceded in just 28 minutes in a blowout – Bridges started strong against Lillard.
He caused a roll in the backcourt by putting pressure on Lillard and forcing a Blazer to throw the ball out of the point guard’s reach. Later, Bridges blocked Lillard’s route to the rim.
Lillard made three turnovers in the first quarter and six at the end of his night.
He went 1 for 7 beyond the arc as the Suns extended their defensive pickup point to keep him from attacking more than 27 feet.
“I think he’s not playing with the ball… if you’re backed up he’s going to shoot it, if you press on it he passes you,” Bridges said ahead of Monday’s game. “He hits you with a dribble that you could bite into, but gives you a chance to come back.
“I think he’s doing this deliberate move and throwing you off balance. He knows what he’s doing. He’s an incredible player.
In his final three seconds on the pitch Monday, Lillard found himself defending Booker, who took his all-star spot as a substitute last season.
Booker hit a three-point step back that put Phoenix ahead by 26 points with 2.6 seconds left.
The Blazers immediately threw a long inbound pass that went straight out of bounds. So the Suns, under their own basket, threw the ball at Cam Johnson for a three-buzzer corner kick that capped the huge 12 minutes and felt like the official seal of a Phoenix win.
The end of the third felt like an encapsulation of the whole game.
Williams said communication and understanding of his defensive plan played a role in the unbalanced three-game quarterback streak in Phoenix’s favor.
Among the turnovers that helped the entire game, Williams started off by crediting Bridges, who added 10 points, five assists and two blocks.
“I think Mikal Bridges, he’s a big part of that,” Williams said. “His ability to keep tough offensive players, and often his length, he gets his hands on a lot of balls or he forces a lot of suspension passes because he’s long. In the back, our guys can get flights or diversions.
Halftime helped stabilize Ayton, who finished with 19 points, five rebounds and two blocks. He found himself a target of pick-and-roll action late in the second quarter, but recovered to help Phoenix in the third.
At the end of the period, he stayed in front of Lillard during a paint attack and forced a trip. Seconds later, Ayton slammed into the offensive glass and dipped the ball to give Phoenix the lead, 86-65.
Lillard, by the way, probably exerted a bit of energy at the start by keeping Booker, a move that exemplifies his competitiveness but backfired on a player with three or more inches on him.
Booker scored Phoenix’s first six points of the night and finished with 17 points in the first quarter. By the end of the third quarter and in just 29 minutes, Booker had accumulated his 34 points on 12 of 17 shots.
Still, it’s that locked-down defense that turned into the offensive gear for the Suns.
By night’s end, they had forced 17 turnovers for 24 points.
“Once we have stops we’re all confident on the other end,” said Bridges. “It makes you more confident when you know, when you get more saves on defense you can go out and be more aggressive because you get saves. It’s like that when you play basketball. “
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