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Jae Crowder # 99 of the Phoenix Suns celebrates after hitting a three-point shot against the Atlanta Hawks in the second half of the NBA game at Phoenix Suns Arena on March 30, 2021 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Suns defeated the Hawks 117-110. (Photo by Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
PHOENIX – It wasn’t pretty in the fourth quarter for the Phoenix Suns in their last four games, especially once the crunch time came. And with the Atlanta Hawks in town on Tuesday, the Suns were again with a push from the opposition, making the game close with less than five minutes to go.
Although it took an extra push or two to at least get through the wall, they continued to crash last week, eventually they did. Phoenix won 117-110.
The Suns played like a problem-aware team and were working on it, as the attack made a little more sense.
It wasn’t exactly perfect, however, with some difficulty ahead, and it was another where Phoenix probably should have gone out of business sooner.
Head coach Monty Williams said “everyone wants a nice win (but) I just want to win” while point guard Chris Paul wants to see more improvement.
“We are closing the game, but we shouldn’t have been in this situation,” said Paul. “I don’t know how many games we have left, but at some point we have to start showing signs of improvement.”
The Suns led by 14 midway through the third quarter before the Hawks reached two at the end of 12 minutes. After the Suns bench reduced the lead to eight early in the fourth, Atlanta came down two to four minutes from the end.
Chris Paul missed a three-point open turn, then Atlanta’s Trae Young converted on two free throws to tie. Paul responded with a midrange bucket and then the Hawks started again with a clean play design after the timeout to take advantage of the Suns switching.
After each team’s failure to score, Deandre Ayton got one of the biggest baskets of his career so far, battling hard against Hawks center Clint Capela to reverse a hook shot that Williams called “a huge bucket for us (and) a moment of growth for him. “
Atlanta’s Bogdan Bogdanovic made him jump on a bunny on the edge of the next trip, and after a timeout called by Williams, his game design worked perfectly to get Mikal Bridges an open dunk that saw Phoenix win four. with less than 90 seconds to play.
Williams called it a big time to keep defenses more honest going forward.
Bogdanovic came back and hit an extremely well-contested 3.. Then it was Devin Booker’s turn, and a practice with two defensemen opened Ayton wide on the other side of the basket to get a rebound and a pullback to bring the Suns back three. with 50 seconds remaining.
Ayton stopped Young at the rim at the other end, then Jae Crowder’s four-point play via Paul locked him down at seven.
With the Hawks starting two natural great at Clint Capela and John Collins, Williams used a heavy switching system defensively. While that’s something the Suns have done sometimes, they haven’t done it often for the majority of a game. Playoff basketball will usually come down to a form of defense played by both teams, so it’s a good idea for Phoenix to start getting more reps before the playoffs.
As Williams said after the game, Atlanta are a dynamic offensive team with a lot of firepower, so it was a great test.
The benefits of the change are obvious, as it restricts space if teammates have enough spins for each other. In the example below, Paul makes the biggest play because he picks up Ayton and Crowder after they return to their original clashes.
This can of course lead to mismatches. But, again, a team can cover each other.
Here, Cam Payne is replaced by Danilo Gallinari and makes the effort to deny Gallinari the ball. But keep an eye out for Dario Saric who goes to the other side of the floor to challenge a possible lob pass on Payne.
It is still a work in progress. The Suns are dropping a few free buckets per game, which can be attributed most of the time to a communication outage, and communication specifically was something Williams said he generally didn’t like the night on the defensive. It’s also not about changing absolutely everything, so it takes some time to develop and know when to do that and the timing of a teammate.
“We had times when we [relaxed] and they came back to it because of (our) communication. We talked about it, ”Crowder said. “But once the communication got back to where it needed to be, we had stoppages. Also stop in a timely manner.
Dario Saric had 20 points, five rebounds and two assists, and that was a big contribution as he needed to get back on track.
Saric was on track to become the sixth man of the year in March, with a case to be made that he was the fourth best player in Phoenix at this point. Then, in his last eight games before Tuesday, Saric shot 15 of 49 (30.6%) from the field and 2 of 16 three-pointers (12.5%) with nine assists and 13 turnovers.
Williams had spoken with Saric a few games ago about playing with “passion and strength” and just going back to the way he played.
“It was a bit difficult for me the last 10 days, I was up and down, it was kind of difficult,” said Saric. “I don’t really know how it happened. Sometimes it’s a part of life.
Saric was over-12, getting back on track with his very high net score which is one of the best in the league.
He’s also building chemistry with new teammate Torrey Craig, who has already shown a cutting conscience for Saric when the great Croatian man takes the ball. Surely that’s something Craig wanted to do in Denver with MVP contender Nikola Jokic.
Craig in 19 minutes posted 12 points and eight rebounds.
“His rebound really helped us,” Williams said of Craig. “Everyone likes to score but to be able to bounce back from that position the offensive rebound really helps us.”
Crowder hit five three-pointers per game after shooting 0 for 9 from deep and it is a testament to his shooting mentality that he said after the game he didn’t even know Sunday’s win number was so bad. He scored 19 points.
Booker was one of seven double-digit Suns with 21 points, a team-high, while Paul added 12 points and eight assists. Ayton grabbed 14 rebounds with 13 points.
Young was 5 of 16 for Atlanta, as Bridges’ main defense pass over him was a success and the Suns attacked him a bit on offense as well. Bogdanovic, a first-round pick by the Suns in 2014, led the Hawks with 22 points, four rebounds and six assists.
Coming back to the critical moment, this was a step in the right direction for the Suns far more than categorically overcoming a recurring problem.
Crowder admitted feeling his team on their heels in the final 4-5 minutes before Paul’s basket with 3:20 left gave them a chance to regain energy.
“I felt like once the switch flipped – I think we got out of the timeout and the CP came out and got their little jump shot. And when) [Atlanta] called a timeout immediately after, we talked about our sense of urgency and I think he recovered in a timely manner. “
The nine-year-old vet went on to say that this is a situation where Paul and Booker will have the ball, as they should, and guys like him have to be prepared to capitalize on an opportunity when it is presented to them. Bridges did it with this dunk, as did Crowder in the four-point tie-breaker.
But while it’s easy for everyone to figure out what’s supposed to happen, the execution is still ongoing and the team know this should be a key point to work on leading up to the playoffs.
“We have to keep improving, keep watching movies on it,” Crowder said. “I think we have concepts of what we need to get to, but we have to do it with a bit of urgency and we have to focus on that throughout the season.”
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