BROOKLYN – The Phoenix Suns will take a win any way they can.
With the Brooklyn Nets down nine players, the Suns raced out to an early double-digit lead in a 108-84 victory Wednesday night before a crowd of 17,077 at Barclays Center to end a five-game road trip with a 3-2 mark.
Devin Booker scored a game-high 32 points and Kevin Durant registered 24 points in his second game at Brooklyn against his former team to lead Phoenix (22-21) back above .500.
It’s been a minute seeing Booker smile during a game, but he flashed one in the fourth quarter as the Suns led by as many as 28 points in avenging a home loss to the Nets back in November. This was Booker’s 200th career 30-point game as he reached that mark seven times in his last nine games.
The Suns are 6-3 in those games.
Nick Richards posted eight points and a game-high 15 rebounds Wednesday with four coming on the offensive glass in his third game with the Suns (second start).
The Nets (14-31) were without Bojan Bogdanovic (foot), Cam Johnson (ankle) Maxwell Lewis (tibia), De’Anthony Melton (knee), D’Angelo Russell (hamstring), Ben Simmons (illness), Cam Thomas (hamstring), Trendon Watford (hamstring) and Ziaire Williams (ankle).
In the second of a back-to-back after losing Tuesday to the New York Knicks, Brooklyn started Wednesday’s game shooting 1-of-11 from the field.
Phoenix led 20-7 with 3:30 left in the first quarter, but Brooklyn cut the lead to three, 39-36, with 3:51 remaining in the first half.
The Suns closed the second quarter on a 15-6 run to go up 54-42 at the half. Durant hit a 3 with two seconds left to cap the run as Grayson Allen found him at the top of the key following an offensive rebound. The Suns outscored the Nets, 54-42, in the second half.
Here are takeaways from Wednesday’s win as the Suns will begin a three-game homestand Saturday against Washington.
11 games in 19 days
The Suns went 7-4 in this 11-game stretch over 19 days with eight of those games on the road.
Quick breakdown:
Best win – 125-121 Saturday at Detroit with Durant and Booker combining for 71 points.
Worst loss – 115-104 loss Jan. 7 at Charlotte. The Hornets had seven wins coming into the game.
The Suns sported a three-game winning streak during this stretch of games and didn’t lose multiple games in a row.
Granted the Suns went 2-3 against teams that currently have a winning record with the most lopsided loss at NBA-best Cleveland, 118-92, but to come out of a stretch of games with a winning record considering how much of a struggle it has been since their 8-1 start is a positive.
Richards’ third game with the Suns
The debut was special – 21 points and 11 rebounds against the Pistons.
The first start was rough – four points and four rebounds in loss to Cavs.
The third game is more of what Richards’ stat line needs to be for the Suns.
Phoenix has guys who can score starting with Booker and Durant. The Suns need rebounding on both ends, a physical presence and some edginess.
Richards has provided that for stretches of play this season. He’s given up his share of offensive rebounds and committed some unnecessary fouls, but has stayed in his lane as far as operating in the paint aside from coming out to set screens.
Richards was averaging 11.3 points on 61.7% shooting, 10.2 rebounds, 1.7 blocks and 27.2 minutes in nine starts with the Hornets.
In his three games with the Suns, he’s averaging 11 points on 75% shooting, 10 rebounds, 0.6 blocks in 24.3 minutes game.
If Richards can raise his blocks and minutes — he’s committed 10 fouls in three games — and deliver double-doubles with a level of physicality and presence, the Suns may have something with him.
40-plus hoists from 3
The Suns were looking to generate a high volume of 3s under Mike Budenholzer, whose teams have a history of jacking up deep shots.
Phoenix looked to average at least 40 3s a game. The Suns averaged 39.7 through their first 24 games, hoisting 45 in a Dec. 13 win at the Jazz.
They were 13-11 at the time after an 8-1 start.
Since then, Phoenix has averaged 32.8 attempts from 3 in 18 games before Wednesday’s matchup against Brooklyn. The Suns went 8-10 in those games as they only reached 40-plus 3-point attempts once in that stretch with a 17-of-41 effort in a home win Jan. 7 versus Charlotte.
On Wednesday night, the Suns finished 14-of-41 from 3. Didn’t shoot a high percentage, but Phoenix found good looks from 3 with ball movement, and committed just 11 turnovers.
Simple math. The fewer turnovers, the more shots on goal.
The Suns seemed to have good spacing, which hasn’t consistently been the case in the last few weeks, but there seemed to be more of a concerted effort to take them.
Five different Suns took at least five 3s
Injury update: Beal out again with ankle injury
Bradley Beal missed Wednesday’s game against Brooklyn with a left ankle sprain after playing Monday at Cleveland following a two-game absence with the injury.
“There’s soreness,” Budenholzer said before Wednesday’s game. “He’s unable to go.”
Beal rolled his ankle in last week’s loss at Atlanta to begin a five-game road trip. He didn’t play the next two games against Washington and Detroit before returning Monday.
Scoring five points in the loss to the Cavaliers, Beal said after the game his ankle was sore, but felt OK.
The Suns didn’t practice Tuesday nor have a morning shootaround before Wednesday’s game.
Phoenix was also without Jusuf Nurkic, who is back in Phoenix reconditioning after missing four games with the flu.
He last played on Jan. 7 at Charlotte after being benched on Jan. 6 at Philadelphia. Nurkic hasn’t played in Phoenix’s last eight games.
What Suns said after win
Devin Booker on finishing five-game road trip 3-2 after win over Nets: “It’s nice to sit down with half of the fourth (quarter) left. Just take it all in and enjoy it. We had a better second half than we did the first. We’re improving and that’s the name of the game for us.”
Mike Budenholzer on generating 41 attempts from 3: “I thought the ball movement was good. I thought a few possessions early, kind of played side-to-side, got multiple guys touching it involved. Some slips, driving and finding open guys. I loved the ball movement. Led to some good 3s.”
Kevin Durant on trade talks: “It’s just a part of the game now. We know it’s important. The locker room is sacred. The bus is sacred. Hotel, walk through, all that stuff is sacred. It’s stuff we don’t talk about. It’s a brotherhood in here, but we know the noise is going to always be going on around us. As much as we can bunker down and focus on one another, the better we are as a group. It’s a business, though. We understand it’s a business. Anything can happen in this business. We traded one our brothers, Josh (Okogie) to Charlotte and that happened pretty quickly. We’ve just got to focus on in one one another and keep grinding.”
Nick Richards on stat line after eight points and 15 rebounds in win over Nets: “Players worry about stats, but at the end of the day, we’re here to win games. If I have four points and four rebounds and we win, I’m happy. Twenty rebounds, 10 points and we win, I’m happy.”
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at [email protected] or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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