The Phoenix Suns didn’t exactly deliver a clean performance Thursday night, but they did enough to beat the Charlotte Hornets 101-96 and keep their recent surge going.
Phoenix improved to 5-6 with its fourth win in the last five games, surviving a game in which it built a 17-point lead, gave most of it back, and still found a way to close. Devin Booker carried the load with 30 points, seven assists and three steals, while Charlotte’s Coby White led the Hornets with 21 points. Grayson Allen also made his return to Phoenix count, finishing with 14 points and six assists.
What stood out most was how messy the Suns looked whenever Booker, Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and Miles Bridges were on the floor together. That group was minus-18 in the win, and Phoenix’s early cushion started slipping almost as soon as they checked back in during the second quarter.
At the same time, the Suns’ bench has been doing serious damage, and that showed up in the closing minutes. Jordan Ott leaned on Collin Gillespie, Luke Kennard and Jordan Goodwin late, while Green and Bridges watched from the sideline.
Gillespie scored 13 points and was plus-12, Kennard added eight points and was plus-16, and Goodwin chipped in six points and finished plus-18. Green had 12 points and was minus-16, while Bridges posted 11 points, six rebounds and a plus-1.
“It’s like you’re in the heat of battle, and I thought that group not only in the second half, first half had it going, the (Goodwin), Luke, Collin mix,” Ott said of the late-game decision.
“We knew Book and Dillon were coming back, so we had to manage that, and then on top of it we had to try to find a way to rebound against these guys. I think it was a combination of all of it.
We’ll continue to look at it and try to get the best groups out there at the best time. At the end of the game, you’re trying everything you can just to kind of fill some holes.
Obviously, we struggled offensively tonight, so it was a little bit more defensive. We’ll take a look.”
Green’s adjustment in his new playmaking role remains one of the biggest lineup questions for Phoenix. Through 11 games, he owns a team-worst minus-15.3 net rating.
Booker, meanwhile, has been the Suns’ steadying force. Over his last seven games, he’s averaging 27.4 points, 4.9 assists and 1.4 steals while shooting 39.6% from 3-point range. He also delivered the biggest shot of the night, burying a dagger 3-pointer to push Phoenix ahead 97-91 with 22.9 seconds left.
“We got the win, but to be transparent, we’re still searching. We’re still finding,” Booker said. “We’ve had parts of the game where we look really good with certain lineups and certain lineups we come in, and just can’t find that flow.
“We get the sample size. Always say it feels better in the win, but we definitely have some things to clean up.”
Booker added that the Suns are still building toward something bigger.
“Just the work. Just putting in the work.
Trying to lead and communicate,” Booker said of remaining consistent. “Even though we started off 1-5, we’ve ran off a few now, but still learning.
Coming in with the same mindset tomorrow as if we lost the game. We still have things to clean up.
We’re building for something bigger than the first 10 games of the season.”
Phoenix also made life difficult for Charlotte on the defensive end. The Suns forced 27 turnovers and turned them into 38 points, while holding the Hornets to 41.3% shooting. They were hammered on the glass, 52-31, but still took 12 more shots than Charlotte because of the turnover margin.
“Our heat and disruption - getting back to that. The value and energy that those live-ball turnovers create for our group,” Ott said of his team’s defense.
“Last couple games we didn’t do that as well and wanted to get back to it, I know they were down a couple people and were turning it over at a high rate, so that was one of the keys to the game that definitely pushed it to the limits. Especially in the first half, I thought our heat and activity was really good.”
The numbers say the defense is trending the right way. Over the last five games, Phoenix owns the NBA’s sixth-best defensive rating at 109.0 after sitting at a league-worst 124.5 through its first six. The Suns are also second in the league in points off turnovers per game at 22.2.
That side of the ball will get a much stiffer test Sunday night, when Phoenix faces the Los Angeles Lakers, who lead the league with a 121.6 offensive rating.
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Suns Early Surge Cant Hide One Growing Lineup Problem
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But the early surge has not erased the bigger lineup question hovering over Phoenix. The fit of Devin Booker, Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and Miles Bridges remains a work in progress, and Greens uneven play has only added to the scrutiny as trade chatter continues to follow him. The Suns may be improving, but the challenge now is turning short-term momentum into something more stable before the rotation questions become impossible to ignore. [Read more 🡒]