Phoenix Suns center Devin Booker rides while Deni Avdija (9) and Washington Westbrook (4) of the Washington Wizards defend during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Saturday, April 10, 2021, in Phoenix. (AP Photo / Matt York)
PHOENIX – At the start of Saturday night’s game against the Washington Wizards, the Phoenix Suns broke out 10-2. After the Wizards called a time-out, they responded with a 15-4 run and kept the game close throughout the first two quarters.
At the start of the second half, the Suns led by a 9-3 run by eight. Washington went with a timeout again, but this time the Suns kept rolling. Phoenix outscored its opposition 44-24 in the third quarter, winning 134-106.
The 44 points were the most the Suns have scored in a quarter this season.
Devin Booker has 17 of his 27 in that third. He started hitting tractors from tractors, a sign that he was cooking.
“I can usually see when he’s going, just look at the way he lets the ball go, his balance on his lap,” head coach Monty Williams said. “And I think the team realized that too and everyone wanted to give him the ball so he could continue it.”
Booker also found Mikal Bridges for the second time in the game on a cross-country bounce pass in transition, one he could not help but smile to repeat.
Booker likes the one more than the first because of Bridges’ difficult finish, and Bridges agrees. (Me too if you’re curious.)
The Suns scored 22 shots in the two middle quarters and finished the night with 36 to just three times. It has been great to see 20 assist outputs in the last two games, albeit against the competition.
Williams likes the Suns to move away from the ball, noting that he emphasizes body movement just as much as the ball movement in the 0.5 elements of the offense.
At halftime, he emphasizes to the team the 36 points in the paint for the Wizards. In proving to be the most important component of the Suns’ offensive success, they were able to stop and take offense at the chance to run.
“As soon as we stop, we fly across the floor,” Williams said.
The Suns conceded on 17 three-pointers and scored 134 points with just seven free throws.
All five Suns frontrunners were in double figures: Booker, Bridges (15), Deandre Ayton (14), Jae Crowder (11) and Chris Paul (13), who added 10 assistants and five rebounds.
The game had a certain amount of listless energy attached to it in the first half, but it was encouraging to see the Suns turn it on and then close the door without an inferior team slowly creeping back into the game, as they did. tended to do this season.