Phoenix Suns center-back Deandre Ayton, left, commits a foul on Miami Heat goalie Gabe Vincent during the second half of an NBA basketball game on Tuesday, March 23, 2021 in Miami. (Photo by AP / Jim Rassol)
Victories for the Phoenix Suns, like Tuesday’s 110-100 final at the Miami Heat, are the things the team could use the most.
They were tested by a good team on the road, with Miami (22-22) launching a counterattack at the end of the third quarter after the Suns (29-13) played an impressive 14-minute stretch from the middle of the second. fourth to third final that had them up to 22.
Phoenix only led by 12 at one point at the start of the fourth quarter when that success came, and a combination of the second unit and Deandre Ayton had to stabilize.
They did, and that was all Miami had inside. The Suns have shown a great shot at a handful of wins over good teams where they continue to receive blows to the chin and, in the fourth quarter, there are no shots left to throw at the opposition. This wear effect is the quality of a hard, tough team.
Ayton had one of his best games of the season and, for the first time in more than a month, had a kind of two-way impact that is nothing more than encouraging.
“His pick-and-roll coverage was very, very good,” head coach Monty Williams said of Ayton’s defense. “His attention on the sidelines for not being needed, for raising his hands and making it difficult … are dominant performances. He just thought his approach was at a high level.”
Ayton finished with 17 points, 16 rebounds, three assists and three blocks.
“When you play with that kind of strength and concentration, it gives us a chance to be the kind of defensive team you saw tonight,” Williams said.
Devin Booker had his offensive mojo and turned in some hard shots to score 23 points.
Four of the Suns ’five starters were at least 19, a big development given the amazing struggles of the season’s opening lineup to consistently outperform opponents. Phoenix had 29 assists in seven turnovers.
The Suns kept Heat Heat star Jimmy Butler at 14 points on 11 shots, not letting one of the best in the world reach the foul line after averaging more than eight free throws per night in his last 10 matches. Williams said avoiding fouls on the edge was part of the game plan. Butler also had five turnovers.
Williams was able to play Booker, Chris Paul and Jae Crowder all under 30 minutes with a game in Orlando on Wednesday, while Ayton and Mikal Bridges played 34 each.
In a tight match for a quarter and a half, there was a turn in the middle of the second where the aforementioned Suns wave came from.
If you have seen or heard it, you may have missed the specific play to which it is attributed.
Williams said after a recent home game that Paul has a combination of feelings and instincts of theft that he had never seen before.
Paul, almost like a basketball spirit from afar in some butterfly effect type shenanigans, will often influence and redirect the flow of a game with one or two plays that could only be imagined doing. At the moment, it seems like just a dirty work. But after looking back, it can sometimes turn out to be a turning point.
Heat rookie Precious Achiuwa lost his balance and lost a rabbit after Paul slipped here in the middle of the second quarter with the Suns ahead by three, and Paul caught the rebound afterwards.
Paul threw that rebound ahead for a possible Booker throw and then set up Bridges for free throws with a dirty feed on his back next time.
After this bounce pic.twitter.com/ORmP3ESWzt
– Kellan Olson (@KellanOlson) March 24, 2021
The Suns closed out the first half with a 16-4 run after Achiuwa’s first shot that would have put Miami one point behind.
Would it have happened without this blow and Paul’s next two steps? May be. But it’s one of those things that has been a pleasure to take to see Paul every night that proves his punctual guard status.
Sometimes it’s a lot more than the scoreboard would suggest on a night of eight points and nine assists.
Most of this awesome jet had to do with the big guy.
Part of the reason Ayton has been such a confusing player to watch this year isn’t just because he’s inconsistent. Sure, the source of their inconsistency is a mystery, but inconsistent players can be pretty easy to figure out.
Ayton has not been the case this season, as his performances have been more erratic in a match and his mistakes are sometimes unpleasant. He has sometimes looked like a rookie in his first couple of weeks adjusting to the NBA. It’s weird.
The player we saw on Tuesday, however, returned to the scheduled time with last season. When Ayton was active in the offensive cup and got the ball early, he usually made it go more often. That was the case against the Heat.
With an intense change from Miami, the Suns tried to get Ayton to participate in the jump. And maybe in the best development of the whole evening for him, it wasn’t too early. He was blocked by Butler on his first shot, missed the second and Butler pulled the chair over Ayton in the third attempt to make him travel.
Instead of Ayton snowballs, he kept trying to gain post position and finally bore fruit. He made the following three shots.
From there, he continued to be a bouncing and rolling presence to the basket as he did his job defensively.
And when he goes beyond “doing his job defensively” to really impacting most possessions, that’s when he plays basketball tremendously.
The third quarter was one of the best changes in Ayton’s career.
Crowder said that because of the way Ayton moves, they can take advantage of him as a team to turn them into a first-rate defensive team, as Ayton is not just a one-dimensional defender on ball screens. Crowder said there’s a “feeling” that Ayton can improve by putting himself in the right position, like when he’s in certain places, when he breaks offensive glass, when he runs the track, and so on.
This feeling was fully united in this change.
Ayton said many things to get into this type of area are to get to know staff and communicate with their perimeter advocates, which Crowder said has always highlighted Ayton and has improved.
“We communicated throughout the game defensively throughout the game, and that’s what brought the intensity and the sense of urgency tonight,” Ayton said.
Ayton modified almost every shot on the edge for an eight-minute stretch.
When Ayton left the field, the Suns ‘lead had increased to 22. And after Dario Saric got his fifth foul early in the fourth quarter with the Suns’ lead reduced to 15, Ayton was the starter who returned with which he made sure the game was in safe hands.
Expectations are too high to set, given Ayton’s third-year lows, but if that’s the player the Suns can get in the playoffs, they can make it to the end.
“In an ideal world, I actually want even more … For me, I’m never satisfied about pushing it because there are so many things,” Williams said of Ayton.