After trailing by as many as 15 late in the third quarter, the Phoenix Suns had the ball and a two-point lead with 20 seconds left against the Heat on Wednesday. There was no doubt where they would get another win.
Tyus Jones made a simple two-man move to get Kevin Durant the ball at the top of the circle. He held the ball high and looked at Haywood Highsmith, who was almost glued to his body. It doesn’t matter. Durant, almost seven feet tall with a seven-foot wingspan, doesn’t even feel like a seven-foot defender like Highsmith. He might as well have been shooting alone in an empty gym.
Offering a small step to clear a bare minimum of space, he rose and smashed in a 22-footer to ice the Suns’ sixth straight win by six points or less.
Last season, almost incomprehensibly for a team blessed with such elite shooting talent, the Suns were the worst fourth-quarter team in basketball. Over the final 12 minutes, they were outscored by an average of 2.4 points. That was double the next worst figure. They were also outscored in clutch situations (any time a play is within five points with five or fewer minutes to play) by 5.5 points per 100 possessions.
This season, that script has been completely flipped. The Suns, who increased their fourth-quarter net rating from minus 5.5 last season to plus 3.5 this year, lead the league with six wins. During those final five minutes, Phoenix is outscoring its opponents by (small sample alert) 51.1 points per 100 possessions, the second-best mark in the league behind Cleveland.
They don’t make it easy for themselves. If the Suns haven’t dug themselves into big deficits, they’ve squandered their own big lead. Either way, it has led to photo finishes. On opening night, the Suns trailed the Clippers by nine with four minutes to play. Durant hit the tying goal from 15 feet with 21 seconds to play and Phoenix had the upper hand in overtime.
Five days later, the Suns trailed the Lakers by as much as eighteen. After recovering, Durant sealed the victory with eight points over a two-minute span in the clutch. Three days after that, they trailed the Clippers by 21; this time it was Devin Booker with 13 points in the fourth quarter in a six-point Suns win. Against the Blazers, they dropped a 26-point lead to two with less than a minute to play. They escaped that too.
On Monday, the Suns trailed the 76ers by nine with five minutes to play. Durant scored 10 of the next 14 points, including this elbow fadeaway, giving Phoenix one minute to play.
And then the drive and finish to win the game with 24 seconds to play.
“We’ve had a lot of close games. I’m sure the Suns fans are on edge every game, but I think it’s good for our team that we can play these games in the fourth quarter and get an understanding of how things are going.” is in the competition.” crunch time,” Durant said after the Miami win.
So far this season, Durant is tied with Nikola Jokic for the most clutch points, with 29. He has done this by making 10 of his 11 2-point shots. Ten of 11! Even with four three-point misses, the guy is shooting 66% in the clutch and 9-of-9 from the free throw line. Small sample size, for sure. But these are recordings he makes in his sleep. Don’t count on this stopping anytime soon.
The Suns are doing a lot of good things to get Durant at these positions. They defend at a top-10 level, which fuels these comebacks. Both Durant and Booker have spoken insultingly about their organizations; with the right spacing and support to put Durant in his favorite scoring spots.
It cannot be overstated how well Bradley Beal plays as a purely additive and non-interrupting third option. Rookie Ryan Dunn has been a huge addition. Royce O’Neale shoots 47% from 3. Grayson Allen gets things going. Jusuf Nurkic is averaging a double-double and really defending. Jones has been so important in the balance of it all. But at the end of the day, as Booker said after the Miami win, Durant is a mother to be around. By extension, that includes the suns.