Phoenix Suns

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Couper Moorhead

1. With a real day off and a proper shootaround under his belt, Terry Rozier came out looking far more comfortable, scoring eight of the first 11 points including a four-point play out of the corner. Scorers like Rozier who rely on dribble creation will always run a little hot and cold, but the breakout was always going to come.

Miami as a whole, however, was still a little up and down coming into this one with a six-game losing streak. With neither team shooting particularly well, Phoenix held the early advantage in the paint thanks to backup center Drew Eubanks, finishing plays with Jusuf Nurkic in foul troube, pacing them to an eventual double-digit lead, and once they were up their scoring trio of Devin Booker, Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant all took turns holding Miami’s pushes – off Jimmy Butler (26 points on 12 shots) drives, a handful of threes and offensive boards – with off-the-bounce shotmaking. By halftime, Phoenix up 13, the Suns had nine makes in the restricted area to Miami’s six.

Another quick burst from Phoenix put them up 18 early in the third, Butler’s paint attacks and offensive rebounding along with Rozier’s shooting (21 points on 14 shots) again pulling Miami back within reason only for more mid-range making, this stretch coming from Booker, to push the lead back toward 20. The press-zone bought Miami a little bit of time but Phoenix adjusted well, limiting their turnovers and finding the open looks for their bevy of shooters. Suns by 26, a steady, gradual climb to that point, with the HEAT’s defense looking for traction.

A few Suns misses, Eric Gordon twice open in the corner with no reward, two threes from Josh Richardson and Tyler Herro and a pick-six steal from Richardson (just the fifth Suns turnovers of the night) gave Miami life, an 8-0 run to make the deficit 18. It was a comeback in earnest, a bit of a make-or-miss founded comeback with Phoenix attempting a string of corner threes as they worked the ball around the zone, and eventually Miami was within 13 with 4:41 to go against a Phoenix team that has had its share of fourth-quarter issues this season. They made it a game of it with a 31-18 final period but it wasn’t enough, Phoenix taking this one 108-105 as Miami dropped its seventh in a row.

2. While they wound up taking 40 threes due to all of Miami’s late-game zone – see below – the Suns are, even with all their deadly shooting, one of the highest volume mid-range teams in the league. All of Booker, Beal and Durant can get to their one or two dribble pull-ups with ease over the top of any coverage, and they often live and die on those shots.

Through the first three quarters, they did quite a bit of living. After the Eubanks-led paint points stacked up in the first period, the Suns’ lead guys started to get going, making 14-of-23 non-paint two pointers including 7-of-10 outside the paint. In the past – granted, before Beal and Durant – this was always an interesting matchup because the HEAT were primarily a switching team and switching had a way of disrupting all the pick-and-roll work Phoenix wanted to do. But with Miami playing primarily drop coverage this season, conceding a little space in the middle of the floor even as Bam Adebayo manages that space as well as anyone, Phoenix was able to get to what they do best against the HEAT’s base coverages, which may be why so much zone came into play later on. Booker, Beal and Durant combined for a modest 61 points on 59 shots as their percentages fell late, Miami otherwise doubling mismatches to keep any of them from finding a comfortable rhythm one-on-one, but they helped Phoenix build their lead in those middle periods.

3. This was one of the strangest fourth quarters of the season when it comes to the rhythm of the game. You had Miami in its press-zone for almost the entire period, a scheme designed to drain the shot clock of the other team and limit drives while they work the ball around the perimeter. Then you had Phoenix in its prevent offense, happy to beak the press and then slow things way down, not shooting until the final six seconds on the clock, working the ball around the arc until they inevitably found a corner three.

It was a gambit from Erik Spoelstra, playing the odds on outside jumpers, and it came relatively close to paying off. Phoenix shot 3-of-8 on corner threes – remember, they had Durant, Beal and Booker on the floor for most of this stretch – and 1-of-7 on above-the-break triples with just two attempts in the restricted area. It was a sink-or-swim shot profile, of course, if more of those shots fall the game is pretty much over but because threes are generally higher value but lower on the field-goal percentage scale, a cold stretch like this one allowed Miami to get back into the game on the strength of their own 5-of-8 shooting from three in the quarter. It was all a very stop-and-start affair, punctuated by Miami’s burst of shotmaking, and it panned out as far as the quarter went even if the deficit was too great at the start of it.

coups-takeaways-heat-attempt-late-comeback-but-suns-hold-on-after-building-big-lead

Coup's Takeaways: HEAT Attempt Late Comeback But Suns Hold On After Building Big Lead

1. No amount of missing elite talent was stopping this game from an offensive explosion early on, but only one team was able to sustain.

Miami may not have had Jimmy Butler and Phoenix was down Kevin Durant but both sides came out firing, threes falling from all over. Kevin Love came out with 15 point in the first quarter, hitting a couple threes, scoring on a few high-low passes which appeared to be a point of emphasis for Miami given the regularity they were attempting those with, and banking in a face-up jumper. Then Bam Adebayo, after going scoreless and getting into foul trouble in his opening shift, burst out of the gates in the second quarter with 17 – the third highest scoring quarter of his career – hitting his usual jumpers as Phoenix centers backed off in the middle and working his way to the stripe.

Nobody did more damage, than Grayson Allen (31 points on 19 shots), though. That may be a surprising name to read, but Allen has somewhat quietly become one of the league’s better and most consistent shooters over the past couple years and when you’re at that level you’re liable to explode just as someone like Duncan Robinson can. Going into this game Allen’s career high was eight threes in a single game. He had seven midway through the second quarter, opening with a couple from the left corner before burying five more above the break as Miami went to heavy zone usage – eventually getting out of it given how well Phoenix was shooting – for the fourth consecutive game. Phoenix takes the first half, 62-55, with a late burst as both teams combined for 16 triples.

Devin Booker (20 points on 9-of-19 shooting) and Bradley Beal (25 points on 18 shots) opened the second half with zero intention to slow the Suns’ roll, and even as Miami canned a couple of threes Phoenix stretched their lead to 17, eight points coming from that pair along with two more assists. Miami was getting decent looks, granted more from the outside and in, but the makes just weren’t there at the end of a long road trip. The activity and intent were not lacking, only the sharpness of the blade being swung and thus, the results. Phoenix takes the quarter, 32-20, and a 19-point lead headed into the final stretch.

With Phoenix playing some prevent offense for most of the quarter, Miami found some success with late-clock doubles on Booker and Beal to force tough shots. Had a handful of swing plays gone differently, this may have become a game. But it’s tough to mount a fourth-quarter comeback when your threes aren’t falling. Erik Spoelstra pulled the starters with just under two to play, and Phoenix wins, 113-97, as Miami completes a 2-3 road swing.

2. When you’ve been watching the league for long enough you learn not to overreact to certain situations. Back-to-backs, for one. The end of long road trips, for another, especially those on the opposite coast. Not every night is going to be an ideal circumstance, and postseason games are never played in the same context.

So, it’s fair to take one look at Miami’s 10-of-37 from three, 27 percent, and toss it out the window. Sure, maybe there’s some regression coming after such a hot start to the season up and down the roster, and situations like this are part of why every teams cools off a bit over the course of 82 games, but when your legs aren’t there your legs aren’t there. It’s not as though the Suns were aces defending the line, though credit them with some good contests borne out of Miami’s general lack of paint pressure. Same goes for the defense, though unlike the shooting which has been so good for so long the defense has shown holes this season that have been noteworthy. Even though Phoenix didn’t have the same paint volume as other recent HEAT opponents – with two mid-range master and the threes, they didn’t need it – there were still straight-line and blow-by drives that have popped up a bit too often for comfort. This one won’t be worth particularly deep analysis, that’s just one trend to monitor.

3. Nobody is going to care about a pat on the back after this one, but both Love and Adebayo played more than well enough to win. Adebayo finished with 28 points on 19 shots after an 0-of-5 start, doing the sort of things – jumpers, drives, drawing fouls, bailing out stagnant offensive possessions – that have become an everyday quality for him. Love came out hot from the perimeter, setting up either his own post seals or identifying his teammates attempting to do the same, as his at-the-five backup lineups continue to juice the offense by sheer force of floor geography.

Pretty much everyone else had a rough night, and there isn’t much more to say. The HEAT, about to get a pair of needed days off, probably aren’t going to spend too much time with this film. Nor should they. Not every big victory is worthy of celebration nor is every loss like this deserving of indictment. You pick up, get on the plane, and head home.

Phoenix Suns

Coup's Takeaways: HEAT Attempt Late Comeback But Suns Hold On After Building Big Lead

Coup's Takeaways: Suns Open Hot And Stay Hot As HEAT End Five-Game Trip