Phoenix Suns Win 5th Straight As Bradley Beal Steps Up As Closer On Both Ends

Phoenix Suns Win 5th Straight As Bradley Beal Steps Up As Closer On Both Ends

The Phoenix Suns on the back of their big three once again winning in pretty convincing fashion five straight WS on today’s episode of lockon suns we’ll break down how both ends of the Court were powered by The Big Three what the fourth quarter showed us with some hiccups along the

Way and the power of playing fast let’s go you are locked on suns your daily Phoenix Suns podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day and we’re back this is locked on Phoenix Suns we are part of the locked on podcast Network I’m your host Brenden

Clean a credential media member covering the Suns for the past seven seasons a writer at suns.com and the host of the just basketball show show wherever you get your podcast a big thank you for making locked on suns your first listen to start off your week it is always a

Little easier when the suns are winning and they did that again on Sunday night five straight thank you for being here to celebrate to ring it in if you’re not already hit follow hit subscribe become an every dayer we are here for you Monday through Friday to get you through

The sun season and Beyond so just hit that button get a new show in your feet every single Monday through Friday and get locked on to the Phoenix Suns all year long we are joined today by Brandon dwas as we are every single Monday he is

A writer over at Bright Side of the Sun and Today’s Show is brought to you by LinkedIn LinkedIn jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to faster so post your job for free at linkedin.com lockon NBA that’s linkedin.com lockon NBA to post your job

For free terms and conditions apply and we’ll have more from LinkedIn later but this one was pretty convincing I would say Brandon 117 to 110 and we’re going to mix it up a bit here versus the moment of the game that we would typically start the recap show off

With and we’re just going to each give our reasons for why they won why did the Suns win this game in some cases when it’s a loss maybe we’ll mix it up do the loss side why did they lose but I will let you start us off why did the Suns win this

Game for me it’s simple I mean obviously you could look at Durant and what he did and say 40 points and obviously they’re not winning without that but for me it’s just this the theme of the Suns in general was like teams know a game plan for Booker and Durant there’s no third

Option that that’s the reason they go and get a Bradley Beal and to me having that third Outlet to kind of take the burden off them late in the game in the fourth quarter going downhill uh getting to the rim targeting buddy heeld specifically because like you know not

Every team has three lock down perimeter Defenders so that that third option has always kind of been where the sun’s been lacking offensively and just to have that like third Outlet I think is huge and allows them to really kind of capitalize on whoever the weak link is

Defensively and really make them pay for having uh someone like buddy Hill on on the court and they haven’t always had that so sorry Bill Simmons I think he’s an upgrade over landre shamut that in tonight was just another example like I don’t think it was even his best game

But I just thought the way he was patient and let the game Flow to him was was really awesome and to me it just shows the growth of the big three and why it’s so important to have three of these guys that can just go out and get

Buckets yeah buddy heeld is uh with all due respect he has a lot of great things about him he’s one of the worst defenders in the NBA and so it was absolutely the right move to to attack him I agree it wasn’t his best game I think the Lakers game just because of

The sheer volume of it and the way that they were doing a little bit of a different spamming of uh something that was working in that game which was using beel as a screener they did that a little bit in this one too but this one

Wasn’t so just try to stop this you can’t kind of in your face the way that Lakers game was but what I liked about this game was a couple things from Beal one that like you said he was able to kind of successfully attack the the weak Lincoln pick at that but getting

Downhill felt like the most obvious thing in the world and I don’t know if it was just I know okay like Durant was guarded by SE yakum so I’ll give him a little bit of a break book was settling for kn great shots and I know you know

It’s easy to say that in the game where he’s missing those and then against the Pelicans it’s like wow book is putting on a show and he’s taking a lot of the same shots but the point is you have to adjust and Beal was willing to and he

Realized hey not only are the sun’s playing small and everybody’s celebrating their small ball look but the reason they’re doing that is because the Pacers were also playing small and so he attacked the basket where there was no Rim protection and and not a lot

Of help in general and was able to get some buckets on a team that really had nothing in terms of resistance down low and like you could say all you want about his uh ability to do it I think all three of these stars have the

Ability to do it but he was the one who like actually tried to and made the effort to and and and got the job done I thought it was a really impressive night to put the ball in his hands cuz that’s just something we haven’t really seen is is

Him taking over late in these games my was the big three on the defensive end and Beal in particular I think you know guarding we saw him guard Zion the other night in this case he had some switches against yakum he’s chasing different guys around and but whether it was him

Or Durant continuing to make plays and having to guard cakam and and everything else I think those guys continuing to set a tone on defense is going to go a long way for this team yeah 100% and this goes back to what I said about F even dating back to

The offseason I think he’s a better Defender than and he’s given credit for just because he’s he’s a lot stronger than people think uh he’s built really well and he can guard up and just kind of serve as like sort of like Chris Paul when he get matched up those bigger

Guards and or like even some forwards that would try to back him down and they would just not move it’s it’s kind of similar with be like he’s he’s got that deceptive strength and I think that’s huge for him on the defensive side so the timely stops tonight were also

Massive so that’s that’s a good call there I guess I just it’s it’s interesting as that this continues to evolve because I asked vogle about it postgame in terms of I asked him was he surprised did he have it on his radar that Beal could guard up positionally

Like he’s been able to the Past handful of games you know his primary matchup was Zion the other night and then again you know SE yakum tonight in in few spurts but even just anybody on this Pacers team he he was giving up size and vogle said no he didn’t necessarily

Expect that but he’s been really impressed and he thinks Beal has a lot of the tools to to do it but one of the things like the Ripple effects of that is I just think book is maybe this team’s best point of attack Defender and

I kind of want to see that in more games in the regular season rather than just like trusting that we’ll see the guy that was in Russell Westbrook’s Grill in that first round and had a few nice possessions against Jamal Murray like I kind of want to see them start him out

On better players rather than hiding him so much defensively CU it feels like if Beal’s kind of a wing Defender for this team then that means book has to guard those guys yeah I mean it’ll be interesting to see how they that entire Dynamic works just throughout the regular season and

Into the playoffs like I think fogal system in general never typically highlights one guy just kind of being that uh stopper it’s more of like a team approach I feel like a lot of the time just trying to balance it as much as you can but yeah like I think Beal’s

Definitely taking on the the tougher assignments of late and I think probably something that has to do with just the offensive workload that Booker and Durant have Bill’s kind of serving as okay like I don’t have to expend as much energy offensively so where can I where

Can I pour that extra energy and like I think his back looks uh he’s looked completely confident so it’s not like he’s there’s any limitations there I think those first few games he’s kind of trying to work on trusting his body a little bit which every player does

Coming back from something like that so I think the the more confident he’s looked uh the better but but I agree I think Booker at this point is pretty clearly their best point of attack Defender so uh it’ll be interesting to see how they utilize that that Trio and

Uh what they do at the deadline too I think is they can always go like to me finding another wi Wing Defenders by far their biggest need and there’s some names that have been thrown out there but but yeah just to get back to your

Point I I agree I think it’ll it’ll be interesting to see what what Vogal does and uh how frequent if this is going to be like the norm going forward because it’s still is such a small sample size it’s tough to really say this is what’s going to happen going forward but it’s

It looks like it’s tring in that direction well what you said is a good point right that they’re not unless it’s like Alex Caruso and he is good enough to really own that that’s not typically what Vogal has tried to do I guess you know PG Once Upon a Time in in Indiana

But they do switch a lot they do mix things up it is relying upon help and and you know execution and everything else with a a center at the anchor of it but I would hope to at least kind of to start out possessions or maybe to close

Games if they’re will part of why I would hope they’re willing to maybe put Booker in some of those positions more often is he’s also having to do less offensively as the season goes along with Beal taking on that workload so I I hope that it can kind of gel in a way

That benefits everybody and and maximizes everybody’s skill but I think that that’s getting us to our next segment which is the big big takeaway what does it mean what does this win mean in the big picture we’ll get to that next first Today’s Show brought to you by LinkedIn at the start

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Linkedin.com lockon NBA that’s linkedin.com lockon NBA to post your job for free terms and conditions apply all right we’re keeping it rolling I will start us off here Brandon I think that to me what this game means in the big picture is that well it it doesn’t mean something I

Think that this game is not what should be sorted into the pile of the suns are an awful fourth quarter team and they collapse and they can’t execute in this and that yes there were some ugly moments where they were forcing the ball into Durant but you also had rookie jerus Walker who

Barely has played this season pulling up for a couple threes you know and different guys making plays buddy heeld making contested threes these things happen you’re playing a good team they don’t want to quit they don’t want to this is a playoff team yes they’re without their best player but I think

This is just another day in the NBA I I do not think this was another you know the sky falling fourth quarter for Suns or Suns fans no definitely not I think uh the Pacers are a good team man like even without Halbert and this is a team that can

Score like they’re I think they’re averaging what 117 a game without halberton like in games he’s missed so they’re still they got a bunch of athletic you know young wings and forwards and the Jaylen Smith Revenge game he was looking uh just dynamite and Obi toppen was getting his so yeah there

There’s a lot of uh it was a pretty balanced scoring attack for them I think they had like six guys in double figures but it just goes to show that star power win wins in this league that the big three was just too much and the fact that Durant scored 40 without attempting

A free throw just speaks to to his greatness and and yeah the fourth quarter stuff obviously a young team like Indiana they’re they’re going to make their run and the Suns probably took their foot off the G gas pedal a little bit with with no halberton and

Probably at at some times took him a little lighter than they should have but but overall it’s a win against a good team and and you just got to keep stacking these and and building chemistry so uh you know tomorrow against Chicago going for six in a row

And I I think it’ll be good to kind of get a that quick turnaround and while you’re hot just keep trying to Rattle these winds off and move up move up in the standings so it’s uh you know this is we got to enjoy this like I know then

I know there’s some people that are just like still trying to nitpick and all this and I get there’s still some weaknesses this team has and like the bench scoring uh going back to your LinkedIn ad we might need to find some scorers on LinkedIn or something at this

Point it’s getting it’s getting brutal for some stretches but uh yeah I mean that’s the thing right the the more that I try to think about it and that we’ve gotten a little bit of a sample under our belt with the big three and getting

To see what that looks like as as people covering this team following this team I I really feel like one of the biggest problems and it sounds obvious but it’s still the same problem that was there when when Beal wasn’t healthier when any of these guys weren’t all on the court

Together which is anytime there’s a lineup out there where any fewer than like I want to even say three of of kind of the the the big six we’ll call them on this team if it’s any fewer than three of those guys those lineups just don’t have enough juice and

I I I agree with what you said in the last segment that even finding one playable Wing anywhere that’s that’s priority number one for this team but that’s what you kind of saw at the beginning of the fourth quarter goty these guys have to sit and it seems like

Every time that happens teams are able to come back into it so that’s a problem but the turnovers and yeah maybe it kind of felt similar but I didn’t feel like it was uh the same thing as like the the Wizards game or the Nicks game or some

Of those really ugly ones the weird thing I would say about this fourth quarter is that Miles Turner didn’t play he’s like their best guy maybe SE yakum obviously now but that was a a very strange way to close like the sun’s going small got a lot of attention but

The Pacers playing that small and taking their anchor off the court was was even more strange but why what are you going to take away from this game what what’s uh what’s the big picture importance of this one to you so to me it just shows that they’re good enough to where

Literally three of their players can can carry them and win games like this but at the same time when they’re playing against better teams it just shows a margin of error for someone like Eric Gordon is so thin like he has to be productive or they just don’t have that

Don’t have a bench that’s really what it comes down to they don’t they and I think it goes back to my point I made earlier is just they need they really need to find one more quality rotation player like I don’t think people understand how long of way just one more

Guy could go uh with this unit and this is again this is with everyone healthy like you know shout out to bub but like this is for the most part all the key guys that uh you’re you’re looking at in your rotation like you you have six guys

At this point that you can really trust and outside of that it’s just like a revolving door of you don’t know what you’re going to get so uh to me it just kind of illustrates their their strengths and also what their weaknesses are going to be down the road and the

Small ball stuff I thought was also interesting so um I think the identity’s forming it’s just now about getting consistent production From the Bench uh as these guys get used to their roles so yeah at this point just you know the trade deadline’s goingon to be tough

Because they really don’t have a lot of assets but there’s definitely you could find a seventh or eighth guy out there like just gotta get a little creative and and you know hope the right deal comes along maybe resuscitate one last uh stretch run out of PJ Tucker on a buyout

Or something we we’ll see but yeah vogle said pregame I believe that he was just asked like it’s officially the halfway point now uh you know after last game and heading into this one what he felt like he learned the most like the biggest lesson he learned from the first

Half and obviously with so many inconsistent availability from different guys he was like the thing I feel like I learned is what everybody on this roster has to offer and that’s true like not every team gets that luxury there’s something times where teams have somebody they’re wondering

About and they have to call kind of call their name in the playoffs and they’re not sure what they’re getting I guess that’s somewhat of a silver lining but what I also heard when vogle said that is this is what we got and it’s not

Working it was a little bit of a hey James like let’s get something going and I’m sure they talk I doubt it’s news to James Jones that this this depth is not where it needs to be but um I mean we’ve seen it and I don’t think the returns of

Have been good enough so I think they absolutely need to be active and you know I’ve said it a million times but you need to be willing to kind of eat some value on on some move potentially you know sell low on on a air little or

You know get rid of somebody who right now might be playing but if you can improve on that spot you got to take that risk cuz yeah games like this it’s like you’re just you’re just crossing your fingers bit steop does something and he just doesn’t or aogi or metu or

Any of these guys it’s just it’s it’s even just the box score they’re not they’re just not even contributing to the game at all look I I’ll put it blunt like this this is not we’re trying to win a championship here and this rotation is not going to do it they need

They need to do something if you’re someone that thinks they should just stay like Stan Pat uh you know obviously there’s not a lot they can do but I think they they have to try at the very least to to bring someone in that can that can help the bench because they’re

They’re back in like this like I said before this is their top six are all healthy and this is what we’re getting right now so there’s no guarantee those six guys are going to stay healthy so if they’re down a guy or if there’s foul trouble uh it could really snowball fast

So they the the depth is not there there’s been a lot of disappointment I think on some of these minimum guys that were starting to figure out why they were minimum guys and we kind of talked ourselves into them and every team’s guilty of that right it’s it’s gonna

Happen every offseason where you’re like oh you especially on a team like this where you kind of place them in with a big three and think it’s going to pan out but uh I really don’t trust any of those backend guys that they’ve had some moments and flashes right they look

Brilliant and other times they disappear so just finding someone that’s consistent and reliable that vocal can trust is is going to be huge because this is a championship we’re trying to win like there’s no uh there’s no like waiting for next year just playing it safe or worrying about nir Little’s

Trade value or second round picks or anything like that like you just got to go all in uh and I think little does still have some value just because he’s on such a team-friendly deal and has multiple years of control and still young and shown some flashes so uh to me just

Do what you can to to find that guy I I don’t know who he is there’s some names I’ve thrown out there in the past but uh that to me tonight like obviously excited about the win the big three looks great I mean it’s everything you

Could ask for more but then you also have to be realistic and kind of look at a bench too and it’s but that’s the thing right it’s like the big three clicking now and you’re starting to see that identity that you mentioned and you’re starting to see the outline of

How they can consistently win games then you start to look to what whatever else there is like early in the season you couldn’t make any observations or proclamations about the Stars cuz they weren’t on the court together now it’s like all right well we kind of know and

So then you got to start adjusting beyond that and so I think it’s natural but uh let’s close out looking at some of the stats that stood out to us what is the rotation looking like right now and some odds and ends there as we look

At how the Suns pulled off this win first Today’s Show brought to you you bu better help better help is making it easier and more personalized to find some help for yourself and I think it’s a perfect time this time of year to be thinking about this because a lot of the

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Fanduel.com lockon make your first bet of layup FanDuel official partner of the NFL and the NBA all right let’s close out the show Brandon um let’s start with the box score odity let’s look at a a stat that kind of defined this game I have to go to

Transition scoring and fast break points personally the Suns had 22 fast break points tonight and 22 points off of the uh no 17 points off of the Pacers turnovers but when you go to cleaning the glass.com they have the transition efficiency broken out and this was a

Game where a trend continued that I’ve focused on a ton which is the sun’s running off of Misses they ran off of more than a third of Indiana’s Miss shots which is a high Mark compared to most NBA teams and they don’t always have great nights you know sometimes

It’s going to work sometimes it’s it’s not But continuing to push combined with scoring off of turnovers it’s just making things easier when we’re talking about those role players sometimes needing a little bit of uh structure and support there like it goes a long way when you can just say

Hey you’re in open space go score and I guess tonight it was mostly the Stars scoring no matter what the context was but the Suns need to keep doing that for sure yeah and the Pacers are the second fastest team just in Pace in terms of

Pace this season uh they so they like to push it and I think anytime you could take advantage of that and kind of flip it on a team that’s and the Suns like the kings were kind of nice little audition to that too with how quick and

They get up and down the court too so I think uh it just illustrates what I’ve kind of been preaching all years like they they need to run they need to lean into the being just a deadly offensive team that can kill you in transition uh just making the defense scramble like

That’s that’s when I think they’re going to be at their best and in the playoffs too when things start to slow down and you’re you’re just in those half Court sets that’s where we’ve seen some things get pretty stagnant so I think trying to emphasize pushing the pace and and

Especially off misses and or turnovers like that’s huge and the fact that they they were as efficient as they were against a team that loves to play Fast uh is definitely a good sign all right benchmob Vibe check here are look at the rotation I knew that we were going to be

In for metu minutes at the five tonight and some small ball once Isaiah Jackson was out for Indiana because he’s their only traditional Center other than Turner so it was going to be Jaylen Smith basically playing backup center I guess a little bit of topen depending on

You know who you kind of want to call that ended up being seaka a lot but that didn’t go anywhere the Suns had to play small and it’s just crazy to me that Lit literally every night we turn this team on or and I was at the game

And we legit have no idea who’s going to play outside of the top six guys I guess you know a kogi’s gonna play at this point it’s just going to be a small Ro two minutes or 20 like yeah just never know is there do you have any hope or optimism that the

Answer to some of the stuff we talked about Lally in the show can be somebody on this roster or are you fully on the buyout or some kind of trade is the only hope here cuz we are really only talking about they need like one more maybe two

More reliable guys do you think that can come from the current roster or is it have to be external I’m not going to lie to you I I I just don’t I I think I think one of them can become that eighth guy uh okay like but it’s just even then it’s so

Inconsistent that it’s tough to uh I think we’ve seen flashes of it there’s one week we’re all praising this guy and saying you know he’s he’s he’s the next uh lock in the rotation give this guy 30 minutes and then he plays five minutes next like three games combined so I

Don’t know it’s just sprins his foot yeah that too so I I think they they have a bunch of guys that could be that eighth Guy where it’s you have a little more flexibility to kind of experiment with that and use matchup dependent things uh when it comes to

That but yeah I think looking externally is kind of their safest bet and there there’s no guarantees there either with what they can do but to me it’s like you enter the playoffs are you really going to feel good with someone like kogi or Bates Diop uh playing heavy minutes at

This point the answer is no and they got to prove that they can bring it consistently or uh you know just help out offensively in any form or fashion before I could change my answer there and I’m not going to sugarcoat it like I think yeah uh it’s it’s just it’s brutal

No but I think it’s what you said about maybe it’s uh you know one of these players becomes like the eighth guy or something I think in general we lose the fact of what you’re really needing to lock in come postseason time right I think of the Nuggets last year a lot

When I’m imagining my way through a playoff rotation because they were a bad they had a bad bench last year they lost the minutes when yic was off the court by a Million Murray was still kind of taking the season to get into a Groove

Similar to I guess you know you kind of say that with Beal this year and by the time the playoffs came around everybody was like who is even their rotation going to be as they try to win a championship now that they’re finally healthy and it turned out well we all

Knew Bruce Brown would be part of that we figured Jeff Green probably would and then they only needed one more guy and it ended up being Christian Brown and he was a rookie and did just enough but you only need eight guys and in you know game seven situations you need like six

And a half so it’s really just a reliable guy when we’re talking about the playoffs for 10 to 20 minutes at the very end of the rotation and so yeah maybe one of these guys steps up to be that but I do think they still need to add one more thing

The last uh checkin I want to do here in terms of how the Suns won this game we’re going to do a nerk report I don’t know if we’ve done this with uh on on here with you before but this is a uh just all things youf ner I think he’s

One of the most strange players to watch on a night toight basis that I’ve ever covered H any roster but the Suns watching them night tonight he uh he had six fouls in 30 minutes tonight and I feel like half of them were charges and it’s just a bizarre I I do

Think the ref’s he’s one of these guys that’s like so big that he he does end up being a little hard to officiate but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player get called for six fouls in 19 minutes and have so many of them just be from

Barreling into the defense and getting called for an offensive foul this guy continues to uh wow me on a nightly basis yeah I remember when we first traded for him I talked to a Portland fan about him a little bit and that was one of the thing first things he

Mentioned actually before even getting into his game he’s like he fouls a lot and it’s random so kind of that jiren Jackson Jr but completely different player in terms of just the foul frequency where uh it’s just it’s kind of bizarre and like I yeah it’s just

He’s also kind of in the camp of you never know what you’re going to get in terms of uh especially lately with the with the the minutes and vog trying to go small and just what you’re gonna get but like I think I thought he’s you know

Uh his activity on the glass was was great and he was playing aggressive but just it kind of snowballed into it just not being his night because uh yeah 13 boards in 19 minutes that’s that’s pretty impressive so and he had that one where he was posting Turner up and and

Just completely smashed into him and it’s just like what are you doing like come on uh but yeah I I guess like the other part of this though is tonight was a perfect example I talked about this with Shane Young last week on the on the

Pod and um one of the big differentials and I hate to keep bringing da up but whoever you want to point to the the the the unselfishness the fact that it’s a weird night he’s getting officiated hard but he has 13 rebounds four assists and only shoots the ball two times like he

Just doesn’t he does not need to shoot the ball he doesn’t care that’s not going to fluctuate for him he does he’s you know like you know I guess not to point fingers or throw somebody out there kind of a little randomly but the first guy I mentioned on the rotation

Side of things chimzi metu he’s not going to do those things unless he gets the score we’ve learned that like metu isn’t metu looks awesome when he’s scoring 25 nurkic doesn’t need to do that and so I think there’s something to be said there for sure yeah and that doesn’t

That’s just going back to just adding another player like it doesn’t have to be someone that’s going to go out and get you know 15 20 points like they don’t need they just need a reliable player that can impact the game without needing the ball low maintenance uh and

Impacts winning like that’s that’s really what it comes down to it’s just like I feel like they have too many guys that you just forget they’re on the court for for too long and uh the only time you kind of remember with guys like especially like me like you said is

Whenever he’s scoring and that’s just not sustainable especially in the playoffs you need that that PJ Tucker that Royce O’Neal that whoever you want to call it just someone that does that and they’re missing that and I think just from a toughness perspective too

Like U I think they do have a tough like they’re a feisty team I think and they’re trying they’re trying really hard to slowly ingrain that into their opponents like they’re they’re definitely like that’s all vocal too like I think yeah he wants his team to be like that and they’re starting to

Pick up on that but I think they still need that guy like that Jay Crowder that’s not afraid to mix it up and like also if he gets ejected it’s not going to kill your chances of winning like uh you know just they need someone that can go in there and

Do that and they don’t have that that’s the one ingredient that I think is keeping them from being a true Championship Contender CU nkuch is too valuable to be that guy right like you know we can laugh because they won but if he had fouled out and Turner goes off

In the second half we’d be like well damn missed opportunity he really screwed them there so yeah you you kind of need that and he’s a part of that solution but you know considering he’s really the only reliable Center on this team you need him in there so he can’t always be doing

That type of stuff so that will wrap us up for the day 117 110 five straight for the Suns and a back toback tomorrow so another recap show coming your way Monday night into Tuesday Morning hit follow or subscribe if you haven’t already to get that show and more

Throughout the week we will catch you guys then

Bradley Beal finished what Kevin Durant and Devin Booker started as the Phoenix Sun scored their fifth straight win with a home W over the Indiana Pacers.

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