PHOENIX — There’s certainly hype.
But if we can look back to the start of the Phoenix Suns’ NBA mid-season tournament, the purple and teal court, security cleared the front row of the court for LeBron James to warm up. forward Fans are even allowed inside the Trail Center, and the reality of basketball is this:
The Suns (4-5) were only in their second game this offseason with the addition of Bradley Beal, and neither they nor the Los Angeles Lakers (4-5) looked like potential in their eight games each. competitors.
There was no winning team entering or leaving Friday. A lot of things still need to be clarified.
However, the Lakers defeated the Suns 122-119, their second critical moment victory over the Suns to start the season, and both men made some achievements.
What’s not clear is why the game is getting attention.
James scored 32 points on 17 shots in the first quarter while dealing with a left leg sprain, and his six assists and command determined a late-game momentum shift after Phoenix led for much of the game.
“Trying to slow down LeBron and not be sharp with the rotation of shooters is a problem,” Suns coach Frank Vogel said. “We wanted to take the ball out of his hands more, but we weren’t good enough. Ground coverage in the backfield.”
Phoenix played its fourth straight game without Devin Booker, with Kevin Durant scoring 38 points after a slow start and Beal scoring 20 in the first half of the Suns’ home debut, Outstanding.
With some answers to the questions, Beal and Durant took a step forward in their battle with each other.
Beal finished with 24 points, including a critical moment after Durant launched an avalanche of offense. Jusuf Nurkic followed up Wednesday’s performance in Chicago with another aggressive offensive night, finishing with 14 points and seven assists.
But Phoenix’s offensive ineptitude reappeared.
Durant scored 13 consecutive points in the three minutes before the end of the third quarter. In a case of “if you had to guess one reason, why would you guess it right?” the Suns’ 96-89 lead early in the fourth quarter evaporated as Durant rested, leading to the Lakers. Came leading for the first time in six games minutes into the first quarter.
The Suns’ lineup of Eric Gordon, Jordan Goodwin and Beal looked listless, with funky spacing ruining leads. Then Lakers small forward Cam Reddish, who has been in and out of the starting lineup so far this season, started to stir up momentum.
Los Angeles started the third quarter with Reddish’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer and ended the game 14-0.
Durant came back into the game with 7:52 left and Phoenix trailing 103-98, and the Suns star immediately alleviated Phoenix’s problems by scoring two points in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter.
Durant hit a pull-up jumper for a three-pointer in half transition, the Lakers bench kept moving, screaming for a double that never came, and then he launched an all-out blitz on the next play. Durant passed out in a game that ended with Keita Bates-Diop and one point for Phoenix.
But Reddish’s four 3-pointers in the final quarter and one second were remarkable — especially for a Lakers team that’s been the only team to shoot below 30 percent from three this year. NBA teams.
“They didn’t shoot the ball well tonight,” Beal said. “I think they made us more confused and they made a lot of three-pointers because of it. “A lot of that came from ‘LeBron’s initiation.’ “
Vogel is also more concerned about defensive miscues than offensive inadequacies.
“I mean, I have to watch the tape, but I felt like our defense broke down more (a problem) at the beginning of the fourth quarter… We didn’t have defense,” he said.
The key to the Suns’ early advantage was Beal, who suffered a back injury that slowed him down Wednesday against the Bulls. Against the Lakers, Beal quickly scored 9 points from beyond the three-point line and scored at the basket through several air cuts.
Bill scored 15 points midway through the second quarter. By that point, Phoenix led 48-34, not only from its star players but also from spacing, with the Suns hitting a total of six 3-pointers.
Beal ended the first half in beautiful fashion: isolating Christian Wood, crossing paths with him, hesitating and blowing past him, cutting into another Los Angeles defender, and then dancing toward the locker room.
The guard’s night included a putback attempt that saw him land on his back after being fouled. Beal acknowledged that his back injury is still aggravating, at least while on the bench.
“That’s what we’re going to face in the next few games,” he said. “It was good, the second game, to get my lungs up under me a little bit, my legs up under me a little bit, to be aggressive.”
However, the contrast of the teal and purple floor that the Suns lost in their first game of the season matched their best and worst games of the night.
Vogel reminded his players that this is still a young season. He reminded reporters that the team is far from done, with Beal still under vague load restrictions and Booker’s return from a calf injury apparently imminent.
In fact, the situation was already very serious before the game.
Wearing a beanie, Booker went through his usual pregame warm-ups in the final minutes before pregame introductions as scores of fans and cameras watched.
This looks like a clear statement that his return is imminent.
“He makes things work,” Durant said after the game. “Without him, we couldn’t go where we wanted to go.”