A 112-100 win for the Phoenix Suns over the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday they never trailed now has them in a great position to advance in the NBA Cup.
Phoenix’s NBA Cup group, Group A, doesn’t have much left to figure out after an Oklahoma City Thunder win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday meant the Suns share a 3-0 record with the Thunder. Their meeting on Friday will determine who wins the group and who has to hope for the singular wild-card spot.
The thing is, the loser also has the best shot to get that spot based on the tiebreaker of point differential. And it’s already pretty simple.
It’ll come down to that loser and the winner of Group B’s pivotal matchup between the 2-1 Memphis Grizzlies and 2-1 Los Angeles Clippers, who will be the runner-up to the Los Angeles Lakers (3-0).
For a potential tiebreaker, Phoenix’s +35 point differential is far better than Memphis’ +14 or the Clippers’ -9. So is OKC’s +71, for what it’s worth. The wild card to this wild card, of course, is that the Thunder are blowing out a team every other night, so the Suns’ advantage there wouldn’t necessarily be safe and either the Grizzlies or Clippers could theoretically make up that deficit with a blowout of their own.
Group C, for what it’s worth, will be decided by the 2-1 Denver Nuggets and 2-1 San Antonio Spurs facing off for who wins the group and who is eliminated. Every other team in the group already has at least two losses.
On top of the many things we’ve learned about the Suns (12-7) through a month, we’ve seen them adjust to a rough 1-4 start that included a lot of major deficits against bad teams and they now emphatically handle business against bad and/or undermanned units. They came into Wednesday 8-3 against teams below .500, including seven straight wins.
Make it 9-3 and eight straight after Wednesday, but this was not as clinical and showed shades of that opening week of the season.
Despite this reputation and another for playing as hard as any team in the league (with extra stakes as a team that still has some NBA Cup aspirations to chase), Sacramento (5-14) was immediately on its back foot because of a terrible start in which it obviously did not mentally prepare for this type of challenge or physically push itself to match the effort level. Zach LaVine, who has some horrific on-off numbers, looked like his body was in the arena while his mind was on Mars.
The Suns led by 17 points just 5:13 in, later extending the first-quarter advantage to as big as 25, which held going into the second quarter.
With just about over five minutes left in the first half, Sacramento randomly found that energy but Phoenix did well to nullify it and still lead by 22 at halftime.
But at the beginning of the second half, the Suns clearly were looking to hit a few kill-shots in the form of some quick 3s to really put the game away. Those shots did not go and the Kings kept that energy going, using a 12-0 run in the mid-third quarter to get within nine. All the effortless ways Phoenix forced Sacramento’s defense to play in rotations went missing, all when shots weren’t going down, failing to hit on 15 of its first 19 attempts and going 0-fer on nine tries from 3.
The Suns then used a few different small flurries to hold onto this one, showing enough slippage outside of ’em to keep this game closer than it should have been.
With the lead down to just eight in the late third quarter, Devin Booker hit a middy, Mark Williams tipped in a miss and Williams dunked in the next for the cushion to regain some of its padding, a 14-point edge that would be at 10 going into the final frame.
Another spurt emerged at the start of that fourth quarter, with a Collin Gillespie lay-in, Jordan Goodwin 3 and Oso Ighodaro finish set up by Gillespie extending it back to 17.
Once again, though, the Suns did not build off that and Sacramento went on an 11-1 spurt to get back within eight.
That’s when Williams got set up by Booker, Royce O’Neale hit a deep 3 in an end-of-clock heave and a Williams offensive rebound got recent two-way addition Jamaree Bouyea his third triple of the night. For the third time, a little surge and the lead was up to 16 with 5:53 to go.
That finally proved to be enough.
Gillespie got his first start of the season, an effort to aid the offense, as it has struggled more and more while Grayson Allen (right quad contusion) and Jalen Green (right hamstring strain) remain out. Gillespie was the best player on the floor in the first half, impacting the game off the dribble at a newfound level while making his usual smart hustle plays elsewhere.
His shooting — both on pull-ups and catch-and-shoot looks — plus connector passing and occasional individual scoring has helped the offense a lot. But if he can get into the teeth of the defense more consistently as a playmaker like he did on Wednesday, that’s how he really establishes himself as a premier backup point guard.
Gillespie finished with 21 points, nine assists, two steals and four turnovers in 34 minutes.
Williams had his most dominant performance on the interior this season, which is more of what you’d like to see from him in matchups like this when the Kings are without Domantas Sabonis (left knee). He’s played great basketball this year, and yet there’s more for him to show when he’s undoubtedly the best big man in the arena that night. He ended up with 21 points, 16 rebounds, four assists, three steals, one block and three turnovers. Nine of his 16 rebounds were from the offensive glass.
Dillon Brooks has only had a night or two like Wednesday as a Sun but he will have some when the shots aren’t falling and he’s going aloof off the ball defensively. Those are very tough to take on from someone as important as him with the current injuries, as Ryan Dunn (right wrist sprain) was also out. Brooks shot 4-of-12 for 13 points with three rebounds, zero assists and three turnovers.
Devin Booker played like that in the second half too and once again could not get shots to go down for the fourth straight game. He was 6-of-22 for 19 points but at least took care of the ball more with six assists and just one turnover.
