Devin Booker, Kevin Durant Impress NBA Fans as Suns’ Big 3 Debuts in Loss to Nets | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
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Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images
There will be better days for the Phoenix Suns in their new Big 3 era.
Wednesday marked the first time Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal played together in the regular season, but they fell short in a 116-112 loss to the Brooklyn Nets at Footprint Center. Durant’s former team has been playing excellent basketball of late and improved to 7-2 in its last nine games.
As for the Suns, they are just 2-5 in their last seven and 13-11 overall.
Booker (34 points, 12 assists and six rebounds), Durant (27 points, six rebounds and four assists) and Jusuf Nurkić (15 points and 22 rebounds) were excellent, while Beal added 14 points. Still, there weren’t enough contributions elsewhere or defensive stops to overcome a balanced Brooklyn attack that saw all five starters score at least 14 points.
Social media still showed some love for the stars:
The biggest storyline going into this game was the regular-season debut of the Suns’ Big 3 since various injuries prevented them from all being on the floor during any of the team’s first 23 games.
There were some expected growing pains as they grew accustomed to playing together. Brooklyn jumped out to a commanding 15-point lead in the first half, although Phoenix closed the gap to single digits by intermission thanks in large part to Booker’s dominance as both a scorer and facilitator.
The Nets, like defenses will have to do throughout the season, had to pick their poison on a number of possessions, and Booker continued to make the right play by attacking and either scoring himself or finding open spaces to set up his teammates.
Phoenix appeared more comfortable as the game progressed and took the lead heading into the fourth quarter. It wasn’t just a three-man show, as Nurkić was a dominant force on the boards and turned into a scoring threat by finding openings when Brooklyn was too concerned with the other playmakers.
It would have been easy for the Nets to fold from there, but they did the opposite and retook the lead in the fourth quarter with Cam Thomas and Mikal Bridges leading the way. Then it was Spencer Dinwiddie’s turn to play the role of hero, and his three-pointer and driving layup pushed a three-point lead to eight in the final two minutes.
Phoenix will likely improve as the season progresses and the Big 3 play more minutes together. It will look to take the next step when it hosts the New York Knicks on Friday.
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