race for Rookie of the Year<\/a>, as he led the team in points, averaging 21.2 points per game.<\/p>\n\u201cJust growth,\u201d Ott said regarding Flagg. \u201cAnytime a young guy plays early in his career, there\u2019s going to be peaks and valleys. Now you see him take gigantic strides, still in his first year. He plays bigger than his age, and now he can add the shooting piece and the passing piece.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the Suns, they still had Dillon Brooks and star player Devin Booker, who were both averaging 20+ PPG.<\/p>\n
Booker led the team in points and assists, with 25.9 PPG and 6 assists per game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s just been doing a lot of good things,\u201d Ott said regarding Booker. \u201cGetting to the free-throw line, every game\u2019s different. He\u2019ll make the right play.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Suns also had some solid pieces to rely on, such as Jalen Green, Collin Gillespie, and Grayson Allen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had enough data with that second unit,\u201d Ott said regarding the second unit. \u201cKeep looking at it, keep talking through it. It\u2019s probably not going to be perfect, but we got to get it right on Tuesday. I think we saw some stuff that we liked and some stuss that we\u2019re going to definitely question.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the paint, Mark Williams was the man for the Suns in that department, leading the Suns in rebounds with 8 RPG.<\/p>\n
Before the game, however, Williams and Allen were ruled out of the game. Williams was out due to injury management, while Allen was out with a quad injury.<\/p>\n
As for the Mavericks, Williams, Washington, Gafford and Marshall were all ruled out of the game.<\/p>\n
Jordan Goodwin and Khaman Maluach replaced the two players for the Suns.<\/p>\n
Four minutes into the game, and Green was subbed off for Gillespie after suffering what looked to be a leg injury, before heading down the tunnel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough,\u201d Booker said seeing his teammates go down. \u201cCoach says nobody is going to feel bad for us, so we have to get over that quick. That\u2019s the nature of the game; we\u2019re not the only team dealing with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Entering the second quarter, the Suns led 33-29.<\/p>\n
Royce O\u2019Neale led the way in scoring with 11 points, while Booker trailed him with seven points while already having four assists.<\/p>\n
As for the Mavericks, Bagley had eight points, while Flagg followed with six points.<\/p>\n
It helped that the Suns went 6-for-10 from downtown to start the game.<\/p>\n
With less than three minutes left in the second quarter, Goodwin walked off to the locker room as well after a timeout.<\/p>\n
Goodwin finished his night with nine points, three rebounds, and an assist.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey tried to come back in,\u201d Ott said regarding Goodwin and Green. \u201cThey just couldn\u2019t do it. We\u2019ll continue to assess how our guys come out of this back-to-back, and then we\u2019ll plan accordingly. The number one thing always, is health.\u201d<\/p>\n
Entering the second half, the Suns led 61-53.<\/p>\n
For the Suns, Booker led the way with 19 points, but O\u2019Neale had 14 points of his own.<\/p>\n
Brooks also chipped in with nine points.<\/p>\n
As for the Mavericks, Flagg was quiet with only six points, going 3-for-10 when shooting, while Bagley and Max Christie did the lifting.<\/p>\n
Bagley had 11 points, and Christie had 10 points.<\/p>\n
Phoenix took a big lead midway through the third, leading by as much as 18, but an 18-1 by Dallas cut the lead to just one point.<\/p>\n
\u201cProud of our response,\u201d Ott said. \u201cAt some point you think the dam is going to break, where we\u2019re going to be able to open it up and to their credit, they kept playing fast and shots kept going in. It\u2019s that time of year just to take care of business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite that, the Suns led 88-80 entering the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
Booker exploded to life for Phoenix, as he had 27 points, and so did Brooks, as he had 19 points while being perfect from deep.<\/p>\n
Maluach also had 13 rebounds for the Suns.<\/p>\n
As for Dallas, Christie and John Poulakidas had 15 points, while Bagley had 13 points.<\/p>\n
However, Dallas went on a quick run, and with just eight minutes left in the game, they took a two-point lead.<\/p>\n
With five minutes to go, Phoenix held a five-point lead.<\/p>\n
Even then, Dallas had chances to score, but Phoenix\u2019s defense, alongside some crucial blocks by Maluach, kept the Mavericks from taking the lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a big block there in the fourth,\u201d Ott said regarding Maluach. \u201cJust the presence at the rim, obviously helps with the rebounding piece. It was good, good reps for him, good experience to get out there. This is just the next step.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phoenix took a 105-97 lead with three minutes left, as they looked to close out the game.<\/p>\n
Entering the final 90 seconds of the game, Dallas cut the lead to three, but Booker responded, hitting a big time three as the Mavericks called timeout.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been through it before,\u201d Booker said. \u201cThat\u2019s why when I have it rolling, you don\u2019t see me doing backflips or celebrating, this game\u2019s humbled me plenty. It is what it is and you move on to the next play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite that, Dallas hit their own three, and with 36 seconds left, Dallas had the ball down just three.<\/p>\n
Moussa Cisse drove into the lane for a bucket, but Oso Ighodaro blocked him, and the Suns ran up the court with it.<\/p>\n
After that, Brooks drove it to take a five-point lead with 13 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n
In the end, that was the deciding factor, as the Suns won 112-107.<\/p>\n
For Phoenix, Booker finished with 37 points while Brooks trailed him with 28 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a shot maker,\u201d Ott said regarding Brooks. \u201cThis is probably the most consistent he probably felt, so that\u2019s helpful. We obviously missed that in the month of March. It\u2019s good to see him get back on track.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maluach finished with just four points but had three blocks and 14 rebounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cKhaman (Maluach) stayed the course the entire year,\u201d Booker said. \u201cJust waited for his opportunity and thrived in it tonight. I\u2019m super proud of him. I think this is a starting point for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the Mavericks, Poulakidas finished with 23 points and Bagley finished with 20 points.<\/p>\n
Flagg was shut down, going 4-for-19 in the game scoring only 11 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s so good in the open court,\u201d Ott said regarding Flagg. \u201cFirst piece with them is to get back in transition. You can never guard any elite scorer in the league one-on-one, you got to do it with all five defensive players.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Suns jump to 44-36 while the Mavericks fall to 25-55.<\/p>\n
Combine tonight\u2019s win with the Clippers losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Suns clinched the seventh seed and home-court advantage for the play-in tournament in the West.<\/p>\n
\u201cI live for these moments,\u201d Booker said. \u201cI\u2019ve been here before; I might have the most playoff experience on the team. I\u2019m looking forward to the play-in, this is what you train all summer for. This is the situation I imagine myself in so, not time to shy away from it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Suns will visit the Los Angeles Lakers at crypto.com Arena on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Phoenix Suns (43-36) hosted the Dallas Mavericks (25-54) at Mortgage Matchup Center on Wednesday. This was the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[7,6,2065,472,4045,604],"class_list":{"0":"post-706739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix-suns","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-phoenix","11":"tag-phoenix-suns","12":"tag-phoenixsuns","13":"tag-suns"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116375845885107257","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}