Three Takeaways From Suns' 124-115 Win Over Thunder
The Phoenix Suns were able to battle through some adversity in their first game back from All-Star weekend in a 124-115 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday.
Things were sometimes a bit too close with OKC, especially considering they were on the second night of a back-to-back (that went into overtime) without their best player in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Yet a win is a win, and the Suns continue their winning ways in hopes of adding a healthy Kevin Durant to the mix sooner rather than later.
Here's three takeaways from Phoenix's win over Oklahoma City:
Three Takeaways
Shaking the (Minor) Rust Off
Adding to the statements listed above, there was bound to be some rust that needed to be shaken off after a long period of no play.
There's little to complain about on Phoenix's end, but coach Monty Williams will be sure to dig deep into the film in an attempt to fix the minor details that the Suns can improve on moving forward.
Despite the close score, Phoenix managed to play an overall solid game back despite a couple defensive miscues - which will indeed happen on a daily basis.
It looked like there wasn't much rust to shake off from top to bottom.
No Payne, No Gain
Cam Payne is finally back from a foot injury that kept him sidelined since Jan. 4, and his presence was evident from the jump.
Outside of the box score, his nickname "turbo" thanks to the energy he injects to his team was apparent.
“Very important. They do the thing before the game where they crank him up and put the battery pack in his back and he gets the going and so that energy is second to none," Booker said of Payne following the win.
"We need that. That’s the spark that we need, that’s the role that he plays and he did an incredible job tonight with it.”
Payne's 14 points and four rebounds provided a nice boost behind Chris Paul as the floor general of the second unit. His ability to change pace should only return to normal levels when his conditioning returns, too.
Closing Time
It's not unusual to see Booker take over games in the final minutes. In fact, it's expected.
Yet when Friday night's game was getting a bit too close to comfort, Booker was able to handle those duties yet again by sinking the team's final three field goals in regulation (seven points in total) to ensure the Suns walked away with a victory.
Booker - who admitted he likely went over his minutes restriction as he's still working his way back from a groin injury - said he felt great after playing 36 minutes.
“I feel great. I’m just trying to get my wind all the way back and games like this are important for that. When you do an injury to your bottom half, you can’t really condition through it all so when I had the growing, it was mostly just laid up and getting my heart rate back up and getting my wind is the next thing for me," he said.
There was no shot Williams was putting Booker back on the bench as things concluded, but it was still nice to see Booker put the team on his back when they needed it.
