The Phoenix Suns improved to 3-0 with Kevin Durant in the lineup after defeating the Dallas Mavericks, 130-126. Durant scored a game-high 37 points while shooting 12-17 from the field (including 3-5 from three point range) and 10-10 from the free throw line. He also had seven rebounds and three assists. Devin Booker scored 36 points on 15-25 field goal shooting (including 1-3 from three point range), and he contributed a game-high 10 assists, nearly matching the assist total (15) of the isolation-heavy Mavericks. Ish Wainright scored 12 points off of the bench in just 14 minutes while shooting 4-6 from the field, including 4-5 from beyond the arc. Chris Paul had a solid but quiet game (11 points, seven assists, six rebounds), while Deandre Ayton grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds and made the most of his limited offensive opportunities (nine points on 4-6 field goal shooting). Thanks mainly to Ayton, the Suns dominated the boards, 41-31.
Luka Doncic led the Mavericks with 34 points, but he shot just 8-23 from the field while amassing five turnovers to go along with four assists and a team-high nine rebounds. Kyrie Irving scored 30 points on 10-19 field goal shooting, and he topped the Mavericks with seven assists. Tim Hardaway Jr. (21 points) and Christian Wood (17 points) provided 38 of Dallas' 48 points off of the bench.
The Mavericks humiliated the top-seeded Suns in a game seven rout last year to advance to the Western Conference Finals, but both teams recently made significant personnel changes. The Suns gave up Mikal Bridges, Jae Crowder, Cam Johnson, and four first round draft picks to acquire Durant, while the Mavericks shipped out Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, a 2029 first round draft pick, and multiple second round draft picks to acquire Irving. Both teams sacrificed depth and potential future resources to try to win now. It will be very interesting to see how those decisions pan out not only in the 2023 playoffs but in the years to come. Losing Jalen Brunson in free agency last summer hurt the Mavericks, and they gave up a lot of value with the hope that Irving can not only replace Brunson but augment what Brunson provided during last year's playoff run. The Suns desperately need Durant to provide the clutch scoring that was missing during their 2021 and 2022 playoff runs, and they will also need for him to be active defensively to make up for the losses of Bridges and Crowder, two excellent defensive players.
It was a treat to listen to Hubie Brown do the color commentary for this game. I believe that his most recent game prior to this was Milwaukee's 128-99 rout of Miami on Friday February 24. Brown made several timely and most relevant observations. For instance, both teams frequently complained about the officiating. Brown said that within the first five to seven minutes of a game you can figure out--as a coach or as a player--how that game is being officiated. Whether or not you agree with how the game is being officiated, once you know what is happening it is important to adjust to it, not complain, and not cost your team points by getting technical fouls. It is vital to not let the officiating style throw your game off, regardless of whether the game is being called very tightly, or the game is being called very loosely. Luka Doncic in particular could benefit from hearing (and heeding) Brown's counsel on this topic, as Doncic wastes far too much time and energy complaining to the officials.
Regarding how to incorporate newly acquired players into the rotation in the middle of the season, Brown emphasized that newly acquired players must accept the game plan at both ends of the court while also adjusting to any differences in style between their previous coaching staff and their current coaching staff.
Throughout the game, Brown was on point in detecting and explaining momentum changes. He also broke down the strategic decisions made by both coaching staffs.
It is obvious that the Mavericks have a shortage of good defensive players, and that the Mavericks lack size. Jeff Van Gundy recently--and correctly--noted that small teams rarely win championships. If you watch the Mavericks closely then you will notice that Coach Jason Kidd--a great defensive player during his long Hall of Fame career--uses various schemes and rotations to compensate for Dallas' lack of size and dearth of plus defenders. Versus the Suns, the Mavericks packed the paint to cut off driving lanes and midrange shots for Durant and Booker, willingly conceding three point shots to Josh Okogie, who shot 3-13 from the field overall while missing all eight of his attempts from beyond the arc. In the second half, Wainright punished the Mavericks' scheme by making the same open three pointers that Okogie had been missing. One could call this defense "He with us"--that is how Jalen Rose refers to the thought process behind consistently leaving an opposing player wide open--and if the Suns' role players make those open shots during the playoffs then the Suns will be very difficult to guard. The Mavericks' offense mainly consists of Doncic or Irving isolating to either score or else generate an open three point shot for someone else. The playoff games that the Mavericks win this year will feature Doncic and Irving each scoring 25-plus points while the team makes at least 15-20 three pointers, while the playoff games that the Mavericks lose will feature Doncic or Irving being contained while the three point shooters are off target. The Mavericks are unlikely to be involved in--let alone win--low scoring defensive slugfests.
The Suns' main weakness is lack of depth. The drop off when Durant is not on the court is dramatic. That is a concern because Durant has not been able to stay healthy for the past several years: he has played in 55 games or less each season since 2018-19, including missing the entire 2019-20 season because of a ruptured right Achilles tendon suffered in game five of the 2019 NBA Finals. Durant has not made a full playoff run past the second round since he led the Golden State Warriors to the 2018 championship (the Warriors reached the 2019 NBA Finals, but injuries limited Durant to playing in just 12 of the Warriors’ 22 playoff games). The current iteration of the Suns led by Booker, Paul, and Ayton squandered a 2-0 NBA Finals lead over the Milwuakee Bucks in 2021 and then suffered the aforementioned epic game seven collapse versus the Mavericks last season after posting the NBA's best regular season record. Paul is almost 38 years old, and he has been injury-prone throughout his career, but it is worth noting that even the 26 year old Booker has hardly been a paragon of durability. It is reasonable to expect that both Paul and Booker will miss some playoff games, which puts an even greater onus on Durant to be available and highly productive.