The rebuilding process in basketball will always be brutal, even an offseason full of promising changes, and that was the lesson (if you needed it) from the Phoenix Suns’ 116-113 overtime victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.

Phoenix’s offensive flow in the first half was inconsistent, but it did make 10 of 23 3-pointers and played solid defense, enough to lead by 14 at one point. But the attack faltered again, scoring six points out of a 7-point lead. :17 at the end of the second quarter and opening of the third quarter, tying the game over a 20-6 Clippers run. This caused a lot of turnovers on a night when Phoenix had 22. The unforced errors, a huge problem area for last year’s team, were a cheap jump-scare tactic straight out of a C-tier horror film.

For all levels of this game, they don’t matter as much when Devin Booker and Kevin Durant are drastically underperforming. Through three quarters, they combined for six field goals, four assists and eight turnovers. Durant took the brute force route to get some shots off in the fourth quarter, while Booker never got there before fouling out with 1:27 to go in the fourth quarter.

This allowed the game to get weird and out of the Suns’ control against a Clippers team that was very ineffective offensively. The crucial stretch of the fourth quarter consisted mainly of Durant and James Harden trading assets separately, which led to mixed results, to put it kindly. Both were unable to create a good look while also turning it over in clumps.

However, Durant was able to finish an entire shot with an insane amount of difficulty to tie it with 21 seconds left.

Easy money. https://t.co/jlkolrwyE4 pic.twitter.com/e9ZNilAM2v

— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) October 24, 2024

Harden couldn’t convert his counter to set up overtime as the Suns executed just now just a little bit more to win. Bradley Beal was great all night, and bizarrely, with Harden guarding him in OT, Phoenix did the right thing by feeding Beal and scored nine of his 24 points in the extra period.

Phoenix led by two with 75 seconds left before once again getting stuck in a vortex of targeting mismatches and 1-on-1 isolation for Beal or Durant instead of going on the attack. It’s clearly going to be another tug-of-war to make that happen, at least early on. Even with point guards and a new coach.

After a turnover by Beal and a miss by Durant, Harden had two free throws to tie the game with five seconds left, but he missed the second. Jusuf Nurkic made both of his to give Phoenix a three-second lead with three seconds left in OT and LA’s ATO resulted in Harden dropping the inbounds pass to seal the win.

Durant finished with 25 points (8-for-17), seven rebounds, zero assists, three steals, one block and seven turnovers. Booker attempted just nine shots in 32 minutes, hitting five for 15 points with six assists and four turnovers.

Beal and backup point guard Monte Morris brought life to the Suns in both halves. The former Washington teammates used that pre-established chemistry to help the Suns in a big way. Backup lineups featuring a combination of the two: Grayson Allen, Royce O’Neale, and rookie duo Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro have done a great job of shifting and rebounding the defensive intensity.

Head coach Mike Budenholzer went eleven players deep in his rotation. In the first half, Nurkic (8:49), Mason Plumlee (8:40) and Ighodaro (7:28) were all overrun, with Ighodaro spending some of that time at the 4. Allen was the last man in, as Phoenix will slowly bring him back in after Achilles soreness forced him to miss the final four games of the preseason. Budenholzer must have played more than a dozen lineup combinations. He was not afraid to immediately change one or two agencies if things stagnated.

Harden was largely a mess for a Clippers team that had to rely heavily on him without Kawhi Leonard (right knee recovery). His final score of 29 points on 10-of-28 shooting with 12 rebounds, eight assists and eight turnovers says it all.

The Suns managed just 15 threes in the final three quarters after the aforementioned extremely promising 23 for the first half. The ball movement was fine Overall, but especially disappointing in the half-court attack, where the continuity built over the coming months will help immensely. Things looked better when starting point guard Tyus Jones started the possessions. He was good in this one and had 11 points, eight assists, two steals, a block and of course zero turnovers.

Due to turnovers and an inconsistent gang-rebound approach, the Clippers made fourteen more shots. They had 13 offensive rebounds to the Suns’ four.

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