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Biggest Takeaways from Suns’ 116-115 OT Victory over the Bulls

© Jamie Sabau-USA TODAY Sports

The Phoenix Suns (4-4) concluded their three-game road trip with a 116-115 OT victory over the Chicago Bulls (3-6) last night in the season debut of Bradley Beal.

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Jusuf Nurkić hit a game-winning layup for Phoenix with seven seconds left in overtime. This game was much closer than it should have been with the Suns up 22-4 early in the first quarter, but 21 team turnovers kept the Bulls in it the entire night. Devin Booker did not play for the Suns, missing his third consecutive game with a right calf strain.

Here are some of the biggest takeaways from the game:

Final Stats

First, here are some of the most notable stats from the game.

Kevin Durant once again was huge for Phoenix, finishing with 25 points, nine assists and eight rebounds in 42 minutes. However, Grayson Allen and Jusuf Nurkić also had fantastic outings.

Allen led the Suns with 26 points to go along with eight rebounds and four assists. He shot 8-of-13 from deep.

The game-winning Nurkić had monster stats, finishing with 20 points, 16 rebounds, eight assists and two steals.

In Beal’s return, he posted 13 points, four rebounds and four assists.

Keita Bates-Diop started his third consecutive game over Josh Okogie and had the highest plus/minus on the team at +19. He also hit a huge three-pointer in overtime to cut the Bulls’ lead to one with a minute to go. In total, he finished with seven points, five rebounds, three assists and three blocks.

Even though Durant and Nurkić did have near-triple doubles, they finished with six turnovers each.

As a team, the Suns had 21 turnovers, but did total 32 assists. They outrebounded the Bulls 53-38 and shot 38-of-89 (42.7%) from the floor and 19-of-48 (39.6%) from deep.

Nikola Vučević led the way for the Bulls, finishing with 26 points and six rebounds. DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine each had 22 points for Chicago. The Bulls shot slightly better than the Suns, 42-of-95 (44.2%) from the field and 14-of-33 (42.4%) from three. They had 30 assists to 14 turnovers.

Very Small Sample Size of Bradley Beal

Beal only played 23 minutes in his debut with the Phoenix Suns and none at all in overtime after sitting out the first seven games with low back spasms.

He only shot 3-of-12 from the floor after starting 2-for-3, but was clearly winded in his return back from a tough injury to deal with.

However, as coach Frank Vogel said after the game, the Suns are now 1-0 with Beal in the lineup.

We saw glimpses of the wonders that spacing will do when Beal is on the floor. It allowed Durant to have nine assists, Nurkić to have eight assists and Allen to have eight three-pointers.

Beal also benefited from the spacing with two early assists and two wide open threes for his first points in a Suns’ uniform.

We will see how long it takes Beal to get off his minutes restriction and back into game shape in terms of not being so gassed. However, he did provide a big spark for the Suns at times last night and that will only increase once Booker returns.

Jusuf Nurkić’s Aggressiveness Will be Key to Winning Some Games

Nurkić quite literally won the Suns’ the game with his go-ahead basket with seven seconds remaining, however it was his overall play that stood out.

Fans had been questioning how good Nurkić can be on this team, and he showed what he is capable of last night thanks in part to Beal being back in the lineup. There definitely were still some shortcomings for Nurkić that will improve over time.

First of all, he was monster on the glass with a season-high 17 rebounds, eight of which came on the offensive glass. His eight assists were also a season high, but so were his six turnovers. He shot 8-of-16 (50%) from the floor in what was his first game shooting 50% or better since the season opener.

For his role on this team, these rebounds and assist numbers are right where you would like, but he needs to do a better job of making shots and holding onto the ball.

Another area of improvement for Nurkić is defense. His primary matchup, Nikola Vučević, led the Bulls in scoring, but Nurkić was able to keep him off the glass, limiting Chicago’s starting center to only six rebounds.

Offensively, he came out very aggressive right away with six points and three assists in the first three minutes. This set the precedent for how hard he was going to play and his effort on the offensive end really gave life to the Suns in crucial moments.

Nurkić needs to find a way to be more consistent in all aspects of his game, but we really got a glimpse of how well he can play his role alongside Phoenix’s stars in Beal’s return. Once Booker is back, Nurkić will put up even better numbers because of the increased spacing, as he really starting to come into his own in terms of playmaking (15 combined assists in last two games).

Grayson Allen Scorches Bulls Again

Allen returned to a place where he is hated after breaking Alex Caruso’s wrist in the 2022 season on a flagrant foul and later torching the Bulls in the playoffs.

Last night, he finished with a career-high eight threes after being greeted with boos and proved how essential he can be for this team when his offense is needed.

For more on Allen’s history with Chicago and his record-setting performance, check out the stories below:

Grayson Allen’s career-high performance ignites Suns to overtime win

Grayson Allen was loving the boos in the United Center on Wednesday

Kevin Durant Making Plays for Others

Durant had a chance to win the game in regulation and got a good look, but missed the shot. However, his unselfishness in overtime proved key to the Suns’ victory.

Durant assisted both the Bates-Diop triple and Nurkić’s go-ahead bucket. All night, the Bulls were harassing Durant defensively and did cause six turnovers against him.

This was yet another game where a team could key in on Durant and make everything difficult for him, yet it didn’t matter once again. Durant adjusted and made two of the biggest plays of the game to lead the Suns to victory, despite playing over 42 minutes. The 35-year-old continued to show  that he is still a top-5 offensive player right now with how versatile his game has become this season as really the far-and-away No. 1 option on Phoenix most nights.

When Beal is able to play more and Booker gets back, it will take so much pressure off of Durant, which will be a scary sight with KD pretty much winning some of these games singlehandedly.

Durant’s recent play bars the question if he should be the No. 1 option even when Booker returns. The scoring load will definitely be more split between the two (or even three including Beal) on most nights than originally thought.

Suns’ fans now can just appreciate Durant’s greatness and having one of the best basketball players of all-time on their team.

Keita Bates-Diop PERFECT Fit for Fifth Starter

Going back to Bates-Diop, he did almost everything right for the Suns last night and played his role perfectly.

The only big mistake he made was giving up the DeRozan bucket to tie the game with 15 seconds left in regulation. However, he responded in a big way in overtime, cashing in that very clutch triple and then forcing DeRozen to miss the game-winning shot on the other end.

Bates-Diop is starting primarily because of his height, length and the ability to be an offensive threat when needed (not allowing the defense to sag off of him). Josh Okogie offers a huge wingspan, but only is 6-foot-4, allowing Bates-Diop to show that he can matchup better with forwards than Okogie. That’s not to say Okogie can’t defend them, but just based on each of their frames, Okogie is better suited to defend guards and Bates-Diop to guard forwards.

As Suns’ fans saw last year and what the Spurs showed last week is that defenses can play off Okogie to help on others and not suffer much consequences. We saw this work effectively in a tiny stretch with Bates-Diop in the fourth quarter yesterday, but in the end he made them pay in overtime.

Reflecting on Bates-Diop’s overall play especially on the defensive end, he was the primary defender on DeRozan all night. DeRozan only shot 6-of-20 from the floor and Bates-Diop had three blocks with his 7-foot-3 wingspan.

His length poses so many problems for opposing teams and if he can capitalize in moments where he is needed on offense consistently, there is no reason to move off of him any time soon as the fifth starter.

Turnover Problem

Even though the Bulls are atop the NBA in forcing turnovers, the Suns had 21 of them in the win, and they were a huge part of why the Bulls almost pulled this one out.

Phoenix totaled seven turnovers in the fourth quarter alone, as the Suns did not score one time in the last three minutes of regulation in large part to turnovers.

For more on the Suns turnover numbers, check out this story:

The Suns are turning over the basketball at a staggering rate.

Eric Gordon Struggles

Following his best performance yet for the Suns during Sunday’s 120-106 vs. the Pistons, Eric Gordon really struggled against Chicago last night.

Gordon shot 1-of-9 from the floor and 0-of-8 from deep against the Bulls, finishing with two points, two assists, one rebound and three turnovers in 25 minutes (most playing time off the bench).

For now, you can just chalk this up as a single-game bad performance. However, it seems as if Gordon plays a completely different role with Beal on the floor and will solely play this role once Booker and Beal are both fully back.

When those two have been out, Gordon has been a primary initiator of offense next to Durant. In many stretches last night, he only found himself in catch-and-shoot opportunities.

Eventually, Gordon will figure out how to adjust to this role and also get the ball in his hands to make plays from others.

We saw him adjust to this playmaking role without Booker and Beal fairly quickly.

In the first two games of the season, Gordon began shooting 10-of-32 (31.3%) from the floor and only had one assist, but was very patient in waiting for the game to come to him. It paid off and Suns’ fans had seen an even better version of the veteran guard than expected the past five games before last night.

In those five games, Gordon averaged 16.4 points per game on a terrific 34-of-62 (54.8%) clip and also averaged 4.4 assists.

There really shouldn’t be reason to worry about his performance last night, as the team is doing so much scrambling around because of Booker and Beal’s injuries.

Not just Gordon, but everyone’s roles, which have changed significantly without Booker and Beal, will soon become more and more clear once the two are fully healthy.

The rest of the team should get progressively more comfortable as the season rolls along, which is why health is really the only big concern for the Suns early on.

The Suns (4-4) next play the Los Angeles Lakers (3-5) in their first in-season tournament game at home on Friday at 8 p.m. MST.

Phoenix Suns Survive Chicago Bulls in Overtime Thriller, Win 116-115

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Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau

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