Denver Nuggets dominate Phoenix Suns in Western Conference semifinals: Game 1 recap

Empire of the Sun

Updated: 04/29/2023 at 10:40 p.m.

DENVER – The Phoenix Suns will no longer deal with being talented. That stopped once the ball went airborne for Game 1 on Saturday of the second round against the Denver Nuggets.

In fact, the Nuggets seemed more talented. In addition to the great parts of their individual play, they were also much better as a team and ignited the Sun with an impressive first strike, 125-107.

The Phoenix Maths from the first two quarters were gutted and placed in a hole from which they could not escape. Kevin Durant had the stat sheet in front of him and kept coming back to Denver to make 17 more shots and make seven shots on nearly half of Phoenix’s 16 shots.

Thanks to his +9 offensive rebounding and +4 turnovers, the Nuggets attempted 15 more shots in the first half. In addition, they made seven three-thirds more and took twelve more. The Suns’ prolific free throw shooting in the first round wasn’t even getting started, as Denver went +2 there as well.

Getting so much up in categories that it just comes down to effort and commitment is actually what the Suns used to do. they opponents in the last two years. Worse still is doing it in a series like this one that is in the middle. Denver was stellar, as a No. 1 seed should be, and the Suns were on their feet most of the night because of it.

“I thought they were more physical, they played more aggressively, especially in the second quarter,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “This is where we lost some momentum. And the difference is in possession. Turnovers and offensive rebounds ruined us tonight.”

So you lose half by 15 when you shoot at 55%.

“When you look at the stat sheet, they understand [101] Shots, we got 84,” Durant said. “They got 37, we got 23. They got 16, we got seven. It’s a do or fail league. We can talk about a lot of different things going on in our league like getting back on defense, making the extra pass, but if you take more shots than your opponent you have a good chance of winning a basketball game and that’s what they did. «

While this is certainly the way to lose a game, more often than not basketball will provide multiple opportunities to get back in the game.

The first window came early in the third quarter when Phoenix went down 12. A downed possession forced Chris Paul to jump, Devin Booker’s big block was followed by a foul by Torey Craig and then a Nuggets offensive rebound that led to Nikola Jokic 3. Phoenix’s next run resulted in a miss. Deandre Ayton came off a short lap and lost 15 when it could easily have been in the single digits.

The second window was the start of the fourth quarter with the Suns down 13 by scoring on five straight possessions, only to allow the Nuggets to do the same. Jeff Green missed a layup at the sandwich position for baskets by Jamal Murray and the “Blue Arrow” dagger fired a 3-pointer shortly afterward to put Denver up 17 with 6:57 remaining to finish it.

Murray relished the opportunity to face Phoenix in the postseason after missing the 2021 series due to injury. The shot from him was great and the Suns had no answers on how to defend him. He had a game-high 34 points and nine assists on 13-of-24 shooting with two steals.

If there’s another game in this series when Denver has the MVP and Jokic doesn’t, the Suns are overcooked.

“Let’s be honest, some of the shots he took, I don’t think anyone could have stopped him tonight,” Williams said of Murray. “But we have to do something a little different in our schemes to prevent him from getting the ball or taking it out of his hands.”

Aaron Gordon, who had a total of 36 points in a four-game sweep two years ago, was stellar on offense with 23 points on 9-of-13.

And while back-to-back MVP Jokic was 9-for-21, his abundant contributions of 24 points, 19 rebounds and five assists were more than enough.

Durant was great, even with his seven turnovers and one assist, and he also played great poker. But no one else had much influence. Once again, the Suns can’t win this way anymore. The teams are doing very well at this stage of the playoffs. Booker started to go crazy downhill from the first drive in the fourth quarter, but it didn’t matter, unlike the spin that was so effective against the Clippers.

Durant had 29 points and 14 rebounds, while Booker added 27 points with eight assists.

Ayton found some rhythm in a short lap as a scorer, but Jokic brushed it off. The latter is far more important, and if that’s the trend, it’s a huge handicap for the Suns to try to compensate. Chris Paul was less focused on the ball and couldn’t find the flow to change the game from there.

Williams opted for Landry Shamet as the first substitute to maintain some volume in the backcourt and have another option to defend Murray. Nothing went right. Murray was too confident to tackle Chamett as a mismatch, and it seemed that way, although Chamett played very good defense on some possessions.

Sometimes in these situations, trust is the only thing that matters.

Given the shortcomings in 3-point attempts (Murray’s dagger was his sixth 3-pointer and the Suns only had five points at the time), it seems Cam Payne should return that role. Denver hasn’t been good at containing the Dodgers’ gimmick and that’s Payne’s bread and butter. He would have generated 3s that way, and Craig did a better job with Murray anyway. Josh Okogie returned to the starting lineup to play Murray and played well, doing a good job fighting to contain Murray.

Denver started small off the bench, as expected, and Phoenix stuck with the traditional 5 backup. The results were mixed. The Suns did a good job of running the offense through centers, but they weren’t decisive enough, and Denver won those minutes regardless.

Phoenix had 20 assists and 16 turnovers, which is good for a 1.25 assist-turnover ratio. Saturday came leading the league at 2.18 for the playoffs and 2.01 for the regular season in third place.

Both Williams and Ayton noted that the ball movement was not good enough, with Williams saying that the ball was “sticky” at times. Paul emphasized the increased speed and took the blame for it, but there were a handful of times where he could be seen signaling for his team to join him to avoid a mistake. At one point, Paul turned to start the break and saw Aiton standing right in front of him and gave him the touch to drop to the ground.

Total numbers outside of inconsistent shot attempts weren’t particularly hard on Phoenix. They trailed 18-7 on lost points, but second-chance points were 14-12 in Denver and Phoenix won on fast-break points 23-20.

What the Suns did wrong is rectifiable.

When asked if that was the case, Booker said, “I always believed in us.” “We’ve been a good team all year to soak up the game, see what happened and learn from it and make those fixes.”

What lies ahead after Game 1, though, is what the Nuggets got right. It was great, and Phoenix’s response in Game 2 on Monday, whether it’s a win or a loss, will be revealing.

Follow @KellanOlson