Suns vs Raptors Takeaways: Grayson Allen strikes again early as Phoenix Staves off a late Toronto run

THE Phoenix Suns welcomed the Toronto Raptors in the friendly confines of the Footprint Center on Thursday night, and we were treated to another up-and-down match. After another strong start, led by Grayson Allen, the Suns would lose the middle quarter scoring battle, before finally having just enough cushion to pull out the win.

Phoenix would quickly establish a 19-point lead that, even if Toronto threatened, they would never relinquish or allow them to threaten within seven points of the lead. Phoenix came away with the victory, take down the Raptors 120-113.

Here are some of my takeaways.

1.) (More) Pyrotechnics Grayson Allen

The next act of a strong start in Denver that saw him fail his first eight attempts from deep was that he made it eight straight again in this one, after missing his first attempt.

Even more, his seven straight first quarter plays set a Phoenix Suns franchise record for three points in a quarter. Additionally, the eight he made between the first and second quarters also served to tie the franchise record for threes made in a half.

His 16 goals during that two-game stretch are also a franchise record.

As previously mentioned, his play is a true barometer and microcosm of when the Suns are maximizing their play.

The focus has been on ball and player movement, and the many ways in which pressure on a defense optimizes the spacing and shooting it provides, with successively the quality of green shots.

The movement and tempo in the half court, combined with the gravitas of their high-end talents, sets him up for success, as the perfect complementary chess piece to move around the board.

Beal is on the move from the start in the empty corner with Nurkić. That sees two on the ball. Nurkić slides into space on the short roll, and it’s now an advantage play on the backend.

Nurkić judiciously takes the pass that the defense gives him while playing cat and mouse on the pump fake. As the defense rotates to defend on a disadvantage, watch Durant’s baseline cut burn to burn the sink spin — and how that ultimately charges Olynk with a dynamic long-distance spin to help the helper.

He’s late and it’s three o’clock for Allen.

This *should* sound familiar, though, because we saw a very similar scenario play out in an eerily similar way on Tuesday, for Allen:

Manipulation of space with empty corner action, backspacing giving the strong side space to work in, then respacing on the fly to exacerbate the advantage (including baseline cutting to remove the padding – it’s all there, and we saw the exact same scenario play out in both games.

Further highlighting how the Suns can put pressure on defenses.

Then we see the ramifications stem from his early heat, as the Raptors were sending doubles at Durant first.

“You get 26 points on somebody in the first half, now the defense has to play a little fair and respect everyone on the court,” Kevin Durant said.

Eight three-pointers later, now with Allen as both the entry passer and now the passer, this one-two punch is much more reluctant and even shy about overcommitting to Durant – and when he turned on the 1-on-1 at the post, the defenses are powerless. (Literally as well as figuratively).

“When we’re moving the ball and swinging it, a lot of the ones I’ve had have gotten a third, fourth or fifth pass on possession where we get some drives and kicks,” Allen said.

“Or, Kev double-teamed him and is swinging it all around the top.”

Seeing his many impacts and dynamics add a play in the game for defenses, as Vogel moves him all over the board, is one way the Suns can dictate to opponents outside the Big 3 – but it must be sequenced appropriately in their process. .

We saw it in each of Allen’s six games where he knocked down 8+ from deep.

They’ve lived in that flow for the last two games, and that’s the space they need to continue to work in — with Allen’s success being a direct byproduct of that.

2.) Point Béal

Bradley Beal has taken on the role of point guard in each of the last two and has done well.

14 assists in this window, with just four turnovers to show for it, is part of the process for him.

Another part of that is due to his relentlessly stubborn efforts at volume. Tuesday in Denver, he accounted for 23 of the Suns’ 56 and kept the defense rotating.

Leading the charge, setting the table and keeping pressure on the defense are all areas where he has helped this team the most.

After the match, Frank Vogel even spoke about it:

“I think Bradley Beal, the last two games, has done a phenomenal job of organizing us. There’s a lot of talk about the fact that we don’t have a point guard, he does a great job as a point guard for us, like leading our team and playing quarterback. There also aren’t many point guards in the league who can touch the paint the way he can touch the paint. He had eight assists tonight; I could have a lot more with guys making shots, but he does a great job for us.

This is a great example of what Vogel was talking about. Blows straight to the point of attack, and there is no reaction from the defense.

The first offensive touches prove to be the most rewarding, as they collapse the defense with so much time on the clock, that the Suns can then play advantageous basketball with a larger chunk of time to do so.

Here, the Lee re-drive allows Beal to respace and benefit from his own touch of paint.

Getting the most out of Beal and his initiation, as well as his paint touches, when Booker is back is a Rubik’s cube of a challenge to solve, but it has to happen because the results have been undeniable.

3.) The movement’s emphasis on offense

The Suns have been much more concise in their offensive process over the past two games. This is partly due, as mentioned above, to the merit of Beal and his floor general. The other part is about the game plan and its execution – all to break up the monotony and banality of their often overly pick-and-roll based game.

Balance has been found over the last two games, adding deposits of unpredictability to their attack.

Take for example how they started this game:

All five players are in some element of movement, with multiple screens, the ball touching both sides of the floor, and tempo.

You respond to an opponent’s desires by keeping your high-end pieces stagnant with stationary hits. When dealing with much more mobile targets, this makes aggressive coverage more difficult to implement.

Notice here how they play out in the handoff and how Beal’s route ultimately collapses the defense, as a conceded green shot.

SO. A lot. Movement. Teams can’t load help the way they want, because of this. Ultimately forcing more turnovers and creating more closeouts (an advantage) for the Suns to play – in a flow.

Next up: Suns host Celtics Saturday on ABC Saturday Spotlight, before hitting the road for a four-game road trip.