They came in with fresh energy and kept the main thing the main thing.
Before the first quarter was even half over on Sunday night, the Phoenix Suns were already in trouble. Charlotte had come out hot — nine of their first eleven shots fell — and Phoenix found itself down 22-14 inside six minutes, looking flat-footed and slow to react. What happened next is a decent summary of what this Suns season has been about.
Coach Jordan Ott made a quick adjustment, inserting Haywood Highsmith into the lineup. Highsmith, a defensive specialist Phoenix signed after the trade deadline, helped shift the team's posture from passive to aggressive — what Ott described as an in-your-face approach. The Hornets, who had looked unstoppable early, finished the game shooting 42 percent from the field. Phoenix won 111-99 before a sellout crowd of 17,071 at Mortgage Matchup Center.
The victory was the Suns' 37th of the season. Last year, 36 wins was the final total — and that came with a roster built around Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, and Devin Booker, coached by Mike Budenholzer. That team never made the play-in tournament. It finished 36-46 and was widely regarded as one of the bigger disappointments in recent NBA memory.
The offseason that followed was a clean break. Durant was traded. Beal was bought out. Budenholzer was fired. Jordan Ott was hired as head coach, Brian Gregory was elevated to general manager, and Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks arrived from Houston as part of the Durant deal. The new identity was built around Booker: physical, aggressive, defensively committed, and collectively focused.
On Sunday, Booker made that identity look very good. He finished with 30 points and 10 assists — a double-double — and made all 15 of his free throw attempts, a season high. Green and Collin Gillespie each added 24 points, giving the trio a combined 78. But the night's most striking performance may have belonged to rookie Rasheer Fleming, who came off the bench to score a career-high 16 points on 4-of-6 shooting from three. In his last five games, Fleming has made 11 of 18 attempts from deep. Playing a career-high 23 minutes, he has become something more than a fill-in for an injury-depleted roster — he is defending well and shooting with confidence. Booker called it super impressive, pointing to Fleming's patience and willingness to keep learning even as his role has grown.
The Suns were without four players: Dillon Brooks with a left hand fracture, Jordan Goodwin with a left calf strain, Mark Williams dealing with a stress reaction in his left foot, and Grayson Allen, who was listed as probable before the game but was a late scratch after his right knee — which he sprained in early February — didn't respond well enough during warmups. Allen has been managing the injury for weeks, missing games, returning, and missing again. He posted 12 points, eight assists, and four steals in the previous win over New Orleans but was visibly laboring by the second half. Ott said Allen simply woke up and couldn't get it going.
Goodwin, meanwhile, appears close to returning. He participated in 5-on-5 work before Sunday's game, and Ott said he could be back as early as the road opener against Milwaukee on March 10. Goodwin has been the team's best on-ball defender this season and is averaging 8.9 points in 54 games. Despite standing just 6-foot-3, he ranks second on the team in offensive rebounding.
With 18 games remaining, Phoenix sits seventh in the Western Conference — two games behind the Los Angeles Lakers for sixth place, and three behind the Minnesota Timberwolves for third. The top six teams in each conference earn direct playoff berths; seeds seven through ten compete in the play-in. The Suns are squarely in the conversation for a direct spot, which would have seemed far-fetched a year ago.
Booker, when asked about the turnaround, kept it simple: they came in with fresh energy, worked together, kept the main thing the main thing. The road trip that begins in Milwaukee will test how much of that holds under pressure.
Notable Quotes
That's just who we have to be. We got to start on the defensive end, our physicality, take it to the legal limit, and then just have overall intent every possession.— Suns coach Jordan Ott
Just the willingness to wait for his moment and seize it. He's still all ears and he still wants to learn more.— Devin Booker, on rookie Rasheer Fleming
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
The Suns surpassed last year's win total with 18 games still to play. How significant is that, really?
It matters because last year's team was supposed to be a contender. Three stars, an experienced coach, and they couldn't even make the play-in. This group, built differently and with less individual star power on paper, has already done more.
What changed most fundamentally?
The identity. Last year's team was built around individual talent and never found a coherent way to play together. This one was designed from the start around defense, physicality, and collective effort — and Ott has held that line even when the roster has been shorthanded.
Rasheer Fleming is a rookie scoring career highs off the bench. Is that sustainable?
Eleven of eighteen from three over five games is a hot streak, not a new baseline. But what's notable is that he's also defending well and playing within the system. That's harder to fake than shooting percentage.
Booker made all 15 free throws. Is that just a good night, or does it say something about how he's playing?
He's been aggressive all season, getting to the line consistently. The 15-for-15 is a season high, but the pattern of drawing contact and converting is who he's been this year. He's the engine of everything they do.
The Suns are two games out of sixth. Do they actually have a shot at avoiding the play-in?
They do, but they're also playing without Brooks, Allen, and Williams for stretches. If those players return healthy, the ceiling rises. If the injuries linger, the road trip could be rough.
What's the one thing to watch over these final 18 games?
Grayson Allen's knee. He's averaging a career-high 17.5 points and keeps getting hurt and coming back. If he can stay on the floor, Phoenix has real depth. If he can't, they're leaning heavily on Booker and Green every night.