The Suns find the ability to secure the hard-fought win against the Lakers

PHOENIX – The Phoenix Suns are 3-1 after a 109-105 win Monday over the Los Angeles Lakers and still have plenty of room for improvement, and their ability to pull off this win with real determination speaks to the potential of this group.

This could have quickly faltered, as was often the case last season.

“I'm sure everyone was watching the game and all they could think about was last season and how we were down early and had some slow starts,” Kevin Durant said. “I liked how we were able to reduce the lead quickly. … It showed our attitude, it showed that we stick together defensively.”

Los Angeles overran the Suns in the first seven minutes of the game in what felt like a basketball ambush. The Lakers place a clear emphasis on the pace of makes or misses before immediately attempting to attack the basket. The crazy thing is that Anthony Davis, looking like an MVP candidate again, settled for two jumps early before turning into Godzilla over a stretch that put LA in 18th place.

Durant responded by scoring a dozen points in the quarter to cut the deficit to nine, and then Bradley Beal held on, further cutting the Lakers' lead before Devin Booker scored 14 second-quarter points for the Suns at halftime .

This was another ride on Jusuf Nurkic's rollercoaster ride when he struggles, to the point where it feels like the ride never ends and the mistakes compound. Whether it was mishandling the ball, missed shots at the rim, or offensive fouls, it was justifiably remarkable how many impactful negative plays he made in such a short amount of time. Nurkic exited at -18 after his first shift, and while he certainly played poorly in that 6:44, it didn't feel like he was the main culprit in all of this.

But when Nurkic returned 3:08 into the second quarter, you could feel the momentum of the game changing again when he made a mistake. Longtime readers will remember that we coined the term “Bender Groan” here, a moment in which former top-five pick Dragan Bender made mistakes and the crowd admittedly reacted awkwardly. Deandre Ayton achieved that status late in his tenure, and it took a lot of growing pains for Bender to get there too. Nurkic's final fumble, a post-up attempt that he lost control of, inspired Suns fans to allow many of those mistakes.

“He understands what’s at stake, and you never want the weight when you’re playing poorly,” Booker said of Nurkic. “He’s a competitor, so he’s going to come in and play better and we’re going to get behind him.”

Nurkic started the second half but was eliminated after just over five minutes. He didn't come back until the end of the game for a rebound. Head coach Mike Budenholzer attributed this in part to how well backup Mason Plumlee played. In his overall best game of the season, he provided good rim protection.

“I thought he was fantastic tonight,” Budenholzer said of Plumlee. “There are different versions of going with the hot hand.”

By all accounts, the Lakers surpassed the Suns' shooting ability in the third quarter and put LA back in the lead, with a lead of nine entering the fourth quarter.

Phoenix once again stuck with it and played excellent defense since the early faux pas in the first quarter.

“There were times in every game where the defense was at a pretty high level,” Budenholzer said. “And the hardest part is keeping it up for 48 minutes. … After we went down like that, I really feel like it was our defense that allowed us to get back in the game and find a way to win.”

“It can be dangerous,” Durant said of the Suns’ defensive potential. “I think the more we agree, the more creative we become with the things we do out there. … Coach is really good at letting (the players) do things like (adjustments). So as soon as we agree more and more, we will do creative things like that.”

That backbone allowed Phoenix to regain the lead a few minutes into the final frame through great contributions from Ryan Dunn and Royce O'Neale off the bench, minutes in which the Suns fell short without Nurkic, Plumlee or Oso Ighodaro on the field . Budenholzer even allowed a few possessions when Davis was back before Plumlee returned.

Then Durant took over, admittedly in the slowed matchup chase that has plagued the Suns at times this first week of the season. He scored the Suns' next eight points midway through the fourth quarter, making it 105-101 Phoenix with 2:17 left.

LeBron James drilled a 3 to briefly snap out of his stunning off-night (more on that in a moment), and then Lakers coach JJ Redick decided he'd seen enough of Durant beating him. He immediately sent a double to Durant, and after Booker missed a three-pointer, Plumlee grabbed a crucial offensive rebound. The next ball rotations after the double resulted in O'Neale calmly knocking down a floater.

The Suns couldn't quite figure out how to dictate Durant's distance on the doubles in the final 90 seconds, as the ball sequentially came into Booker's possession while being defended by Davis. But some key misses from the Lakers kept Phoenix afloat, including a great play by Redick that put Austin Reaves well ahead, a rebound that Dunn fought for before Booker saved it from going straight to Durant.

“I knew he was in the area – it was a doubtful play because you never know,” Booker said of it.

The Suns had a three-point lead with 7.2 seconds left when Durant fouled James just before James was about to shoot to trigger free throw play. The Lakers decided to have James intentionally miss the second ball after he made the first ball, and in typical James fashion, it was a perfect miss at the bottom of the rim to create a loose ball, but the Suns got it him to victory.

Durant scored 30 points, eight rebounds, four assists and four blocks, Booker added 33 points and although Beal was 1 of 7 from 3, he was just as good as those two, if not better. He earned a deserved +14 and plays great all-around basketball, especially on defense.

O'Neale's 12 points, nine rebounds, four assists and two blocks in 25 minutes gave him a +25, meaning he is now +71 after four games. This is the highest point total in the NBA by Boston Celtics guard Derrick White.

“It's a lot of little, subtle things that go into winning, and Royce really understands those and does them night in and night out,” Budenholzer said.

Grayson Allen returned after a two-game absence with a dozen minutes. It's a testament to how fantastic Dunn and O'Neale were that the Suns didn't particularly miss Allen, their most consistent player from last season. This partly has to do with the fact that Budenholzer is playing his minutes more openly than usual and is playing Booker 39 and Durant 38 on Monday.

This was literally a once-in-a-lifetime performance from James, who shot 3 of 14 (21.4%) from the field. According to Stathead, this is his lowest field goal percentage in a regular season game since opening night of the 2007-08 season, 1,179 games ago. As a testament to the basketball fan Durant was, he correctly remembered the opponent James faced that night, a game that took place on the day of his NBA debut.

Davis finished with 29 points and 15 rebounds, while Rui Hachimura was an early star for LA, posting 20 points and 10 rebounds in the game.

The Suns only committed 11 turnovers and were actually +5 at the free throw line. What was even more bizarre was that the Lakers had a 25-21 advantage in assists. It was a strange night.

Follow @KellanOlson