The Phoenix Suns found a way around their guard shortage in a victory over Brooklyn on Tuesday.
They went right to the paint.
Center Mark Williams scored a season-high 27 points in a late comeback win, and it wouldn’t be surprising if the Suns used a similar strategy when they host the East-leading Detroit Pistons on Friday.
Williams was 13 of 16 from the field Tuesday, also both season highs, and the Suns scored 72 points in the paint while compensating for the absence of starting guards Devin Booker and Collin Gillespie, as well as potential starter Jalen Green.
“We tried to come up with a couple more solutions,” said Suns coach Jordan Ott, whose team snapped a two-game losing streak. “I think Mark’s presence, you could feel it from the jump.
“We have to remember all his gifts and all the little stuff that he does for our group on both ends. Rebounding. Protecting the rim. He’s an incredibly skilled offensive player. He imprinted his game, his offensive game, from the jump. We have to do more, keep him going.”
Williams played 30 minutes for only the third time this season. The Suns, aware of knee injuries from his previous seasons, rested him in the second game of back-to-backs during the first two months.
“Especially tonight, knowing we had guys out, just doing what we can, guys stepping up,” Williams said. “We found a way to win. That is what really matters.”
The Pistons also found a way to win Tuesday, building an 18-point lead before holding on for a 109-107 victory at Denver in the first game of a three-game road trip that concludes Friday at Golden State.
Veteran Tobias Harris and Cade Cunningham each scored 22 points for the Pistons, who will try to sweep the season series against the Suns after earning a 108-105 victory on Jan. 15, in a game Booker also missed.
The Pistons have won six of seven and nine of 11, with four wins in that run coming by four points or less.
“It’s growth,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said after the Denver game. “It’s maturity. And it’s experience, right?”
“What we went through last year gave us the belief and the confidence that we could, and that’s what it takes. That’s the hardest thing in this league to do, you know, is to begin to win, because there is so much that goes into it.”
Harris reached a personal milestone at Denver when his two free throws with two seconds remaining clinched the win. Harris played in his 1,000th game, making him the 19th active player and 154th overall to reach that plateau.
“That speaks of his ability to adapt to the new game and his durability,” Bickerstaff said. “For him to have the professional game that he had, to hit the shots when they were needed most, is a compliment to him, his game and how he’s been able to survive.”
Pistons center Jalen Duren had 16 points and 18 rebounds in the first meeting with the Suns, when Williams had five points in 22 minutes.
The Suns and Nets were assessed three technical fouls apiece, and Dillon Brooks and Grayson Allen received Flagrant 1 fouls when benches cleared with 1:14 left Tuesday after Egor Demin pushed Brooks into a pile under the Nets’ basket.
“We are not going to back down from physicality,” Allen said. “So wherever that line is, we are okay with it.”
Booker is not expected to play Thursday, and Gillespie (hand) and Green (hamstring) are questionable.
