PHOENIX – What does an NBA team get when it runs a lineup of five players all below the league-average height in the fourth quarter of a win-or-go-home game?
For the Phoenix Suns, a spot in the NBA playoffs.
Following Tuesday’s loss to Portland in the first round of the SoFi Play-In Tournament, the Suns needed to beat Golden State on Friday in order to advance in the postseason.
A foot injury to starting center Mark Williams meant that the Suns and coach Jordan Ott had to get creative with the lineup for their matchup against the Warriors, and in a 111-96 high-emotions, high-stakes win that saw Devin Booker and Draymond Green ejected at the end, that’s exactly what they did.
“We’ve been figuring it out on the fly all season long and we’ve got to do it again tonight,” Ott said pregame. “We’re small in general. When we go smaller, we just have to play our bigger wings and find a way to protect the paint.”
Throughout the regular season, Ott never shied away from letting the Suns play “small ball,” the strategy of playing without a conventional center on the court in order to maximize pace of play and perimeter defense.
Friday night, this practice was on full display for Phoenix. Throughout large portions of the third and fourth quarters, the Suns ran a lineup consisting of Devin Booker, Jalen Green, Collin Gillespie, Royce O’Neale and Haywood Highsmith – all 6-feet-6 or shorter.
The average height of an NBA player, meanwhile, is 6-feet-7.
In fact, of the 240 cumulative minutes played by Suns players against the Warriors, 206 of them were played by players who are listed at 6-feet-7 or shorter.
The advantages of using small ball to prioritize perimeter defense are apparent against a team like the Warriors, who are led offensively by all-time 3-point leader Stephen Curry – something Ott made note of prior to tipoff.
“These guys, they shoot as many 3s as anyone else in the league,” Ott said. “We’ve got to do our best to take that away.”
This is exactly what the Suns were able to do, holding the Warriors to just 33% 3-point shooting as a team and holding Curry to just 17 points on 4-of-16 shooting from the field.
One of Curry’s main deterrents was Suns guard Jordan Goodwin, who shined on the defensive end with a career-high-tying six steals, as well as 19 points – a performance that received high praise from Ott.
“(Goodwin) was massive at both ends,” Ott said. “We can’t overstate his shot-making, but to hold (Curry), to 3 of 10 (from 3), 4 of 16 (from the field). … From where he started the season to now speaks volumes about who he is and what he’s becoming as a basketball player. Super excited and happy he’s on our team.”
Goodwin, who started at forward despite being just 6-feet-3, credited a large part of the Suns’ victory to Ott’s small ball lineups, believing that having a lineup of all undersized players gave Phoenix a scrappy edge on both sides of the ball.
“I think it just gives us an extra edge on the defensive end,” Goodwin said. “One through five, everyone is being aggressive. On the offensive end, we’re just moving (the ball). We’ve got five shooters out there.”
Though only carrying a five-point lead into halftime, the Suns, who were paced offensively by Green’s game-high 36 points, pulled ahead in the third quarter while the average height of their lineup was a mere 6-feet-4.
This turnaround led by the Suns’ small ball lineup was also noted by Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who felt as if this lineup dictated the course of the rest of the game.
“They controlled the game,” Kerr said. “They played small quite a bit and spread us out. They got 49 3-point shots up. Coming into the game our keys were keeping them off the free throw line, keeping them off the 3-point line. … We couldn’t do that. … (Ott) did a great job putting them in positions to spread us out and play small and force turnovers. Their plan was a really good one and they pounced.”
Following their play-in win, the Suns clinched the Western Conference’s eighth seed in the NBA playoffs, where they will face the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round.
“It’s onto the next thing,” Ott said. “That group in the locker room has been special all year and special again in the last three or four days. Overcoming the disappointment (of the loss to Portland) and then coming out and playing that hard against (the Warriors) and (Curry) for 48 minutes. Sometimes it just comes down to toughness.”
Even the antagonist, Draymond Green, had praise for the Suns.
“Congratulations to Phoenix,” he said. “They’re moving on to the playoffs. They deserve it. To every other team that kicked our ass this year, they deserved it. Got to take the good with the bad. The best foot we have we put forward and at he end of the day, as long as we do that, we got to live with it.”
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