Phoenix Suns' Duane Washington Jr. looks to limit mistakes, keep contributing

Phoenix Suns backup guard Duane Washington Jr.'s performance paralleled his team's offensive production in their 14-point home loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday.

Phoenix started off on hot shooting from deep during the first three quarters (30-of-65 FG, 11-of-21 from the 3). But the Suns burned out and got cold in the fourth, second-guessed their shot selection and made errant decisions as Cleveland, the NBA's third-best defense, turned up the pressure on them and Washington.

“I just made a couple more shots, honestly. My decision-making wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be, but that comes with it," Washington Jr. said in the postgame. "We had a tough fourth quarter and I felt like I was the head of the snake of that. Just gotta continue to grow and just keep moving forward, onto the next.”

Washington stepped up off the bench and shined as a scorer in the absence of their injured All-Stars Chris Paul, Devin Booker and Paul's backup point guard Cameron Payne. Washington clipped a game-high 25 points in 25 minutes and shot 9-of-18 overall including 5-of-6 from beyond the arc, but matched Cavaliers All-Star Donovan Mitchell's four turnovers.

"Duane Washington was cooking and we needed somebody to kind of slow him down," Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff said after the game. "The staff suggested we put in Raul (Neto) and he was ready to go."

Now in his second season, Washington has tremendously improved as one of the Suns' two-way players signed during training camp in September.

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Washington is averaging 13.2 points and 3.4 assists in 15 minutes over his last nine games. His five made 3s also matched his season high, and has now scored 10-plus points in eight of his last nine games after doing so just twice in his first 15 this season.

After playing just seven games with the Indiana Pacers last season as an undrafted rookie out of Ohio State, Washington now leads all NBA players in year-over-year statistics by playing more on the ball.

Coach Monty Williams said Phoenix needed Washington's scoring Sunday, especially as they've been shorthanded in the backcourt for most of this season during the current six-game losing streak. That's their longest since dropping eight straight in December of the 2019-20 season, the last time they missed the postseason.

“I think he’s, with where we are, he’s doing a good job. There are times where he gets himself into trouble, deepin the paint," Williams said. "He had a couple of turnovers that he could’ve avoided but I don’t want him playing fearful or worrying about making mistakes even though you want him to have some balance, but we needed his scoring tonight."

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After Cleveland was up 35-29 entering the second quarter, Washington scored 11 on 4-of-6 FG in the second quarter to enter halftime trailing Cleveland 57-54. Then he scored eight points in the third, including a high-arching right corner 3 at 1:48 left to take a 77-67 lead and the crowd roared.

“I just try to bring juice every time I’m on the floor," Washington said. "That is something that all of us need to bring, extra energy, extra juice. Try to get those swings of offense and get the crowd involved as much as possible. They help a ton. Being at home, that’s a great advantage.”

The Suns sputtered in the final period as they hit just 7-of-19, and committed five of their total 16 turnovers.

“I believe we won the first three quarters of this game defensive-wise, just using effort and communication and me and Landry (Shamet) was talking about it," Deandre Ayton said.

"We just gotta stick to being solid because we could do it with this group. We just gotta make sure we stay on top of it and understand that we don’t have the luxury to mess up like some of the other teams. We don’t have that right now.”

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Phoenix started the fourth quarter down by one, then cut the Cavaliers' lead to four on Washington's assist on a Jock Landale dunk at 9:13 following All-Star guard Darius Garland's 3 and their big Evan Mobley jump shot.

Things fell apart for the Suns and Cleveland outscored them, 26-7, and took a 107-85 lead through 2:39.

In addition to Jock Landale's and Damion Lee's missed shots between 8:21 and 6:25, Washington missed two layups and had two giveaways within six Suns possessions during that span. Washington got stripped by Garland (tied Mitchell for team-high 22 points, seven assists, two steals) as Phoenix was down by 10 at 7:49, and Caris LeVert (13 points, matched Garland's team-best seven assists, three steals) intercepted Washington's pass after they pushed the lead to 16 at 6:35 left to play.

The Cavaliers outscored Phoenix, 27-6, in the fourth to go up, 107-85 with 2:39 remaining in the game.

Ayton (14 points, team-high 11 rebounds, six assists) commended Washington's high energy on offense during the game. But he advised Washington to "slow down a bit" by balancing the pace in the Suns' halfcourt sets. That includes waiting for Ayton's and their other bigs' screens for pick-and-rolls.

“They had a couple guys thrown at me earlier. It was some bigger dudes. It just felt like slowing down, allowing the bigs to get a hit is what creates that advantage for me," Washington said.

"So just finding ways to be able to be crafty to find those angles to get to my spots, just honestly taking what the defense gives me, man. Just reading the game. The way the Cavs play is different than Miami plays. All these games, all these schemes, all these attack points is stuff that I’m just learning, paying attention to, just continue to just add to my game. They say crazy people do the same stuff over and over and over again. I’m a little bit crazy but I’m gonna continue to fix my mistakes for sure.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix Suns' Duane Washington Jr. looks to improve from game mistakes