Booker Scores 30 as Suns Hold Off Hornets Late

Devin Booker scored 30 points and the Phoenix Suns beat the Charlotte Hornets 101-96 on Thursday night, November 12, at Mortgage Matchup Center. Booker shot 12-for-20 from the field and 4-for-8 from three, with seven assists and three steals. His step-back three with 23.8 seconds left made it 97-91, and Charlotte didn't recover.

Phoenix needed almost all of it. The Suns led 55-50 at halftime and carried a 17-point lead at one point, but Charlotte won the third quarter 26-17 and led entering the fourth. Dillon Brooks added 15 points for Phoenix, and Collin Gillespie chipped in 13 off the bench. The Suns are 5-6, and they've won four of their last five.

The box score says Charlotte beat itself. The Hornets turned the ball over 27 times to Phoenix's eight, and those giveaways became 38 Suns points. Charlotte scored 11 points off Phoenix's mistakes. That's a 27-point swing in a five-point game, and it's the whole margin twice over.

Charlotte did the rest of the work well enough to win. The Hornets outrebounded Phoenix 52-31. Coby White led them with 21 points in 20 minutes, still on a restriction after a calf strain. Grayson Allen added 14 points and six assists in his return to Phoenix, Moussa Diabate returned with seven points and 13 rebounds, and Grant Williams scored 11 off the bench in his season debut.

The absences framed the night. Charlotte played without Brandon Miller and Kon Knueppel, two of its best players, and it still had the lead in the fourth quarter. It was also a reunion game: Miles Bridges spent his first eight seasons with the Hornets before his trade to Phoenix, and he faced his old team at home. The Hornets are 4-8, and they're minus-84 in fourth quarters through 12 games.

Phoenix won without a settled rotation, and head coach Jordan Ott is still searching for one. Ott closed with a different lineup than he started, Jalen Green sat the fourth quarter after scoring 10 in the first half, and Booker acknowledged the shuffle afterward. His phrase was finding the flow with the different groups that are out there. A team that starts Booker, Green, Dillon Brooks, Miles Bridges and Oso Ighodaro doesn't usually finish games with its second unit holding a lead, but that's where this roster is in mid-November.

Phoenix is 4-2 on this seven-game homestand, and it closes on Sunday, November 15, against the Los Angeles Lakers, who bring the league's best record at 11-2. Charlotte's West Coast trip moves on to the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday. Booker's word for this Suns group is still a team in a figuring-out stage. Thursday's finish, turnovers and all, is what that stage looks like when it works.