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Torrey Craig didn’t know he would be starting for the Phoenix Suns until he got to the locker room before Wednesday night’s game. With the NBA’s best team missing Chris Paul (right thumb avulsion fracture), Cam Johnson (quad contusion) and now Jae Crowder (left groin soreness), his response was simply, “Cool.”
Fast-forward a few hours and another Suns win later, Craig walked back into the locker room just as calmly, all while his teammates shouted his praises.
“Craig, he wasn’t even in the locker room yet, so I was yelling out loud, I’m like, ‘Craig had 21, 14, 8-for-8, 3-for-3!'” Mikal Bridges laughed. “[Deandre Ayton] was like, ‘What’d he have?!’ I’m like, ’21, 14, 8-for-8!’ I was like, ‘Oh, Craig was perfect!’ And he just walks in there like he ain’t play or something, I’m like, ‘You got to be a little bit more excited about that!'”
Torrey Craig’s memorable night was worth getting excited over, and yet, it felt like just another day at the office for this team.
“I mean, I was excited,” Craig said in the most matter-of-fact, Suns way possible. “More excited for the win, though.”
In his first start since returning to the Suns, Craig filled in for Crowder better than anyone could have imagined. As Bridges alluded to, he finished his night with 21 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks, shooting a perfect 8-for-8 from the field, including 3-for-3 from beyond the arc.
The performance put him in rarified air alongside Karl-Anthony Towns:
“It was indicative of the kind of year we’ve had, with guys not being able to play and somebody else stepping up,” coach Monty Williams said. “You don’t expect that kind of production, but I thought he had great balance tonight. Defensively, he was covering for a lot of people, he was getting Cam [Payne] off a bigger guy so he could take him in the middle of the play, which is huge. Then the rebounding, and when he can knock down shots like that — he was perfect from the field on a back-to-back. Like, that’s pretty hard to do.”
Sure, it was only the Houston Rockets, who owned the league’s worst record before Wednesday added another loss to their tally. But on the second night of a back-to-back, down yet another top-six player in their rotation, the Suns didn’t miss a beat, leaving a ho-hum first half behind and turning a one-point lead at the break into a 17-point win.
Single-game plus-minus can be misleading, but Craig’s +27 felt spot-on.
“I was just trying to keep it simple, man,” he said. “Just playing basketball. Take the shots that were available, be aggressive when I could and just playing the game. It was nothing I did special to prepare for the game like this, I just do what I do normally and then just went out here and played.”
Craig hasn’t been back in Phoenix long since his second Suns stint began, but over the last couple of games, he’s started to look more like the game-changing reserve he became during that 2021 NBA Finals run.
Over the last three games, Craig has scored in double figures each time, averaging 14.3 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 27.4 minutes per game on 68 percent shooting, including 58.3 percent from 3-point range.
It’s a limited sample size, but it represents a promising uptick from his averages over his first 12 games back in Phoenix: 4.6 points, 4.0 rebounds and 0.8 blocks in 18.8 minutes per game, shooting just 31.7 percent from the field and 17.5 percent from downtown.
While Craig was still providing that rangy, all-encompassing defense off the bench, there was one aspect of his game that wasn’t translating compared to last year: his 3-point shooting. That’s to be expected, somewhat, given that he’s only a career 32.2 percent shooter from long range. But after watching him can a career-high 36.9 percent of his 3s during his first go-round in the Valley, his recent cold streak was worrisome.
After the New Orleans Pelicans game on Tuesday, Williams revealed he and the coaches had a productive conversation with the 31-year-old veteran a few nights back, trying to attack the problem from a different angle.
“We just talked to him about mixing it up,” Williams said. “It felt like there was about four or five games where he was settling. And that’s a tough conversation to have, because you don’t want to have a guy thinking out there, but at the same time, we feel like he’s more than just 3-point shooter.
“So I think he’s doing a really good job of finding balance, attacking the basket, slashing and shooting the 3-ball. Tonight, he just did a good job of knocking shots down, but we feel like he can do more when he’s attacking the basket with the ball and without the ball for offensive rebounds. I think that’s going to open up his 3-point shot even more.”
The results are speaking for themselves so far. In his first 12 games with the Suns, Craig shot 7-for-40 from 3-point range. In the last three games alone, he’s already made the same number of 3s, going 7-for-12 from distance.
More encouragingly, he’s been in attack mode, which has opened up those 3-point looks. Craig is 8-for-9 around the basket over the last three games, nearly doubling his number of attempts per game from that area during his first 12 contests, when he shot 12-for-19.
Craig didn’t surpass his career highs in scoring (28) or rebounding (16) on Wednesday, but it was still arguably the best game of his career, and it represented the balance Williams was talking about.
“I just took the shots that were available and trying to make plays for guys when I can,” Craig said. “Just pick and choose when to shoot, when to be aggressive, when to attack.”
Defensively, Craig has shown he still has the ability to swarm opponents at a variety of positions — a luxury for a top-five defense like the Suns that has wings capable of switching everywhere, not to mention a Defensive Player of the Year candidate in Mikal Bridges.
Williams called the ability to spell Bridges from time to time with someone like Craig “huge,” since it gives Phoenix a different look and a different level of physicality. That was on full display when Craig guarded CJ McCollum for stretches against the Pelicans.
“Torrey’s a much more physical defender than Mikal is,” Williams explained. “Mikal can be physical, but his is mostly quicks and length and deflections. Torrey plays more of a ’90s style defense, where he’s getting into your body, riding you over screens, and he’s putting his hands on you the whole time with a purpose.”
Part of his defensive prowess comes from his ability to crash the boards on both ends — something that’s especially important for the Suns’ elite but often undersized defense to close out stops:
Look at the aggression! The authoritative gathers! The way he seeks out contact with his man for defensive rebounds and stalks the offensive boards like the basketball personally gave him trust issues!
Craig credited his comfort level in knowing when to crash and where to be with his familiarity playing alongside the Suns starters compared to the new-look bench unit. Either way, he’s displayed that penchant no matter who he’s playing with.
“I ain’t worried about the boards, I know he’s gon’ get all the boards,” Bridges said. “He’s thirsty for ’em.”
A look at the stat sheet shows a mundane 6.5 points, 4.7 rebounds and 0.9 blocks in 20.5 minutes per game for Torrey Craig in his second Suns stint. He’s only shot 42 percent overall and 26.9 percent from 3, even after this recent hot streak.
But this is a 15-game sample size we’re talking about, and with so many guys in and out of the lineup, no one should’ve expected smooth sailing in Craig’s return. Now, it appears he’s weathering the storm and rediscovering his rhythm on both ends for a title contender.
Craig’s memorable night is the epitome of the depth, cohesion and “next man up” mentality the Suns have preached all season long. It’s a testament to this group’s 0.5 offense and the way they share the ball, ranking first in the NBA in assists since the All-Star break despite missing CP3.
As Monty Williams said, having even one player out of the rotation changes everything. But during this trial by fire without the Point God, all these opportunities for growth will benefit Phoenix in the long run.
“We’ve shown that we can win in different ways, we’ve shown that we can win with different lineups,” Williams said. “It may be like that for the rest of the year. We’re trying to get the No. 1 seed, obviously, but we’re also trying to just keep getting better. And I think when you have those experiences with different guys in different situations, that helps your team grow.”
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