Bradley Beal doesn’t play a lot as a point guard for the Phoenix Suns in the 2023-24 NBA season, but when he does, Los Angeles Clippers head coach Ty Lue sees good things happen on the floor for the Pacific division franchise. Prior to Tuesday night’s game against the Suns in Phoenix, Lue shared his thoughts on Beal’s play of late (h/t Shane Young of Forbes Sports).
“He can just do a lot of everything. Catch and shoot, he can run pick & roll, make the pass and right reads. Great cutter and can play 1-on-1. He’s just great all-around.
Although Beal is averaging the fewest points this season since his fourth year in the league, he’s still clearly a dangerous offensive machine for the Suns. He just operates with a lighter load on his shoulders as he’s now running alongside two of the best scorers in NBA history in Kevin Durant and Devin Booker.
On the season, Beal is averaging 17.6 points on 50.4 percent shooting from the field while posting career-highs of 41.1 percent shooting from behind the arc and 57.0 effective field goal percentage. Beal is also knocking down 41.6 percent of 3-point attempts off catch-and-shoots, as he continues to do an excellent job spacing the floor for Phoenix which is 10th in the league in scoring with an average of 116.1 points per outing.
Beal and the Suns, however, failed to get over the Kawhi Leonard-less Clippers on Tuesday. A brutal slow start led to a 105-92 loss to Los Angeles. The Suns trailed LA by 27 points at the end of the first quarter and could not recover enough to pull off a successful comeback bid.
Beal finished with 19 points on 6/13 shooting from the field in 39 minutes, while Kevin Durant led the Suns with 21 points on 8/22 shooting. Booker shot poorly, hitting just one of his 11 field goal attempts, though, he went 11/11 from the foul line.
The Suns will look to recover right away this Wednesday against the Clippers again, this time in Hollywood.
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