PHOENIX – It all seemed too easy up to this juncture.

So, naturally intuition kicked in for Michael Malone before tipoff Friday of Denver’s 121-114 loss at Phoenix in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals.

“We’ve had no adversity in the postseason yet,” he said. “Things have gone really, really smooth.”

Continuing with that thought, Malone tapped a table twice to emphasize the point.

“Adversity is coming,” he said. “It’s knocking on the door.”

On the other side awaited a blistering performance from two of the league’s most prolific scorers in Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, who combined for 48 points in the first half, the most by a Suns duo in that span over the last 25 postseasons.

With veteran floor general Chris Paul (strained left groin) out of action for the first time this series, Booker and Durant combined for 86 points, ensuring that for just the second time in NBA history (regular season and playoffs combined) a team ended a game with two players racking up 39 points or more and eight-plus assists, a feat last accomplished in 1983 during a 186-184 track meet featuring the Pistons and Nuggets.

Booker scored a game-high 47 points on 20-for-25 shooting, while dishing nine dimes, pulling down six rebounds and netting three steals. The showing marked the third time Booker matched his postseason career high in scoring, while notching the 26-year-old’s franchise-best seventh career playoff game with 40 points or more. Booker now leads the NBA in the playoffs with six 30-point outings and a trio of 40-point nights, averaging a league-best 36.9 points in the postseason.

“I don’t understand why this is such a surprise to everybody,” Durant said. “He has been doing this since Day 1. We’ve got to continue to keep feeding the hot hand. He is making good plays. He is one of the guys that just ignites us from the first possession. Who knows what they will do to guard him in the next game? But we want him to stay aggressive.”

Durant managed to do as much, too, in finishing with 39 points despite a shaky shooting night (12-for-31 from the field) by supplementing his total with a 14-for-16 performance from the free-throw line.

NBA teams now own a record of 54-12 all-time when one player scores 40 points or more, and another chips in 30-plus points in the same game.

“Our guys understood this wasn’t going to be a sweep,” Malone said of a Phoenix team that started the fourth quarter up two points, having ended the third frame on a 5-0 run that it would extend to 14-0. “We didn’t think we were going to beat the Phoenix Suns four times in a row. There is a reason everybody is picking this team to come out of the Western Conference. Their two best players did what they were supposed to do. They put the team on their back, had great, great nights. Our defense on Devin Booker was unacceptable.”

Here are five takeaways from Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals, which resumes Sunday with Game 4 (8 ET, TNT) at the Footprint Center:

1. Supporting cast delivers

The Phoenix big four of Durant, Booker, Paul, and Deandre Ayton combined to score a whopping 85.7% of the Suns’ points over the first two games of this series, with the supporting cast chipping in a total of 32 points over that span. So, the outcome of Game 3 came as a pleasant surprise for the home team, in part because of coach Monty Williams’s decision to utilize veterans T.J. Warren and Terrence Ross for more scoring punch off the bench.

Phoenix’s reserves outscored the Denver backups 22-20, and Warren led the way with seven points, followed by Jock Landale (six), Ross (five) and Landry Shamet (four). Warren was 2-for-4 in the fourth quarter for five points, including a 23-footer with 2:23 remaining that gave the Suns an eight-point lead (112-104).

“They were huge,” Durant said. “Ross coming in and just shooting those shots, Jock came in with six points and nine rebounds with incredible minutes for us.  Landry came in and gave us some great minutes, and T.J. made some big shots there in the fourth. We’re going to need that moving forward.”

The Suns are now 2-1 this postseason when the bench contributes 22 points or more.

2. Phoenix looked faster without CP3

Cameron Payne pushed the pace for the Suns as the replacement for Paul in the starting lineup and managed to hold down turnovers with only one in the game, as Phoenix stormed to a 67-52 lead at intermission. The 28-year-old guard admitted that while Paul might score more efficiently in the midrange, he’d bring a boost of speed to the Suns’ starting group. Payne certainly did that in helping Phoenix to a quick start, dishing three assists in the opening half to go with four points while Booker poured in 14 of the team’s first 21 points to start the game.

The Suns entered Game 3 ranked 10^th among the 16 teams that advanced to the postseason in pace (98.29).

“They played fast tonight,” Malone said. “Cameron Payne really set the tone with that. Makes, misses, turnovers, they got out and ran.”

Payne last took over postseason starting duties for Paul during the 2021 Western Conference finals, leading Phoenix to wins in Games 1 and 2 as the reserve guard averaged 20 points and nine assists while knocking down 50% from the field. It appears the fourth-year Sun will remain in the starting lineup for Game 4 if Paul remains sidelined with a sprained left groin. Paul, who celebrates his 38^th birthday on Saturday, appeared to be locked in and engaged from the bench in street clothes for Game 3, and at one point encouraged Payne to “keep running your team.”

Payne finished with seven points, six assists and a steal, hitting a 3-pointer during Phoenix’s 14-0 run that started with 1:15 left in the third quarter and ended with 9:19 remaining. The Suns outscored Denver 23-11 on the break as Game 3 marked Payne’s third career postseason start.

3. Suns finally handle non-Jokic minutes

Two-time Kia MVP Nikola Jokic checked out of the game with 39.1 seconds left in the third quarter and returned with 10:29 remaining on the heels of Phoenix embarking on a 7-0 run with him off the floor.

That’s rare and marked the first time all series the Suns dominated the non-Jokic minutes.

In fact, before the game, Williams even conceded defeat in that area up to that point.

“They’ve won that battle,” Williams said during pregame availability. “So, that’s on me to figure out a combination that can help us with that. They’ve been really physical with their switching. There’s opportunities for us to exploit it better. But they’ve been really good in that rotation part of the game.”

At least until Game 3. The Nuggets’ best bench lineup features Bruce Brown, Aaron Gordon, Jamal Murray, Christian Braun and Jeff Green, and the group played in six of seven playoff contests for Denver going into Game 3, having outscored opponents 59-48 in 26 postseason minutes. The group had put together a defensive rating of 92.3, which ranked as the second-best five-man defensive rating in the playoffs out of the 29 lineups that have logged at least 25 minutes.

Opponents shot just 34.7% against that lineup going into Game 3, and the Nuggets had outscored teams by 34 points in the 82 minutes (+4.9 per game) Jokic was off the floor in these playoffs.  By comparison, Denver finished -376 in 1,628 minutes (-4.5 per game) with Jokic off the floor during the regular season.

4. Down 0-2, KD more assertive

Williams took issue with the notion that Durant should assert himself more after a 10-for-27 shooting performance in Game 2, but that’s precisely what the former Kia MVP did in the face of a rough shooting start to Game 3.

Durant was a cold 1-for-7 in the opening quarter for three points, before finishing the opening half 5-for-16 with 21 points that included 11 points from the free-throw line. Despite all the early misfires, Durant never stopped letting them fly, which was encouraging considering the lack of Suns contributions outside of Booker and the 34 year old on a night that Ayton (four points) virtually disappeared offensively.

“He’s been assertive. I don’t want to disrespect you guys, but I hear a lot about what is said indirectly,” Williams said. “I’ve heard that. He’s been assertive. He’s missed some shots that we all know Kevin can make.”

Durant became the first player in NBA history to score 39 points or more to go with nine rebounds and eight assists with no turnovers in a playoff outing. The two-time NBA Finals MVP had played in four previous Game 3s with his team trailing 0-2, and now owns a record of 4-1 in that scenario.

5. Murray struggles in the fourth

Murray rebounded somewhat from a 3-for-15 shooting night in Game 2 to rack up a team-high 32 points in Game 3, as he combined with Jokic for 62 points. The problem is Murray shot 33.3% from deep, knocking down just 1 of 8 from the floor in the decisive fourth quarter for four points.

“I missed some open shots again, 1 of 6 from the 3-point line,” Murray said. “I went cold in the fourth and that can’t happen.”

When it does, history tells us Denver usually loses. Murrays is 5-6 in the playoffs when he scores no more than four points in the fourth quarter, and the four points scored in the final frame of Game 3 registered as the 26-year-old’s fewest since Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals in the NBA bubble (Sept. 13, 2020).

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Michael C. Wright is a senior writer for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.

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