West Notes: Suns, Bradley Beal, Clippers, Timberwolves

Suns

• Coach Frank Vogel indicated he liked what he saw from Bradley Beal in his Suns debut, an overtime win over the Bulls. “He was good in stretches and you could tell he was a little bit rusty in stretches, which was to be expected,” Vogel told reporters. “A difficult opponent.”
• Beal did not play in OT, but that was by design as he is on a minutes restriction. He scored 13 points. “I’m glad we pulled out the win,” Beal said. “That’s why we have a great team with a lot of depth.”
• Center Jusuf Nurkic gave his best performance of the season, finishing with 20 points and 16 rebounds. “I was just proud of our guys,” Vogel said. “We got down in the the overtime and could have given up on the game or lost confidence, but we stayed the course.”

Clippers

• The Clippers are now 0-2 with James Harden in the lineup, falling in a road game against the Nets. The first came on the road against the Knicks.
• Paul George said he didn’t expect the Clippers to click right away. “We’re going to go through growing pains,” he told reporters. “We’re going to come out of this and we’ll probably have to make another adjustment based on how the season goes later in the year. I’m not worried about this.”
• The Clippers conclude their four-game trip on Friday against Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and the Mavericks.

Timberwolves

Center Rudy Gobert said he’s just fine that the Timberwolves blasted the Pelicans on Wednesday despite the fact the Pelicans were without starters Zion Williamson (birth of child) and CJ McCollum (collapsed lung).

“Regardless of who we play, who’s hurt, we know that our biggest opponent is ourselves,” Gobert told reporters. “I’m really proud the way we came out. We came out regardless of who’s on the court. It’s still the NBA, and guys are talented.”

• Coach Chris Finch added he was pleased that the Wolves not only built a big lead, but never let their foot off the gas. “I like the fact that we didn’t let up,” he said. “We didn’t have any mental lapses. There was no immaturity out there when it came to screwing around with the game when we had it right where we wanted it, which we’d been prone to do.”