Bradley Beal’s teammates and coaches have encouraged him to shoot the three ball more, knowing success wouldn’t be far behind. On Thursday against the Lakers, Brad embraced the message and had his best night since arriving in Phoenix.

No. 3 poured in a game-high 37 points, his first 30-plus point game since joining the Suns, on 14-of-21 from the field and a remarkable 8-of-10 from three as Phoenix buried the Lakers 127-109 at the Footprint Center. After the game, Brad talked about how the messaging and a timely visit by his long-time trainer Drew Hanlon helped him put it all together on Thursday night.

“It’s been something our staff has been preaching all year,” Beal admitted. “I got my trainer Drew back in town, we worked for a few days and got it back feeling right and tonight I was just confident in it. I didn’t think about it. If it hit my hands I was just letting it flow.”

Prior to Thursday’s game, Brad has made just eight threes total on 28 attempts since November. He was coming off a series of unsuccessful shooting nights with three of his last four games ending up in 0-fers from deep. But after working out with Hanlon earlier this week, something clicked and Brad let it fly again and again and again against the Lakers.

“I’ve been working with Drew since I was 14. It’s crazy to see both of our careers take off the way it has. We credit one another wholeheartedly for our successes,” Beal said. “We’re both OGs in it and he still to this day helps me, encourages me, shows me film. He does a lot of things that other trainers don’t, which is why I love him. I’m not the only one who is having success [with Drew’s help] there are so many other guys he trains and works with that are MVPs in the league. That’s just a testament to his hard work and work ethic. Salute Drew for all he does.”

Brad also credited teammates Kevin Durant and Devin Booker with providing needed encouragement and motivation.

‘It was just a good feel and a good flow tonight and it’s definitely more encouraging to hear K say “go at ‘em, keep going, Book the same thing,” Brad said. “They kind of channeled me into a little more killer mentality a little bit.”

Brad’s outburst benefited all three men. Durant went for 18 points with five boards and five assists and Booker scored 31 points. It was easily the most productive night in the big three era for Phoenix. And it began in the very first quarter with Booker dominating with 16 points on 6-of-10 from the three. Brad hit back-to-back threes in the early going, helping the Suns establish a 17-9 lead and they were up 35-26 after one. BB added five points in the second quarter and the Suns pulled their lead up to double digits, 66-52 at the break.

No. 3 then came out of the locker room firing. He took 11 shots and made eight of them. Four of those attempts were from deep, and three of them went in. One of the signature plays came about halfway through the quarter when a switch got Brad isolated on Austin Reaves and after a series of in-and-out fakes, BB gained enough distance to drill a stepback through contact. After the game, Durant said Brad “had Reaves out there dancing” to which Brad replied with a smile:

“I’ve done that before where I hit like five in-and-out moves. You’re going to bite for one. You’ve got to go for one of them,” he said. “Austin’s a good player. He’s a good defender. He caught more in a closeout situation, so I’ve got to take advantage of what I’m given and what I’m looking at. He just kept retreating and I was able to pull up on him.”

At the end of Brad’s 20-point third quarter, the Suns led by 27 points. Los Angeles used a mini run in the middle of the fourth to try and draw closer, but Beal put the finishing touches on with back-to-back threes to extend the lead back to 25. Shortly thereafter, Frank Vogel pulled his starters and Phoenix cruised to a 28-point win.

“We played really well. More or less everything went our way tonight. We still have to be a little bit better in the fourth, closing out on defense and things of that nature,” Brad said. “But 100 percent we can build off of this in a lot of positive ways, just the way the ball was moving , the energy in it and our collective efforts on defense, being able to talk, making it difficult for Bron and AD to get going. Those are just the individual matchups that we take personally first and then everybody else not leaving their man on an island. So it was a good collective night tonight. We hopefully just keep building on it.”

For Brad in particular, there is plenty to build off of. His shooting from deep sits atop that list. Making 80 percent from three is obviously unsustainable. However, Brad began his career as a near 40-percent marksman from deep only to see his attempts per game and shooting percentages from three drop drastically in the last several years. To get those numbers up, BB knows he has to let it fly more and trust his work with Hanlon that the shots will fall.

“It’s been something I’ve been trying to get myself to do for the last probably five years of my career — just shoot at least 8 to 10 threes a game,” he said. “In order to compete or even be in games today you have to be able to shoot the three just to keep teams on their toes and we have a lot of really good shooters and we have to take advantage of it.”

The Suns will look to build on Thursday’s win when they return to action on Sunday against the Trailblazers in Portland. Tip-off from the Moda Center is scheduled for 7 p.m. local time and the game can be seen on Arizona’s Family Sports.