Starting for the first time since the first week of January agreed with Bradley Beal as the Phoenix Suns split a pair of important road games over the weekend.

Brad shined in his return to the lineup on Saturday, dropping 25 points on 10-of-19 shooting as the Suns defeated the Bulls 121-117 in Chicago.

After the game, Brad detailed the conversation with Coach Mike Budenholzer that led to his return to the starting lineup.

“My job is to be a basketball player, contribute to the team as best as I can, in whatever fashion or capacity they need me to do it at,” he said. “Coach pulled me to the side the last couple days and said “I’m going to throw you back in there. I need to you to be ultra-aggressive.” That’s all I needed.”

Brad’s 19 shots from the field were his most since late December. He also made three of his seven tries from deep in the win and added six rebounds, four assists and two steals in the victorious effort.

“It’s no different than any other game,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if I’m coming off the bench or starting. I just want to win and help this team.”

One night later the Suns were back at it on the road in Toronto, where Brad kept up the aggressiveness and scored a season-high 30 points on an unconscious 12-of-15 from the field. Unfortunately it wasn’t nearly enough as the Raptors had four players score at least 20 points and won 127-109.

The game turned in the second quarter when, despite 13 points from Beal, Toronto outscored Phoenix 38-27 to take a double-digit halftime lead. The Suns made a bit of a comeback in the third, but Toronto dropped 39 in the fourth quarter to pull away with the win.