It continues to be a chore to find some belief in the Phoenix Suns. They lost to the Indiana Pacers on Saturday 126-108.
Phoenix’s offensive process is hitting a major wall and it’s hard not to see it and wonder if buy-in is fading.
In every team’s last eight games entering Saturday afternoon, the Suns were tied for 28th in 3-point attempts per game with 33.4 and didn’t reach 40 in any contest. The attempts were at 30 on Saturday that included a first half in which Phoenix took a preposterous 56% of its shots from the midrange.
The Suns (15-18) had the score tied at halftime despite shooting 15% better than Indiana, a difference made up by the Pacers (18-18) taking more shots in winning the possession battle, more 3s to further emphasize winning the math battle and going +4 at the foul line to deny Phoenix any chance of making up for it elsewhere.
Indiana started hitting more shots, specifically from deep, to open the second half. The Suns’ defensive intensity dropped off enough to make the Pacers more comfortable and create a 10-point lead four minutes in.
The Suns were able to hang in this one for the most part, thanks to absurd efficiency, which further magnified how bad the math issue was. Phoenix got within six a few times in the fourth quarter before the Pacers extended their advantage to a dozen with 4:08 to go, the moment you could see the Suns mentally detach.
Indiana took 18 more shots and 10 more 3s while the free-throw line ended at just -1. The Suns refuse to embrace the concept of definitively outworking an opponent. They are not and will not be good enough to make the playoffs (and maybe even the play-in tournament) if that refusal continues. Nothing will magically snap into place otherwise. This is the point where you’d be told it’s time to learn what this group is really about but we’ve already been given that education.
Phoenix’s shot profile was horrific. It took 52% of its shots from the midrange, which Cleaning the Glass places in the 99th percentile. Ten total shots at the rim yields 16%, located in the fourth percentile. The Suns are on pace for the lowest shot volume around the basket in over 15 years.
Just as Phoenix was getting Grayson Allen back and Bradley Beal (left hip contusion) could suit up through the injury that sidelined him for the last three quarters of Tuesday’s loss Memphis, both Tyus Jones and Oso Ighodaro were sidelined due to an illness.
A run of season-changing illnesses have been coming up in large frequency on NBA injury reports the last handful of weeks. The Suns had been fortunate to avoid it prior to Saturday.
This was Phoenix’s first game without Jones this season, while Jusuf Nurkic serving the final contest of his three-game suspension meant Mason Plumlee was the only center in the rotation. No Jones and no Royce O’Neale (left ankle sprain) meant everyone was going to have to be on their Ps and Qs without the two most consistent players this year outside of Kevin Durant.
Head coach Mike Budenholzer started Ryan Dunn in place of Jones, opting for the possibilities of defense and size to begin the game.
The Suns were able to get some half-decent ball movement off a system primarily built on spacing out the floor and attacking a matchup as opposed to something more fluid. They had 30 assists, 16 of which came from Devin Booker (9) and Durant (7). Those two combined for 45 points on 16-of-29 shooting, which is usually a good result. But there wasn’t enough gunpowder in the recipe for something explosive to outduel Indiana’s 70-point second half.
Beal was 3-of-12 for eight points in 33 minutes.