OKLAHOMA CITY — Phoenix Suns head coach Jordan Ott, between Games 1 and 2 of the first round against the Oklahoma City Thunder, found himself a few different times using the word “perfect” to describe certain elements of what his team would have to do to win.
That challenge of playing the best was illustrated throughout Wednesday’s 120-107 Game 2 loss.
Phoenix trailed by eight after a spirited first half. While turnovers were still an issue, it was playing terrific defense and managing enough shot-making to hang around despite both Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams finding a rhythm for OKC.
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But the Thunder hit another gear in the third quarter, while the Suns slightly regressed. It wasn’t anything too significant either way. But a ridiculous two-way spurt from Chet Holmgren and more Gilgeous-Alexander mastery wasn’t countered by a Phoenix offense that shot 8-of-25 with five turnovers.
That was enough for a 35-20 Thunder third quarter to make the deficit 23 points.
The Suns weren’t done there, though, as we’ve seen most of the year. Royce O’Neale’s fourth triple got it down to 110-100 Thunder at 3:47 remaining, forcing a timeout in response to a 20-4 Phoenix surge.
But the comeback ultimately wouldn’t get too interesting because the Suns avoided perfection by making a few mistakes to end it.
Oklahoma City manufactured an Ajay Mitchell 3 after Jalen Green fell asleep off the ball, and while that was answered by him setting up Khaman Maluach for a dunk, Dillon Brooks then committed his fifth foul by thrusting his body into Gilgeous-Alexander on a trap attempt.
Gilgeous-Alexander made both free throws before Devin Booker missed one of his two. Phoenix nearly got a stop off a sloppy Thunder possession ending in a last-second shot, only to not get the rebound and for Luguentz Dort to knock down the dagger 3 for OKC to end it.
“I thought our fight, that’s the team we’ve had all year. … Incredible grit,” Ott said. “Some of it wasn’t drawn up. Some of it was just absolute willpower by some of our guys. Thought that was a major positive, that’s what got us back in the game.”
Turnovers were 22-10 Suns, and points off turnovers were 22-9 Thunder.
Even with all of the clear improvement from Game 1 to 2 through a tremendous effort, Phoenix won’t win one if it keeps getting doubled up in that department.
“We gotta take care of it,” Ott said. “Twenty-two turnovers. We know that’s what they do. We gotta find a way to force more of their turnovers and for us to take care of it. Lost the possession game again.”
The Suns got the big game they required from either Brooks or Green to have a chance.
Brooks was 12-of-23 for 30 points with one assist and one turnover. The issue was Green shot 8-of-23 with three assists and seven turnovers. If Green had been more efficient like he was on Sunday, this would have been a ballgame late.
That sounds unfair, but that’s the reality of how this offense functions, and a Brooks heater with good team defense is usually enough to beat most teams. The Thunder are not most teams. Remember, “perfect.”
Both guys mostly saw single coverage, as the Thunder maintained consistent extra attention on Booker.
Booker, however, continues to have no solution for how to score against this team beyond the free-throw line. He remains complacent against this defensive game plan, deferring to Brooks and Green, two talented scorers that can have offensive outbursts versus this type of defense. That’s how Phoenix advanced to the playoffs in the first place via Green.
But 14 shot attempts just isn’t close to good enough for Booker. He’s going to have to start forcing it through the second defender.
“I’m trying to use my gravity to generate better looks for my teammates, but at the same time still be aggressive,” Booker said. “Only getting 14 shots up while playing 40 minutes is definitely not enough.”
He made seven and was 8-of-10 from the free-throw line for 22 points, four assists and six turnovers. This marks eight straight games failing to crack 25 points against OKC.
Gilgeous-Alexander had a brilliant 37 points with nine assists and three turnovers. Holmgren scored 19 points with eight rebounds and four blocks.
Williams left the game in the mid-third quarter after grabbing at his left hamstring following a drive in transition. He did not return after contributing 19 points (7-for-11) and four assists in 23 minutes. Williams had a nagging right hamstring injury throughout the regular season. Given the matchup and how important he is to OKC’s chances of repeating, expect a very cautious approach for the remainder of the series.
The odds are the Suns were going to be the victims of a merciless sweep regardless of health, but to make matters worse, they were without Jordan Goodwin (left calf soreness) on Wednesday, in addition to the continued absences of Grayson Allen (left hamstring strain) and Mark Williams (left foot stress reaction).
All three guys have their specific skills Phoenix needs. Honestly, though, this is more about how much it shortens the Suns’ bench and forces them to play the back-half of it. There are no good answers for who the second perimeter player off the bench is or who backs up Oso Ighodaro at the 5. That would be the case no matter who they were playing. And they are playing the top dogs.
Ighodaro was the target of OKC’s game plan on both ends to start the evening, and he had a rough go. The second-year big is a good player, but he’s limited, and if you’re limited, contenders will relentlessly pick at those limitations in the playoffs. He continues to not have an impact as a roller in ball screens and was hunted more aggressively in switches on defense.
Ott only went to eight guys in the rotation, including Maluach. He was not a major detriment to his team but his inexperience showed a bunch, through some good moments too. These minutes will be big for him going into next season.
Ryan Dunn joined O’Neale as the other wing off the bench, while Collin Gillespie was fantastic in a starting role. His seven points, six rebounds and six assists with two turnovers and two steals do not accurately represent how awesome he was, particularly in the first half. Someone had to take on Goodwin’s role with the energy, and Gillespie tried his damndest to make that happen.
This was the most challenging game of the season for the Suns to get through, both mentally and physically. Multiple players got banged up with bumps and bruises that will have them quite sore on Thursday. There were also a handful of terrible calls going against Phoenix that pushed its mental fortitude to the limit.
All of that is part of the challenge that comes with this matchup. With that said, Booker got called for three of the most erroneous fouls you’ll see. Typically, we see one or two of these a year, where there’s no explanation beyond the official getting lost in the moment. But three all involving Booker happened on Wednesday.
A review upheld that Booker went out of his shooting motion on an offensive foul to Alex Caruso, when it appeared it was Booker’s normal shooting motion with Caruso moving into his space after Booker got him to bite on a fake.
Booker then got a technical foul when drawing a foul. In a bang-bang act as the whistle was blown for the foul, he tossed the ball off OKC’s Jaylin Williams to make sure he didn’t turn it over toward the sideline. That presumably was what the T was for, as both Ott and Booker didn’t get an explanation. Even the broadcast was perplexed.
Shortly after, Booker was getting up the floor in transition when Caruso cut into his running lane to impede him, and when Booker attempted to swivel Caruso out of the way, Caruso fell over and got Booker called for an offensive foul.
Booker was seen at one point in the game pointing at official James Williams with a lot of intensity, something I can’t remember ever seeing him do in a game before to a ref. Maybe he doesn’t feel this way, but it sure seemed like Booker was taking all of this personally, as we’ve seen happen in the past with former teammate Chris Paul and Scott Foster.
Booker took it further postgame, calling out Williams in a way he thought was “needed” while accepting he will pay the surely-incoming fine.
“It’s definitely something that has to be looked into. … In my 11 years, I haven’t called a ref out by name, but James (Williams) was terrible through and through,” Booker said. “It’s bad for the sport, bad for the integrity of the spot. People are gonna start viewing this as the WWE if they’re not held responsible.”
He went on.
“I’m surprised this is happening on national TV in playoff games,” Booker said, adding it feels disrespectful.
Allen continues to be available and not playing. For Mark Williams, considering this is a re-aggravation of a foot that originally forced him to miss 15 games, there wasn’t much optimism he could play in this series from the outside looking in. Goodwin’s first left calf injury came in late February when he missed seven games. He tweaked it with three games to go in the regular season and missed the final two before returning for the play-in tournament.
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