Sometimes there’s an easy script for a basketball game to follow, and Wednesday’s 129-113 Phoenix Suns loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers welcomed the opportunity to do so.
Phoenix was on the last game of its road trip, winners of the first three contests on it. Those were not the cleanest efforts, filled with patches of inconsistency that the Suns were fortunate came against lesser competition. They were able to combat that with ridiculous numbers on the offensive glass and great execution in the last few minutes to still be the victors.
On top of that, this was an afternoon start on a holiday, so that plus the flight back home that night can often lead to some funky performances.
It was immediately clear Phoenix was going to continue its sloppier play on both ends, and it came in a fixture that featured the Cavaliers making a whole lot of shots while the Suns bricked their share.
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Cleveland was deservedly up 16 through one quarter, a period in which the Suns shot 3-of-20 on 2-pointers. When the touch on midrange shots isn’t there and the opposing defense isn’t getting moved around enough to open up space at the basket, the Suns offense becomes extremely reliant on 3-point shooting and free throws.
They are already a group that barely gets shots up at the rim, and a good chunk of those come via offensive rebounds and transition finishes. These are the types of offensive performances we expected to see more of while Grayson Allen (right knee injury management) and Jalen Green (right hamstring strain) get healthy, two huge pieces of the offense that strengthen some of those weaknesses.
The defensive connectivity that has led to this group overachieving to a top-10 rating leaguewide was not there, as help defenders were consistently a step off in their rotations. Cleveland’s increased frequency in playing off misses and giveaways didn’t help, either.
That first quarter turned the rest of the afternoon into the type of effort we’ve seen from these Suns plenty this year. They will rarely check out mentally of a game, even with how daunting a comeback effort looks like it will be, and have at least a few go’s at completing it.
Dillon Brooks got going in the second quarter, scoring eight points in the last 96 seconds of the first half to have the Suns within 13 and prevent the game from getting blown open.
That’s when Devin Booker arose, making his first six shot attempts in the third quarter and carrying the Suns on a spurt that got them down just five with 19 of his 32 points.
But the defense just could not chain together enough effective possessions forcing the Cavaliers into bad shots. They got too many open looks (or at least ones in rhythm) and they were able to maintain that flow the whole game.
After the Suns got the deficit down to two in the late third quarter, that would be the last chance Cleveland allowed. It responded with a 19-5 spurt to go back up 16 with 8:15 to go and Phoenix didn’t have another flurry in its locker.
Brooks had all 20 of his points in the first half. He and Booker have been able to engulf in sections of games lately to end the night with a pretty good stat line, but they’ve got to start being more consistent throughout entire fixtures like they were earlier in the season.
Booker in the last few games has had the officiating affect his play. He’s never gotten the star/superstar whistle, meaning there are certain bumps into a defender or other actions that top scorers can reliably manufacture to take advantage of a defender that doesn’t know the tricks are coming. Booker, in particular during these games, is not getting those calls, as well as a few that any player should honestly get. And it has led to him trying even harder to get the calls, which were just bad shots and decisions likely inspired by the overall frustration.
He should get the calls. But he doesn’t, and has to work on using that physicality in a different way beyond that element which is just never going to be a constant for him to rely on like other stars can. Booker in the late third quarter eventually fully lost it on an official, very much earning a technical foul to yell in a ref’s face instead of getting back on defense.
Jordan Goodwin’s shooting numbers have ticked down in December and continued to on Wednesday but he’s still doing the deal with his tremendous rebounding ability, grabbing a season-high 15 in this one.
This was Collin Gillespie’s fifth straight game with at least four 3-pointers, making him the sixth Sun to ever do that, per Stathead. He finished with 17 points. The Suns have been playing with house money in many facets this year, and a lot of that on the offensive end has to do with Gillespie’s phenomenal scoring form while Allen and Green get healthy.
Cleveland got 34 points from the outstanding Donovan Mitchell and had six players in double figures. It was without De’Andre Hunter (illness), Max Strus (left foot surgery) and Larry Nance Jr. (right calf strain).
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