The Phoenix Suns have a way of forcing significance onto a single game, and the Detroit Pistons were the latest victims of having to tirelessly respond as heavy favorites by barely holding off an irritating, unrelenting Suns effort in a 108-105 final.
This was as close as a schedule loss the Suns have had, not so much because of Devin Booker’s absence after spraining his left ankle in Tuesday’s loss, but Detroit has rarely been as fully operational as this.
The Pistons have had everyone in their default rotation miss some patch of games this year, with back-half-of-the-bench reserve Javonte Green serving as their only guy to play in every game this year. Recent blips in street clothes for Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren, Tobias Harris and Isaiah Stewart saw all of them have their first games back on Thursday since missing at least one.
With everyone reunited, Detroit would surely ride that momentum on its home floor against a depleted squad for a cozy victory to extend its lead in the Eastern Conference standings.
But you should know better by now that this Suns squad was not going to allow for that to happen. And instead, they repeatedly dragged the Pistons to the deep end of the pool, forcing them to earn this one single win.
The adage “hair-on-fire” energy was apt for everyone in a Suns jersey out of the gates, particularly Grayson Allen and Jordan Goodwin. They brought ludicrous amounts of juice, and Phoenix shot over 50% with six 3s in the first quarter in order to set up its defensive energy to overwhelm Detroit.
Goodwin was hounding Cunningham and the attention to detail from help defenders containing his driving lanes had the Pistons’ offense in a total daze. Through a quarter-and-a-half, the Suns had an absurd eight steals and seven blocks amount to 15 “stocks” in 18 minutes. They average 14.5 a game.
Our latest signature rage timeout from a pissed off opposing coach came in the early second quarter, with Detroit’s J.B. Bickerstaff presumably livid with how dramatic the difference in effort is between the two teams was, just like his predecessors.
The score then was 42-27 Suns, and while the response wasn’t initially there from Detroit, a 50-36 Suns lead was followed by a 17-5 Pistons surge to get within five and only be down seven at halftime.
Detroit then got to mauling on the offensive glass, where it is elite this year, and it really overwhelmed Phoenix’s Mark Williams. The Pistons snagged five misses in just under five minutes of the second half as part of a flurry that eventually got the Pistons the lead.
That is when the everyday basketball fan would expect Detroit to run away with it from there. The Pistons clearly expected that too, and instead, Phoenix kept it close to lead by one entering the fourth quarter and refused to let Detroit pull away with some sense of relaxation before the last-possible moment.
Dillon Brooks got his fifth foul with 7:02 remaining, attempting to cut off Cunningham’s space 30-plus feet out and later arguing Cunningham created the contact. That is right around when the wheels started falling off for the Suns as a whole, with Brooks missing three shots in his first 59 seconds played of the final frame.
Suns head coach Jordan Ott then pulled Brooks down four, probably more for him overheating than the foul trouble, before reinserting him a minute later with the offense still sputtering.
That’s when Oso Ighodaro scored on a layup off a broken possession and then swiped at a drive to create a Suns transition bucket, making it 102-100 Pistons at 3:05 remaining.
I have *really* enjoyed this season from Oso Ighodaro.
Rifle action with Oso spaced to the corner. Fakes the uphill DHO & generates rim pressure.
Then on the other end, it’s another switch on the peel with him & Goodwin, + the impact to win the steal. t.co/ztYLSQWmy8 pic.twitter.com/f1hbFoprLv
— Stephen PridGeon-Garner ? (@StephenPG3) January 16, 2026
Ighodaro then broke up a dribble handoff action for yet another steal, his sixth of the game, only for the transition 3-pointer to not fall. Cunningham then scored off the timeout, Ighodaro was blocked at the rim and Cunningham got two free throws. Those were via a Brooks foul, his sixth.
Cunningham, however, missed both to leave the door open. Allen then missed a 3 and Cunningham drew a foul on what could have been Ighodaro’s seventh steal. Cunningham only made one of those next two free throws and an Allen bucket improbably had it still at a one-possession contest with 90 seconds to go.
This time it was Ausar Thompson’s turn to miss free throws for the Pistons, splitting his, and after each team missed a basket, Allen missed two 3s on one possession, including the first that was a wide-open look from the corner after a pump fake.
At 13.2 seconds, that should have been it, but Allen sunk his seventh triple to make the Pistons up two at 3.1 ticks at least complete an inbounds pass and make two free throws like they hadn’t all of crunch time.
Duncan Robinson, the guy the Pistons want to be taking those free throws, clanked his first before converting on the second. Without a timeout, the Suns at two seconds left somehow got a three-quarters-court pass to find Allen via Royce O’Neale, and Allen at least got a shot attempt off to tie it that didn’t go down.
Allen scored 33 points with five rebounds, zero assists, two turnovers and three blocks. He jacked up 20 3-point attempts to help get the Suns to a team mark of 17-for-46 (37%).
Goodwin’s box score of seven points, 12 rebounds, three assists, a turnover, three steals and a block does not do his impact justice even through all the stat-stuffing. He was a phenomenal force driving the Suns’ relentless pursuit on defense.
Ighodaro’s six steals were the most by a Sun in over three years and he added 10 points with three rebounds. Once again, he deservedly closed the game over Williams, with both centers continuing to trend in opposite directions.
This was an eventful Dillon Brooks Experience. It was not a good shot-making night for him, a 4-of-16 mark for 16 points with one rebound, one assist and two turnovers.
He picked up a Flagrant 1 in the second quarter, to boot. While he drew a technical foul on the Robinson for a free point in that sequence, his poor decision-making getting him in foul trouble in the first half reared its head late. That was Brooks’ third flagrant foul of the season, and he is now officially at 13 technical fouls and seven of those have come within the last month.
This is an extremely “it is what it is” situation given the benefits that come with the experience, but the negatives are reaching an all-time high and the hope for the Suns will be they ease up once Booker and Jalen Green return.
When they do, Brooks has got to start passing the ball. The tunnel vision has been extreme as of late and his playmaking numbers are alarming.
For statistical context, Brooks’ usage percentage was 28.3% coming into Thursday. There are 26 NBA players with a usage percentage north of 28%, and Brooks’ assist percentage of 9.2% is by far the lowest, per Stathead. It is nowhere close to the second-worst number of 15.4% from Portland’s Shaedon Sharpe, and if you doubled up Brooks’ assist percentage to 18.4%, it would still be one of the six worst marks on that list.
For simpler counting figures, Brooks on Thursday tied the league lead for most games with 15-plus points and one assist or fewer with 14, according to Stathead. He is surrounded on that list by a few big men, and the next-highest guard is Dallas’ Tim Hardaway Jr. with nine.
Brooks’ usage will drop. With that, you hope he can still channel the 1-on-1 shot creation but with a bit more connector energy to be a ball rotator when the openings are there. That will set up Booker, Green and Allen for easier looks, as they will consistently do for him.
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