PHOENIX — Whether you take more stock in the result or how the result occurred, the Phoenix Suns look play-in-bound after Tuesday’s 125-123 loss to the Denver Nuggets.
For what would be required out of Phoenix to push up the Western Conference standings from seventh, we saw it in the first quarter. The Suns produced 35 points on 10 assists, putting forth one of their best offensive quarters in many weeks. The warts were there defensively through a handful of simple mistakes that led to open shots for Denver, namely from the corner and at the rim, but it was something.
And then the rest of the game happened.
The Suns had only three assists and 22 points in the following quarter, while Denver jumped from 28 to 39. The Suns’ goofs off the ball persisted and became more frequent without more of a base offensively that let them set their defense.
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Denver’s first three offensive possessions coming out of halftime with a 10-point lead resulted in a dunk, wide-open corner 3 for former Sun Cam Johnson and open layup in transition off a Suns make. While Phoenix kept scoring on the other end, that let us know what the conclusion was going to eventually look like, no matter how we got there.
In typical 2025-26 Suns fashion, it was eventful!
That third quarter was 38-30 Suns, and they actually grabbed the lead late in it. At that point, they were 17 for 41 (41.5%) from deep and needed that bundle of 3s it knocked down each period to keep up for one more.
Zero went down on five tries while Nikola Jokic got a rest, the minutes Denver usually gets blitzed in. The Nuggets won’ em 15-13 and possessed a four-point lead with him on the floor for the final 5:55.
Phoenix hung around, getting it down to a possession with 2:19 to go. From there out of the final 10 possessions, eight resulted in points. The two misses were by Jokic with 1:06 to go and Devin Booker on the last shot.
After Jokic scored the go-ahead bucket, one in which Phoenix got a step too far away from him in the midrange, the Suns called timeout down two with 11.5 seconds remaining.
The execution on the sideline out-of-bounds play was lackluster, as trusted passer Royce O’Neale didn’t see anything open so he had to safely toss it in the backcourt, burning a third of the clock before Booker could get into action.
Booker on a dribble-handoff with O’Neale eventually found space with a ball fake on a 3-pointer, and his ensuing shot did not fall.
You could chuck this up to more failures in late-game execution, but if anything was to blame, it was the inability to get more than one single stop on that last spurt. And again, you could see that coming.
Booker was the culprit on a bunch of the aforementioned bad defensive possessions, especially when snoozing off the ball. With this team struggling and the way in which it is floundering defensively, he’s got to be much, much better on that end right now as the leader of the team.
If he can’t see the floor properly as a playmaker sometimes, that’s fine. If shots don’t go in sometimes, that’s fine. If he’s out of sync with his teammates on offense sometimes, that’s fine. But he can 100% control his defensive impact and that has to change. We know he’s a good defender, and we saw it for a lot of this season.
Suns head coach Jordan Ott and Booker both leaned toward Denver’s elite offense being more of a factor on Tuesday with the defensive gaffes but both acknowledged there were errors, particularly in the first half. Ott showed some of those slip-ups during the film review at halftime.
After the unit really dropped off in February, there are signs in the last two weeks the defense is getting back to its standard.
“We’re getting there,” Booker said. “We’re learning when we’re the more physical team, it always puts us in a good situation.”
The question is if the Suns have enough time to relocate that standard.
Booker shot 5 for 14 for 22 points with eight assists and zero turnovers.
The Nuggets (45-28) entered Tuesday as one of the three teams that could [expletive] around and find out if it blunders one more time so close to the play-in line with just two-and-a-half weeks to go in the regular season.
That trio that includes Houston (43-28) and Minnesota (44-28), who could also all win 50 games. If that happens, it would be the first time since 2014-15 when six teams in a conference all clocked 50-plus wins, and that year it was seven.
Phoenix will have to hope one of ’em doesn’t or else it’s play-in-bound. The most the Suns can now reach is 49.
Phoenix (40-33) has nine games left. If it goes 7-2, the Suns would only reach 47. You can do the math from there for the other squads. It’s real tough sledding, and as Booker said after Sunday’s win, the Suns did this to themselves with a handful of brutal losses in crunch time after controlling most of those fixtures.
Jalen Green checked out with a little under five minutes to go in the third quarter and did not get back in until there were six minutes left. Other reserves had it going.
Jordan Goodwin was bringing his usual dose of energy Phoenix desperately needed on defense while Grayson Allen knocked down five 3s. It was an off-night for Rasheer Fleming on both ends but it was telling that Ott was willing to tweak Green’s rotation pattern to find that wing group more time after providing juice toward the end of the third quarter.
When Oso Ighodaro caught a pass on a roll to the basket midway through the fourth quarter, he was grabbed by multiple defenders in a way that suggested it was intentional. Next time down, Denver hugged him off the ball, confirming it was.
Ighodaro is a 46.9% free-throw shooter, something we haven’t seen opponents capitalize on yet, but you knew was coming eventually. He made one of four. Denver did it again a minute later and Ighodaro connected on both.
Ighodaro was at 61.6% in college and 58% last season with free-throw shooting, so this has been a long-term problem. If he ever wants to be out there for the end of really important games, it’s got to get back in at least that range. He finished with 15 points, six rebounds, one assist and no turnovers.
The Suns got Allen back from a four-game absence and O’Neale also returned after sitting for three. Ryan Dunn (right groin soreness) was a late scratch after two good games off the bench.
Phoenix will improve off those additions and others coming but it’s going to get complicated when Dillon Brooks is back into the fold and offensive touches will shrink up for the now-three primary options, all while ball movement has to remain a priority. This plus the major drop-off defensively makes it difficult to see the Suns clicking in time to truly test someone in the first round of the NBA playoffs, and if the drop-off keeps up, there should be worry about even getting out of the play-in.
Jokic closed with 23 points, 17 rebounds and 17 assists. The best player in the world argument doesn’t even seem like one whenever you watch him live.
Points in the paint were 58-36 Denver.
The Suns only had three turnovers as a team. Stathead has that as only the 39th occurrence ever. Denver’s 35 assists and paint dominance, along with a 15-10 edge in second-chance points, are how you overcome that.
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