Injuries to Suns’ Big 3, defensive regression continues in loss to Pacers

On By Littum

PHOENIX — With Devin Booker’s exit in Thursday’s 120-111 loss to Indiana, there’s no reason to believe the Phoenix Suns’ top three players can all stay healthy enough this season to allow them to build properly against anything The Pacers latest blow to further drain any remaining confidence.

Less than three minutes later, Booker attempted a 3 and had Indiana guard Bennedict Mathurin block his landing spot. Booker’s right foot landed on Mathurin’s own feet, who drew a flagrant 1 foul after a review. Booker went and jogged off that tweak of his right ankle without looking away for the rest of the first half.

When he came out of the break, however, his movement wasn’t explosive at all, and it was clear that something wasn’t right. On a timeout call midway through the third quarter by the Suns, he jogged to the locker room and was later ruled out due to tightness in his left groin.

Booker has dealt with left groin strains on two separate occasions in his career, one in December 2017 and another in December 2022, so it’s one with some history around this time of year.

And there is more.

Add in Booker’s left hamstring injury in December 2018, left hamstring injury in January 2021 (15 games into the season) and his left hamstring injury in December 2021, and we have a real problem for something showing up this time of year on that side of the body.

Since the season’s game no. 10, with Kevin Durant missing his first action of the season, a prior stretch that included some brief Bradley Beal absences, the Suns’ Big 3 have played together and come out the other side clean in just one of the past 17 games. Three of those 16 contests include every member of the Big 3 getting hurt at some point.

If Booker misses Saturday’s matchup with the Detroit Pistons, it would be his first time on the shelf this season.

The disappointment from there covered up another troubling team outing.

Former Suns head coach Monty Williams always used to talk about how his team can’t respect their opponent. The league is too talented to allow anyone to build confidence. And as the superior group most nights, it was up to the Sun to make sure they ripped the roots of that confidence out of the ground before it could even begin to sprout.

This iteration is bad at doing that. Don’t know why. These suns are just.

After a terrific opening four minutes that showed how poor Indiana is wired defensively, a sequence of great Suns looks after great Suns looks that indicated the Pacers would be in for a long night, Phoenix surrendered an 11-0 run on 1:51 to trail by four before going down as many as seven in the period. It was incredible how the Suns seemingly turned it around in the blink of an eye and with no offensive rhythm at all, while Indiana was given nothing but open opportunities at the other end.

Durant and head coach Mike Budenholzer pointed to the turnover as the reason we’ve seen the Suns have a quick reversal of fortunes in the same quarter several times in the last few weeks. Durant agreed with the idea that in today’s NBA, teams can get back into games so quickly thanks to 3s.

“Just turnovers on possessions, which gives them momentum. … And then transition D, it’s hard to get back on defense when you turn the ball over,” Durant said.

“It feels like they’re hitting every 3 after we turn it over,” Durant added.

The Pacers scored 29 points off the Suns’ 16 turnovers. Indiana was 16-of-41 (39%) from 3 and the Suns’ defenders were mostly either out of position or A-OK at letting average shooters get open shots.

And to get back to letting the opponent establish some belief, the Pacers aren’t bums. They are an underachieving but dangerous team.

Regardless of how the rest of the game went, it was another reminder of how far this group has to go. It’s the same mental disconnect that destroyed Phoenix last year. Although actually swept in the first round, these four contests against the Minnesota Timberwolves were extremely competitive until a few key minutes in the second half when the Suns gave control of the game to Minnesota.

Both Durant and Booker really turned it on over separate stretches to try to steer the ship back on track, but the defensive breakdowns continued in the third quarter, a 37-24 edge to Indiana in a quarter that continues to plague the Suns.

The Suns cut it to nine midway through the fourth quarter, before a quick push back from Indiana to get the lead back to 14 led to Phoenix body language informing the fans it was time to beat traffic.

Durant finished with 37 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, two steals and five turnovers in 38 minutes. He took full blame for the turnover and noted how the team as a manager follows suit from him, in both good and bad ways.

Phoenix went with a nine-man rotation for most of the first half.

The odd men out were rookie wing Ryan Dunn and veteran big Mason Plumlee. Dunn’s shooting has slowed and the defense is leaving him more open than ever, which doesn’t make him unplayable, but backup point guard Monte Morris has been rock solid all year and got the nod instead. Plumlee made room for rookie Oso Ighodaro, who gives the Suns a dynamic that matches Indiana’s style of play more. Plumlee still got a look, and that is to be expected for playing time for all three centers. Dunn also got some minutes in the second half.

More than anywhere else, injuries have damaged the Suns’ ability to defend. As Booker himself will often point out, it can always be attributed in some ways to poor offensive play. If Phoenix doesn’t produce good looks, it’s more misses for the opposition to play against a defense that isn’t set. The turnover is the gasoline that is poured on the fire. And overall, Durant is having his best defensive season in three years, while Beal hasn’t reached this level since his freshman year in Washington.

Through the first 11 games of the season, Phoenix ranked 13th in defensive rating (112.9), per Cleaning the glass. Across the following 14 games entering Thursday, the Suns were 26th in defensive rating (118.8).

Given the proof of concept we have for a team with defensive concerns that shows it can actually do more than enough at that end to win a lot of games, it’s unacceptable to see commitment sink into pockets of play, as they did that Thursday.

Beal’s return from a two-game absence was 6-of-9 shooting for 16 points.