The shorthanded Suns struggled before fading against the Kings

On By Littum

The Phoenix Suns were shorthanded in the second game of a back-to-back on Wednesday and gave you just about everything you’d want to see in that type of situation, ending in a 127-104 loss to the Sacramento Kings.

In addition to Kevin Durant’s (left calf strain) expected absence, Bradley Beal was ruled out with a left calf contusion. Beal left midway through the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s win and did not return. In addition, Grayson Allen (right hamstring soreness) was a surprise name on the injury report and also did not play.

While Phoenix’s depth is better than the majority of top-heavy rosters in the NBA, the bottom line is that it’s still a top-heavy roster. And without two of the Big 3, the sting of being without someone like Allen is multiplied. The Suns started Royce O’Neale in place of Beal, which put a lot of pressure on the reserves, especially with Ryan Dunn again taking Durant’s place.

Regardless of the opponent, this would be a matchup where Devin Booker made the weight of the defense shift direction in a way that resembled the dark years of his Suns tenure. But Sacramento already used this tactic on Sunday, leading Phoenix to attempt 57 3-pointers, so it was all but a guarantee that we’d see more of it unfold.

It did, and while the Suns didn’t knock them over in piles like they should have, they fought through worth it. The end result didn’t do this one justice at all.

Phoenix set a season high for offensive rebounds in the first half alone with 14 and finished the game with 19. Despite the Kings shooting 25% better than the Suns at halftime, it was only a five point deficit thanks to Phoenix grabbing 14 more shot and be +4 at the foul line. Booker’s rhythm was disrupted throughout that game plan, and he never quite found it, but 16 of Josh Okogie’s 25 points and eight of Ryan Dunn’s 10 overall terrific grit from the supporting cast to hang in there.

Phoenix even continued to lead in the third quarter before the Kings went on a 13-0 run to go up nine, boosted by a seven-point stretch of back-to-back Domantas Sabonis assists to Kevin Huerter, who clinched a chase- down. block by Keegan Murray and Sabonis’ third 3 of the night fired up the home crowd.

Suns head coach Mike Budenholzer has shown he will tweak lineups to find something that works, and at this point, when Booker called a timeout with 2:53 left in the period, he went with Tyus Jones, Monte Morris, TyTy Washington , Okogie and Mason Plumlee as his five. Morris played well in the first half, while Damion Lee didn’t, so Washington fresh off an emergency call from the Valley Suns got an opportunity.

3s from Washington and Morris actually cut the Sacramento lead down to five before ending the third quarter on a 14-6 spurt to reclaim a 13-point advantage heading into the fourth.

Kings star point guard De’Aaron Fox was reckless with his rim pressure. He and the Sacramento ball handlers were aggressive in attacking the deep drop coverages the Suns play with Jusuf Nurkic and Plumlee. The Kings had plenty of success, to an alarming degree. Some of this also had to do with Phoenix not having Beal and Durant, but it was the first full game where we’ve seen the defensive deficiencies really exposed.

And this was without much of DeMar DeRozan, who scored two points before sitting out the second half because of back tightness. The Kings were 18-of-22 (81.8%) at the rim and 13-for-22 (59.1%) on shots from floater range, per Cleaning the glass.

Phoenix actually began the final frame on an 8-0 run via Okogie and Washington before Fox went on to roll, assist or score the next 10 points to put the Kings ahead by 13 again. That was when the Suns finally ran out of steam.

It took extreme shot-making from Booker to beat this defense, something he’s pulled off plenty of times before, but the challenging looks from difficult angles didn’t drop Wednesday. He was 6-of-16 for 18 points, five assists and three turnovers.

Phoenix is ​​now 4-6 without two of the Big 3 dating back to last season, and when the one remaining guy doesn’t thrive, the Suns need everything else to break their way.

The Suns were 13-for-43 (30.2%) from 3, including a combined 5-for-25 (20%) mark from the other four starters along with Booker. The Suns scored 29 points off Sacramento’s 17 turnovers to keep it close at times.

Fox was 11-of-17 for 27 points with six rebounds, 10 assists, two steals, one block and three turnovers. Huerter added 22, and the expected regression to the mean for a Kings team that entered the night last in 3-point shooting percentage (30.4%) came on 15-for-28 (53.6%) production.

Okogie was fantastic with 25 points and eight rebounds, six of which came on the offensive glass. He’s back to work from two seasons ago as he continued to play well when given a legitimate opportunity.