Suns rally back from early deficit, fall to shorthanded Raptors at buzzer

The Phoenix Suns aren’t giving themselves much margin of error when they go down 16 points early to the Toronto Raptors, the team with the NBA’s best record.

So even after they recovered from that poor start and arguably outplayed the shorthanded Raptors in the last three quarters, they put themselves in a position to get beat at the end, and that’s just what happened.

Pascal Siakam’s buzzer beater for Toronto was the difference in a 111-109 loss.

GAME WINNER 🌶️

VOTE PASCAL 👉🏽 https://t.co/SqKKSjdIqy pic.twitter.com/kM8yNjyEpc

— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) January 18, 2019

The Suns were providing the answer to the Raptors in crunch time, even with Toronto eliminating Devin Booker mostly out of the equation.

With under three minutes to go and the Suns down by one, Booker used the extra attention from the defense on a hard drive to find Mikal Bridges open in the corner for a deep two that gave the Suns the lead.

After Toronto answered, Booker hit a three to put the Suns back up two. Toronto continued to overload their defensive coverage to contain Booker, which led to a missed open three-pointer by T.J. Warren.

That was followed by two free throws for Siakam that tied the game at 107 with 1:16 to go. Once again, the Raptors forced Booker to pass, which led to Warren turning the ball over. A quick two on the other end put the Suns down two, and after Booker set up another open shot, Kelly Oubre Jr. missed a corner deep ball with 36.1 seconds left.

Mikal Bridges drew a loose ball foul to tie the game at 109 with 13 seconds left, leading to Siakam’s game-winner.

Booker bounced back after a rough 4-of-12 outing in his return from a three-game absence on Tuesday, scoring 30 points and dishing out eight assists, all eight of which came in the second half.

Deandre Ayton had a strong first half but didn’t touch the ball much in the second. The Suns continued to either not run plays to give him the ball in the post or not get him the ball in that position. Warren, most notably, had Ayton open with a guard defending the big man late but missed him.

On the other end, Ayton was attacked possession after possession in the fourth quarter by the Raptors but did well on the final shot to contest Siakam.

Ayton finished with 15 points, 17 rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocks.

The game for the Suns could have gone sideways in a hurry. Toronto started the game 18-of-27 from the field and was up as many as 16 in the early second quarter. Phoenix responded, though, and despite shooting 22 percent worse than the Raptors in the first half, were only down eight at halftime.

In the third quarter, Booker got his playmaking going, recording four assists and the Suns defense held the Raptors to only 20 points. A big moment in the game was when Booker exited with just over three minutes left and the Suns went on a 7-2 run to close out the quarter, defying their usual trend of submarining when the guard rests.

Despite Booker continuing to play well in the fourth, his teammates couldn’t pick him up in crunch time when the Raptors played ultra-aggressive defensively.

The Raptors were without Kawhi Leonard, Jonas Valancuinas and OG Anunoby.

Josh Jackson picked up a technical foul in the third quarter and a flagrant one in the fourth quarter, resulting in an ejection. He had seven points in 19 minutes.

Warren finished 5-of-16 from the field, one of his worst shooting performances of the season. And while Oubre was 3-of-15, he was 11-of-13 from the foul line for 18 points.

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