Suns plagued by defensive issues before concerning end-of-season run

The Phoenix Suns have a lost a franchise-record 17 games in a row.

Personally, I don’t think that sentence is too hard to swallow until you consider there are 22 games left in the season, and the Suns are clearly not getting any better.

That much was shown in a return from the All-Star break against two Eastern Conference teams, the Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers, that the Suns far outshine when it comes to on-paper talent.

With seven days away from each other to “reset” out of the break, this was a time for the Suns to turn it around. Yeah, expecting them to go on a 12-12 run is a bit much, but how about a handful of wins and, you know, competing more?

Instead, we saw more of what we’ve seen since three games into the season, when the warning signs were there that not much was changing defensively from last year.

On the losing streak, the Suns have an astronomically high 118.3 defensive rating, the worst in the league.

There are many other problems, such as getting outrebounded severely (last in rebounding percentage) and shooting awfully from deep (last with a tragic 29.4 3-point percentage). The Suns are 27th in offensive rating over that time.

But the defense has been the biggest problem, and that showed in Saturday’s loss to the Hawks.

The Suns got 29 points from Tyler Johnson, hit 13 three-pointers and held Atlanta to 41 percent shooting, 8 percent lower than what Suns opponents have been averaging during the losing streak.

Still, the Hawks managed 120 points and Phoenix lost by eight.

How? Well, we can look past the portion of possessions that are good offense and instead focus on the more inexcusable variety of defensive mistakes by the Suns.

The first two games after the All-Star break were close at the start of the fourth quarter. In Atlanta, the Suns led by eight in the mid-fourth quarter while the Cavaliers game was right there for them to win.

But no matter the offensive roll the team gets on, the defense has been poor and the Suns eventually roll over themselves.

Their defense is a disaster. They either look like they are mixing up the coaching instructions, not aware of their responsibilities with said instructions or aren’t focused/trying hard enough.

Ah, yes, and they are also still young, but we are far beyond that now with the quality of basketball we are watching.

Watch Mikal Bridges here in the key. He’s motioning out for something with his arms and then everything goes wrong.

Sure, Jordan Clarkson’s quick bump-and-run and some smart play design gets him open, but what is Bridges doing? He’s a smart defender — is someone supposed to be covering for him? Was that a switch call? Was he overcompensating for Jamal Crawford, a well-known negative on the defensive end?

To the effort and engagement isle, observe Devin Booker and Kelly Oubre Jr. getting back in transition. By the way, Richaun Holmes sprints back, because of course he does.

Booker works hard in the last stretch of his jog back but collapses on the key like every other player on the team instead of finding a man. Even Oubre does, too!

The result is one of the many open 3-pointers we’ve seen the Suns allow this season. That’s a two-point game at the end of the third quarter! How is everyone not locked in?

When the Suns are playing this level of defense long enough and the losing doesn’t go away, what starts happening is toxic. We are seeing a whole lot of it in these games.

This goes beyond schemes and mixups. Instead, it’s players looking detached from what they are supposed to be doing.

Oubre, in particular, is someone I want to spotlight here because I am honestly not sure if he’s playing through an injury or not with the way he was defending. This is by no means meant to single him out, as everyone on the team has gone through spurts like this, but he’s stood out more than usual in the last two games.

Watch him on these plays and how he closes out and recovers.

Same thing here, as 245-pound Omari Spellman jets past another poor effort at a closeout.

Oubre is a good defender, which is part of why he’s important to focus on.

Here’s to hoping I’m wrong, but this team simply looks done.

Where is Oubre going here in the corner?

This possession below sums up all the troubles well — not because of what happens, but the reactions. Watch on the bench as assistant coach Jason Staudt slam his clipboard, assistant coach Joe Prunty gives an “oh, boy” lean back in his chair, and then Bridges and Josh Jackson stand there and stare at each other.

It wasn’t a particularly difficult prediction after 10 games into this season to see that the Suns were not going to win 30 games.

But there was still a whole lot of time for them to grow as a young core and develop ahead of next season.

In what has been quite a taxing season to follow along with, it’s hard to believe a quarter of it is still left. Maybe we can’t definitively say we aren’t going to see improvement this season.

But from what we’ve seen over the longest losing streak in franchise history, maybe we really aren’t, and that brings a high-magnitude level of concern to what else can go wrong with this much of the year left.

Follow @KellanOlson