After big night vs. Clippers, Suns’ offense stalls out against Spurs

The Phoenix Suns have their limitations offensively without Devin Booker, even when T.J. Warren has it rolling.

That was the case on Tuesday night in San Antonio, as the Suns only mustered 86 points in a 111-86 loss to the Spurs.

Warren looked like his old self, scoring 23 points on 16 shots but he didn’t get much help.

Outside of Warren, the other Suns players combined to shoot 24-for-66, a shooting percentage of 36.3.

The struggles came the night after Phoenix had seven players score in double figures and shot 50.0 percent overall from the field with 31 assists.

Josh Jackson was one of the highlights in that game, scoring efficiently with a career-high eight assists and only one turnover. He regressed back to some of his concerning play, shooting 2-of-14 and turning the ball over four times with only one assist.

Only three Suns players finished in double figures, and that was after Deandre Ayton got going in the fourth quarter to finish with 12 points, 11 rebounds and four assists. For the second straight game, Ayton had an encouraging game as far as his engagement defensively. He had two blocks the night after recording three against the Clippers.

DA rejection 🚫
⬇️⬇️⬇️
Mikal triple 👌 pic.twitter.com/bAtdKiPL5R

— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) December 12, 2018

The third Sun to reach at least 10 points was De’Anthony Melton, who had another strong outing after playing well in his first two career starts. He recorded 17 points, seven rebounds, six assists and two steals, but did turn the ball over five times.

The Suns started Jackson over Trevor Ariza, who did not play despite being active and not on the injury report. Jamal Crawford was active but also did not play after being questionable because of a sore left knee. Booker missed his fifth straight game since re-aggravating his left hamstring in Los Angeles against the Lakers.

With Elie Okobo assigned to the G League and Crawford out, Jawun Evans saw his first minutes since being signed to a two-way contract on Friday.

Evans is a quick, pure point guard that relies on his vision and ability to get to spots on the floor faster than most. Besides the obvious size disadvantage he holds at a listed 6 feet tall, Evans needs to hit shots when he gets to those spots in order to earn more minutes. He finished with four points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals in 26 minutes.

Lightning-fast one-dribble pull-ups like this one will have him in the league a long time if he can keep converting.

Jawun Evans hits his first bucket as a Sun! pic.twitter.com/RPwfIsWjkz

— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) December 12, 2018

UP NEXT

The Suns are off on Wednesday before taking on the Dallas Mavericks at home on Thursday. The action starts at 8:30 p.m. on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station.

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