New Suns starters Johnson, Oubre hope sharing ball cures woes

PHOENIX — The tail end of a 17-game losing streak showed the worst of the Phoenix Suns.

They let games spiral out of control against good teams and let bad teams pull away late. Their body language went south along with the losing until a 124-121 win over the Miami Heat on Monday.

Back in Phoenix after taking a day off, the Suns spoke of progress on Wednesday. At least, that’s if progress can be measured by just getting back to playing focused, effort-filled basketball games.

“Book said it best in the last game. When the ball moves and everybody touches it, everybody feels like they’re in a rhythm, everybody feels like they’re in the game,” point guard Tyler Johnson said of backcourt mate Devin Booker.

“When you got four, five, six possessions, up and down, (and) you don’t feel like you’ve been touching it, it’s hard to sprint back and go make a defensive play. I think that’s the key to our success moving forward.”

Johnson, 26, has taken the responsibility of making sure his younger teammates do the right things on the court and communicate the right way when they inevitably make mistakes.

But he’s recently gotten himself out of a funk, too.

He scored 29 points in a 120-112 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday, then posted 18 points and five dimes in his return to Miami. He combined to shoot 16-of-28 in those two games after going 7-for-34 in his first four games as a Sun.

In the three games out of the All-Star break, the Suns have focused on ball movement. Despite two bad losses to Cleveland and Atlanta, they succeeded to some degree by recording at least 25 assists in each of the last three outings.

“It’s contagious, man,” said forward Kelly Oubre, who was inserted in the starting lineup after the All-Star break. “We got to go out there, make that one extra pass. You know, a lot of times I have tunnel vision. Everyone pretty much does it. But that’s contagious also, playing the wrong way.”

Stagnation late in games was part of the reason for blown leads and fourth-quarter meltdowns, however. That wasn’t the case in Miami.

Oubre scored 11 points in the final five minutes, while Johnson hit a three and hit Deandre Ayton with a pinpoint pass leading to an easy layup with 31 seconds left as the Suns broke their 17-game skid.

But along with stale offense, defensive breakdowns piled up during brief periods of play throughout the Suns’ losing streak.

In the moment, Johnson can’t tell his teammates where to be as much on defense as he can on offense, but he can help them stop the bleeding after the fact.

“Just talk, just make sure we’re communicating and not finger-pointing,” he said. “Sometimes when there’s a breakdown or something — on any team, not just our team … it gets to like, ‘Oh, whose fault is it?’ It’s not really anyone’s fault. It’s either we had a lack of communication or we had a miscommunication.

“As long as it’s not finger-pointing and we’re really, genuinely getting better, that’s when progress is made.”

WARREN STILL ON ICE

Head coach Igor Kokoskov said a timetable for forward T.J. Warren’s return from a bone bruise in his ankle is still unknown.

Warren did not practice Wednesday, and Kokoskov said it is a matter of when the forward is feeling better. Then, he will need to work back into game-ready shape.

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