Suns Strokes: Winning streak ends in blowout loss to Knicks

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

And it lasted all of two games.

The Phoenix Suns saw their modest two-game winning streak come to an end, rather embarrassingly so, especially coming in front of the home crowd.

From the opening tip, the Suns were outplayed, at times outhustled and in the end outscored, 128-97, by the New York Knicks in front of 17,105 at Talking Stick Resort on Wednesday.

The Knicks (27-39) led wire-to-wire in posting their biggest win of the season, even though they had played the night before in Denver, and lost.

Carmelo Anthony and Sasha Vujacic each scored 23, while Derrick Williams added 18.

Six Knicks scored in double figures, including all five starters.

The Knicks outscored the Suns by 10 in both the first and second quarters to take a 63-43 halftime lead. That advantage exploded to as many as 36 points in the fourth quarter, when the Knicks broke the game open with a 40-22 period.

The Knicks made a season-high 16 3-pointers and shot 56.1 percent from the field overall.

The Suns (17-47) were led by Devin Booker’s 32 points, the third time this season he reached the 30-point mark, tying Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns for the most by a rookie.

Aside from Booker, however, the Suns lacked in the scoring department with Alex Len the next highest scorer with 14 points. He also had a game-high 10 rebounds for his sixth straight double-double.

The Suns missed 50 of their 89 shot attempts, were outrebounded by 10 and failed to record a block shot, while the Knicks, who completed the season sweep, had nine.

THE GOOD

If it weren’t for Booker, then the Suns might have found themselves down by more than just 10 points after the first quarter. Booker scored 10 of the Suns’ 19 points, making 4-of-6 shots, including a 3-pointer. That was the team’s lone made 3 of the period on six attempts. While Booker was 4-of-6 from the field, his teammates were a combined 4-of-11 with no other player making more than one field goal. Len and Chandler failed to score.

Again, leave it to Booker to account for much of the Suns offense in the second quarter. He scored 10 of the Suns’ 24 points, making 5-of-9 shots though he missed each of his two 3-point attempts. While Booker kept finding the basket his teammates did not. Everyone not named Booker shot a combined 5-of-17. Looking at the entire first half, Booker made just as many field goals (nine) as the other eight players who saw action.

Someone must have gotten in the ear of Len at halftime. To begin the second half, he scored the Suns first eight points and finished the third quarter with 10 to go along with seven rebounds, both team-highs. Len’s 14 points through three quarters extended his career-long streak of scoring in double-digits to nine straight games. Booker was also involved, scoring nine, giving him 29 for the game, his second straight 20-point effort.

Though Booker had only three points in the fourth quarter, his 32-point effort put him in some exclusive company, joining Ring of Honor members Walter Davis (1977-78) and Alvan Adams (1975-76) as the only rookies in franchise history with at least three 30-point games. Davis accomplished the feat 17 times, while Adams did so on six occassions. Booker set a new career-high in field goals made with 14, tying a Suns season-high.

THE BAD

It was a poor start for the Suns, who midway through the first quarter had just as many made field goals (two) as turnovers. They had also missed two free throws and committed four personal fouls. The Knicks, meanwhile, took advantage with an 8-0 run capped by an Anthony 3-pointer to give New York a 15-4 lead at 5:53. Two possessions later Anthony made a 19-foot jump shot to put the Knicks up 12, 19-7, their largest advantage of the period.

Things didn’t get much better in the second quarter; in fact, they got worse. The Knicks extended their lead to 27 thanks to a 19-6 run that included a stretch of 12 consecutive points with Anthony and Vujacic each scoring five and Lopez adding two. It was an Anthony free throw—to complete a 3-point play—that put the Knicks up 61-34 at 2:53. Anthony finished the period with 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting. Vujacic and Lopez both had five points.

Each time—or so it seemed—the Suns tried to make a run in the third quarter, Vujacic made a 3-pointer to quiet the crowed; though truth be told there were several Knicks fans in attendance. So, they liked what Vujacic did in the period. Three times he made shots from beyond the arc, his only field goals of the quarter, with his last 3 putting the Knicks up 16, 86-70, at 1:37. Vujacic was 6-of-7 on 3s through three quarters, his teammates 5-of-8.

In the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, the Knicks extended their lead from 13 to 30 thanks to a 19-2 run that twice saw Jose Calderon feed Williams for alley oop dunks; the second of which put the Knicks ahead, 107-77, at 8:12. Williams added two more dunks plus a pair of 3-pointers as part of his 18-point effort, shooting 8-of-9 while playing all 12 minutes. He had entered the period scoreless, missing his only attempt in 5:52 of court time.

STAT OF THE GAME

50/60/80: The Knicks reached 50 percent shooting (56.1), 60 percent from 3-point range (66.7, a season-high) and 80 percent from the foul line (83.3) in the same game for the first time since Nov. 4, 2010 at Chicago.

HE SAID IT

“It’s disappointing,” interim head coach Earl Watson said, “but as you saw in the beginning, we got discouraged way too easily. So on the road, when we played, we played aggressive. We played with intensity and passion. Today, we came out and acted like we were supposed to win. That can’t happen. And the reason why we have just 17 wins is because we have no consistency, in our intensity or our purpose and how we play.”

NOTED

Not until the 8:10 mark of the second quarter did the Suns record their first assist of the night which was a Ronnie Price pass to setup a John Jenkins made 26-foot 3-pointer.

With his rebound at 1:08 of the second quarter, Chandler became the 50th player in NBA history to record 9,000 rebounds in a career; he finished the game with nine boards.

With two made 3-pointers, Mirza Teletovic extended his streak of making multiple 3s off the bench to 11 straight games, tied for the longest such streak in franchise history.

Though he was in uniform and available to play, Brandon Knight was a DNP-Coach’s Decision, meaning he missed his 21st straight game because of a left adductor strain.

With the additions of Budinger and Williams to the roster, the Suns tied a franchise record with 23 players this season, matching last season’s and the 1996-97 season’s total.

Former Suns player Horacio Llamas, the first Mexican-born player to participate in an NBA game when he made his debut with the Suns in 1996, signed autographs pregame.

UP NEXT

Immediately after the game, the Suns jumped on a plane headed to Denver, where they’ll play the Nuggets on Thursday, March 10. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. with pregame coverage beginning 30 minutes earlier on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.

A Suns victory would clinch the season series for a third straight year.

The Suns are 2-1 against the Nuggets, losing the most recent meeting, 104-96, on Dec. 23 in Phoenix. At the time, it was the Suns third straight loss as Randy Foye—starting in place of injured point guards Emmanuel Mudiay and Jameer Nelson—had his best game of the season scoring 31 points with career-highs of 27 field goal attempts and 16 3-point attempts, making 12 and seven, respectively.

Knight led the Suns with 21 points and 10 assists, while Ronnie Price had a career-high 20 points, shooting 6-of-9 from 3-point range with the six makes also being a career-best.

Overall, the Suns have won eight of the last 10 matchups in the series.

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