Injuries to Suns’ Big 3, defensive regression continue in loss to Pacers

PHOENIX — There is no reason to believe the Phoenix Suns’ most important three players can all stay healthy enough this season to allow them to properly build toward something, with Devin Booker’s exit in Thursday’s 120-111 loss to the Indiana Pacers the latest blow to further drain any remaining confidence.

Less than three minutes in, Booker attempted a 3 and had Indiana guard Bennedict Mathurin impede his landing space. Booker’s right foot landed on Mathurin’s own feet, which drew a Flagrant 1 foul after a review. Booker walked and jogged that tweak of his right ankle off, not looking too off the rest of the first half.

Coming out of halftime, though, his movement wasn’t explosive at all and it was clear something wasn’t right. At a timeout call midway through the third quarter by the Suns, he jogged to the locker room and was later ruled out due to left groin tightness.

Booker has dealt with left groin strains on two separate occasions in his career, one in Dec. 2017 and another in Dec. 2022, so it’s one with some history around this time of year.

And there’s more.

Add on Booker’s left hamstring injury in Dec. 2018, left hamstring injury in Jan. 2021 (15 games into the season) and his left hamstring injury in Dec. 2021 and we’ve got ourselves a real issue for something popping up this time of year on that side of his body.

Since game No. 10 of the season when Kevin Durant missed his first action of the season, a prior stretch that included some brief Bradley Beal absences, the Suns’ Big 3 has played together and come out clean on the other side in just one of the last 17 games. Three of those 16 contests include each member of the Big 3 getting hurt at some point.

If Booker misses Saturday’s matchup with the Detroit Pistons, it would be his first time on the shelf this season.

The disappointment from that covered up another disconcerting team outing.

Former Suns head coach Monty Williams always used to harp on how his team can’t disrespect their opponent. The league is too talented to allow anyone to build up confidence. And as the superior group most nights, it was on the Suns to ensure they ripped the roots of that confidence out of the ground before it could even begin to sprout.

This iteration is bad at doing so. Don’t know why. These Suns just are.

After a terrific opening four minutes that showcased how poor Indiana is connected defensively, a sequence of great Suns look after great Suns look that indicated the Pacers were going to have a long night, Phoenix surrendered an 11-0 run in 1:51 to trail by four before going down as many as seven in the period. It was incredible how seemingly at the snap of a finger, the Suns were turning it over and completely void of offensive rhythm while Indiana got nothing but open opportunities on the other end.

Durant and head coach Mike Budenholzer pointed to turnovers as the reason why we’ve seen the Suns have a quick reversal of fortune in the same quarter several times the last few weeks. Durant agreed with the notion that in today’s NBA, teams can get back into games so quickly thanks to 3s.

“Just turnovers on possessions, which gives them momentum. … And then transition D, it’s hard to get back on defense when you turn the ball over,” Durant said.

“It feel like they hit every 3 after we turned it over,” Durant added.

The Pacers scored 29 points off the Suns’ 16 turnovers. Indiana was 16-of-41 (39%) from 3 and Suns defenders were for the most part either out of position or A-OK with letting average shooters get open shots.

And to go back to letting the opponent establish some belief, the Pacers aren’t bums. They are an underachieving yet dangerous team.

Regardless of how the rest of the game panned out, it was another reminder of how far this group has to go. That’s the same mental disconnection that ruined Phoenix last year. While it was indeed swept in the first round, those four contests against the Minnesota Timberwolves were extremely competitive until a key few minutes in the second half when the Suns gift-wrapped control of the game to Minnesota.

Both Durant and Booker really turned it on over some separate stretches to try to steer the ship back on track but the defensive lapses persisted in the third quarter, a 37-24 edge to Indiana in a quarter that continues plaguing the Suns.

The Suns cut it down to nine in the mid-fourth quarter before a quick push back from Indiana to get the lead back to 14 led to Phoenix body language that informed the fans it was time to beat the traffic.

Durant finished with 37 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, two steals and five turnovers in 38 minutes. He took full blame for the turnovers, noting how as a leader the team follows suit from him, both in good and bad ways.

Phoenix went with a nine-man rotation for most of the first half.

The odd men out were rookie wing Ryan Dunn and veteran big Mason Plumlee. Dunn’s shooting has tailed off and defenses are leaving him more open than ever, which doesn’t make him unplayable, but backup point guard Monte Morris has been rock solid all year and got the nod instead. Plumlee made way for rookie Oso Ighodaro, who gives the Suns a dynamic that more matches Indiana’s style of play. Plumlee still got a look and it should be expected for the playing time of all three centers. Dunn did get some minutes in the second half as well.

Injuries have damaged, more than anywhere else, the Suns’ ability to defend. As Booker himself will point out often, that can always be attributed in some ways to poor offensive play. If Phoenix is not producing good looks, that’s more misses for the opposition to play off against a defense that is not set. Turnovers are the gasoline pour on that fire. And in general, Durant is having his best defensive season in three years while Beal hasn’t reached this level since his early years in Washington.

Through the first 11 games of the season, Phoenix sat 13th in defensive rating (112.9), per Cleaning the Glass. Across the following 14 games entering Thursday, the Suns were 26th in defensive rating (118.8).

Given the proof of concept we have for a team with defensive concerns showing, in fact, it can do more than enough on that end to win a lot of games, it is unacceptable to see engagement sink in pockets of the game like they did on Thursday.

Beal’s return from a two-game absence yielded 6-of-9 shooting for 16 points.

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