Phoenix Suns working to solve close, late-in-game struggles

PHOENIX, Ariz. – In sports, they say you are what your record says you are.

OK, then what might a 2-8 record in one-possession games say about the Phoenix Suns? Not much, according to head coach Jeff Hornacek.

“You may look at it, but a lot of games,” he said, “whether it comes down to the last possession or not, a lot of games are in the last couple of minutes. We’ve had games where we’ve down by seven, eight points and cut it down one and you end up losing by three or four and vice versa.

“It’s a long game.”

Of the Suns’ eight losses decided by three points or less, six have come at home, including the team’s latest setback Monday against Memphis, 102-101.

“They say it can’t rain or storm forever, so it (has) got to turn around. Hopefully it does soon,” Isaiah Thomas said.

After the Grizzlies went ahead on Jeff Green’s three-point play with 4.5 seconds left, Hornacek called timeout and drew up a play designed for Markieff Morris to win the game. Morris’ 16-foot jumper left of the free throw line was blocked by Marc Gasol.

Morris, however, was not the intended target of the pass. Eric Bledsoe explained later he had spotted Thomas at the top of the arc for what looked to be a wide open 3-point attempt.

The ball never reached Thomas.

It was the difference between executing the play as designed versus reading and reacting to the defense.

“In the long run, you’ve got to be able to read what happens because you can draw plays and teams could play it differently,” Hornacek said. “That particular one, I think, Isaiah made the read. Gasol went underneath the screen and went towards the basket and he popped back. It just happened to be that Jeff Green was on the high-side of Markieff and Markieff could’ve just, as soon as it went to Eric, just went backdoor because there was nobody there.

“You kind of have to give them (players) the freedom to read because ultimately that’s what it’s going to come down to,” Hornacek continued. “Teams don’t play their defense exactly how you think they’re going to play it, so they’ve got to be able to adjust on the fly and that’s where the experience comes in.”

Experience perhaps working together as a group in late-game situations, but not individual late-game experience, according to Thomas.

“I mean we don’t have any rookies out there playing,” he said. “We’ve been in these situations before whether it’s college or the NBA. We just got to somehow fix it. That’s all it is. I think if we get one or two games where we execute at the end and really win a big game, I think that gives you a little bit of confidence knowing that, ‘OK, we can win these games.’

“We just got to execute and play the same way; I think that’s the biggest thing. We kind of get complacent and try to slow it down and do things like that when that’s not our strength.”

Late-game scenarios were a focus in practice this week, which provided the Suns a rare opportunity, at least at this point in the season, for back-to-back days of work ahead of a four-day, three-game stretch beginning Thursday at Portland.

“I guess if you look at the positive side, we’re going through a lot of these (close games) this year. It can only help us for the future,” Hornacek said.

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