Suns’ defense keeps sinking, losing streak hits 4 vs. Blazers

PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns have stagnated, and in some aspects, are reeling following a 132-119 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers because their league-worst defensive ineptitude persists.

After the Suns’ first three games of the season provided little to be enthused about, progress over their last three contests has been evident, while also not amounting to any wins. Sightings of the Suns team we expected to see have been there more, just not nearly consistently enough to pick up victories.

“It’s been the same story the whole season,” Suns guard Devin Booker said. “We’ve done it good in spots, but we haven’t been able to put together 48 minutes. We gotta find a way to do it.”

And while there are positives to glean from these last three games, the improvement and bright spots are getting canceled out by the defense, which is not improving statistically.

The Suns (1-5) came into Wednesday with a 30th-ranked 128.8 defensive rating outside of garbage time, and after the loss, it was 128.9. The league average is 113, and for reference, Portland’s (6-1) 129.4 offensive rating on Wednesday is one Cleaning the Glass grades at the 95th percentile.

Head coach Jordan Ott, a few different times postgame, brought it to a simple solution of “guarding the ball,” since the problems with on-ball defense are sometimes setting them up for failure for the rest of the possession.

This trend over the first two weeks of the season is more disconcerting considering the defensive end was the Suns’ identity last year and the driving force behind their success, all to begin a season that was supposed to be spearheaded by a boost from continuity.

Perhaps the next slate of three games includes another jump, this time on defense. It will need to, because Wednesday began a run of five games in seven days at home, and after the struggling Orlando Magic are on the marquee for Thursday, it’s two Texas powerhouses from San Antonio and Houston that are visiting next. Maybe the Los Angeles Clippers after that will be looked at as a more favorable draw, but that’s the last game in the seven-day sprint.

The 1-5 start is the first for the Suns in eight seasons, going back to the bubble year.

On Wednesday, the Suns had another great first quarter, taking it 34-29 before giving up 42 points and only amounting to 25 in the following period. That put Portland in the driver’s seat, up 13 entering the second half.

Phoenix had no answers for Deni Avdija. We already knew coming into the game that Avdija was going to be able to get to the paint whenever he wanted, but there was an extra dose of lethality to his off-the-bounce game because he was setting up his teammates at will. Midway through the second quarter, when Avdija was up to just 14 minutes, he had already tallied eight assists with only one turnover.

Most of those dimes for Avdija were simple one-pass kickouts to a wide-open shooter on the weak side. The Suns had to sell out some of their help toward not only Avdija but the rolling big as well. That made things way too easy for Avdija, and even with those deficiencies, Phoenix could still be executing those possessions much better. It cannot be that easy.

Jalen Green focused on rotations when asked where the defense has to get better, and those are the possessions he was referencing.

Portland added 32 more points in the third quarter to make it 75 in the middle periods after Golden State amounted to 74 on Monday and Denver totaled 71 on Friday.

Even with growth on offense, there are math problems there too.

Despite the Suns sporting a similar field goal percentage (50%) at halftime, they trailed 17-12 in points at the foul line and 9-3 in 3-point makes. That is part of the math equation we’ve harped on loads in the Jordan Ott era, and with that in mind, Portland shooting that well (55%) with only four turnovers might be even worse.

The Suns are 20th in free-throw rate and 28th for what their opponents manage, per Cleaning the Glass. They are 20th in 3-point rate and 23rd in opposing 3-point rate. Being 13th in opposing turnover rate is not high enough, a number Ott wants to get back within the top-5 like it was last year.

Some of those numbers have to get better, preferably much better.

One of those signature statistical categories was trending well in the first half, with the Suns leading in offensive rebounding 8-5. But Portland really doubled down on it in the second half to an 11-6 edge, all while the Suns’ intensity was fizzling out. Ott wouldn’t say he was alarmed, frustrated or surprised by how the defense has performed. He did admit, though, he’s a little surprised by the defensive rebounding problems.

Until they figure more stuff out, the Suns cannot waste many top-tier scoring nights from Booker. He was terrific on Wednesday, shooting 9-of-19 with a 13-for-13 mark at the foul line for 33 points in 34 minutes.

In the late third quarter, with Phoenix down by 18, Booker went to the locker room after Blazers center Robert Williams III hit him in the face with the follow-through of his block attempt. Booker was holding the top of his chest and spitting on the sideline after trying to regain himself, which is not how he typically reacts when hit in the face, and he went back to the locker room. He said afterward he wasn’t sure what was going on with him.

Booker returned right around when he normally would have, with under 10 minutes left and the Suns still 18 points behind. He shot 0-for-3 in his final seven minutes.

It’s such a challenge for the Suns to work through all this while Khaman Maluach is also learning and improving as he goes.

It’s asking so much out of him to try and be a primary anchor on ball-screen coverage right now, even if Phoenix was a better defensive team, more akin to last year. Oso Ighodaro starting has to be close, with the continuation of a three-center rotation that includes Ryan Dunn as the small-ball 5, so Ighodaro’s not worn out by extreme minutes and Maluach can sit at a comfortable total. Maluach played 16 minutes while it was 23 for Ighodaro.

Ott was asked pregame if Maluach is done playing bigger chunks of 25-plus minutes now that Ighodaro is healthy, and he didn’t quite go there, noting it’ll be matchup and rotation based as the season goes along. He reiterated the Suns are thrilled with Maluach’s trajectory and where he’s headed with his development.

This was the biggest follow-up game of Green’s career with Phoenix. Pressure is mounting on a starting lineup change, and that has a lot of fingers pointed at Green, who has been much better this year at playing how the Suns want him to. Monday was his best effort with the franchise in that regard, recording eight rebounds, eight assists, two steals and two blocks on an inefficient scoring night, a night he also missed all four of his free throws and committed three turnovers in the fourth quarter.

Ott pregame expanded on how they want to see Green build off the healthy amounts of good we saw in his impact on Monday.

“It’s good to start to celebrate that,” Ott said pregame. “We’ve challenged him with those areas, and he took a step forward. It started on the defensive glass. Not only on the basketball, but his defensive rebounding really helped us. It’s always his playmaking that we’re asking him to start the blender, and he got a lot of that as the game progressed. … At the end, he was able to find his ability to get into the paint.

“He kind of had it all, and that’s what we’re just going to continuously ask him to do. Just do it game after game, keep building on this.”

Green needs to do it every night, and on Wednesday, he started off strong in that regard once more. The blender offensively was indeed activated by him, and Green’s energy on the glass and defense were present. But he found less impactful possessions inside those margins as the game went on, and then the slip-ups arrived as well, on top of another bad shooting night.

Green picked up his fourth foul early in the third quarter but returned in the final frame by living in the paint to try to inject some life into the team, keeping up the pros and cons of his overall play. He finished with 22 points, two rebounds, two assists, two turnovers and two blocks on 6-of-17 shooting in 32 minutes.

Ott unprompted complimented Green’s spirit and energy postgame. Green was asked what he’s been focusing on.

“Just playing hard,” he said.

It might seem far away and even off-base given how Green’s not being efficient as a scorer and still makes agitating mistakes for fans, but the player he is trying to be this season is the backcourt mate that actually fits alongside Booker. The potential there is immense if he can just keep this going until the scoring gets back on track, and it would help him too if the team could be better in the process too.

With Jordan Goodwin (right calf soreness) out, the Suns couldn’t afford a second straight poor performance from Collin Gillespie. He had it, shooting 1-of-5 for two points in 23 minutes. Luke Kennard took zero shots in 14 minutes. Dunn had five offensive rebounds, and Ighodaro added four with three blocks and seven assists.

Ja Morant (left hamstring strain) and Shadeon Sharpe (right meniscus surgery) were out for Portland.

Avdija ended up with 21 points, eight rebounds, 12 assists and three turnovers. He’s making a push for All-NBA for the second straight year. Donovan Clingan added 24 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks. He’s making a push to be regarded as a top-10 center. Damian Lillard was having an underwhelming night until Dillon Brooks started chirping at him, and that is not a guy to chirp at. He finished with 25 points (9-for-17), with five assists and one turnover.

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