Suns blitzed early for 3rd straight game, lose to Nuggets

It has been three games and the Phoenix Suns are missing one of the two players they absolutely cannot afford to have sidelined.

With that said, they have not offered a flattering first impression with their third straight dud in the first half, the latest coming in Saturday’s 133-111 loss to the Denver Nuggets.

Phoenix has given up 71, 72 and 71 points in the first half of those three contests, leading to deficits at halftime of 17, 16 and 17 points, respectively.

The biggest theme inside those poor defensive performances has been opponents not respecting the Suns enough. Their self-touted work rate and desire to win through hustle first have to produce legitimate toughness and a defensive style that forces the opposition to feel them. Outside of the second-half rally in the season-opening win over the Sacramento Kings, that has not been seen.

Confidence and comfort are evident when watching these offenses go at the Suns. Denver on Saturday cruised through its rudimentary motions to counter switching and extra attention going Nikola Jokic’s way, doing so on a dozen-plus possessions featuring Phoenix either not on the same page or briefly detaching itself from the play mentally. That’ll do it against anyone in the league, especially the best. This was with Jokic not scoring until there was 4:18 left in the first half.

Offense has not been as much of a problem despite Jalen Green (right hamstring strain) continuing to sit and Devin Booker not playing to his expected standard. Phoenix looks far more settled stylistically on that end, generating good looks and plenty of 3s, just not with enough efficiency or prowess. Sprinkle in a turnover edge for Denver that started at 9-1 Suns, and again, that’ll do it against anyone in the league, especially the best.

Denver’s lead grew to 20 a few minutes into the third quarter, just like Friday’s defeat, before a 10-0 Suns run fueled by Denver’s five turnovers got that deficit cut in half. The Nuggets quickly flipped that to extend the advantage back to 20, before Phoenix kept hanging around and a Royce O’Neale triple with 6:48 to go got the Suns back within 11. These types of stretches are going to be a signature of the season, given how superior teams will tend to relax with big leads and how the Suns will not decelerate like many squads in their position would.

The opportunity was there. After that timeout, Booker missed a pull-up 3 after a Suns stop, and then yet another Nuggets layup via a Jokic pass was followed by another missed 3, this time by Dillon Brooks. A pair of Cam Johnson free throws and a Suns turnover off a Booker double-team gave Denver more free tosses to build up a 16-point edge at 5:19 remaining, sealing the ball game.

To extend the point on the offense, the Suns are now shooting 32.8% (43-of-131) from 3-point range through three games. That number is far too low considering Booker is the only guy that is taking them with any real contest from a defender and he’s 4-for-12.  The team’s volume, 43.7 3PA/G, is good. Brooks was 3-for-13 on Saturday from deep and O’Neale was 2-for-6.

Defensively, the Suns can protest some of the questionable calls all they want but the lack of consistent and proper positioning was reflected in Denver going +20 at the foul line. And who else is generating free throws for Phoenix itself? Booker now has attempted 31 of the Suns’ 62 free throws in three games.

This was the second game out of three to begin the year where Booker is uncharacteristically getting stuck in midair with the ball, resulting in a turnover. He had three in the first seven minutes and eight overall. Phoenix’s increase in pace could be the culprit. It could be how he wants to provide for others as the “point guard.” It could just be he’s not seeing the floor as good as he normally does. Whatever it is, the Suns are going to be stuck in neutral until his instincts recenter.

That came once more for Booker with only a few shot attempts through the first half before he got those numbers up in the second half when the game was less competitive. He finished 10-of-16 for 31 points with seven assists and the aforementioned eight giveaways.

Saturday marked the first game of the season that new Suns center Mark Williams missed. This was cited as right knee injury management on the report, although it’s less about a specific injury and more that Williams is not ready to play back-to-backs yet. Phoenix has not shared information when it comes to a timeline for Williams’ next steps, whether that’s starting games, reaching beyond 25 minutes or getting fit enough for two games in two days.

Charlotte avoided back-to-backs for Williams all of last season. Out of a possible nine he could have participated in, Williams only appeared in one of the two games on each possibility. The Suns have 15 back-to-backs, so if they take the same approach, that would already dock Williams down to only 67 potential games played.

The Suns set a 10-day timeline 11 days ago on a Green update at the time of announcing he reaggravated his right hamstring. The depths of those updates so far have been that he is progressing and getting better day by day. Phoenix’s schedule over the next week begins in Utah on Monday before three home games on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

Nick Richards’ first minutes in a proper rotation role, as the backup to Oso Ighodaro instead of Williams, were rough. He has a habit of stacking up small mistakes, whether it’s turning over an outlet pass, botching a switch or picking up three fouls in four minutes. Richards looked better in the preseason, especially with his conditioning, but he’s got to cut that stuff out or Phoenix should see it as no choice but to play Khaman Maluach earlier than they’d like.

Those fouls did indeed force that to occur in the late first quarter, and Denver’s offensive synergy had its way in attacking Maluach as anchor to lots of success. Again, nothing unexpected. That is the main road block in the way for him getting minutes.

Denver had seven players in double figures compared to Phoenix’s three.

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