Suns nearly fumble away large lead to lowly Wizards in uninspiring win

Even against the bottom of the barrel, you still see the Phoenix Suns’ problems.

A 130-123 win over the Washington Wizards is how this season will continue to go, at least for the next handful of weeks. Phoenix (20-20) is not going to win games in a clean or tidy fashion. The warts will keep revealing themselves until the Suns develop consistency. While there is still time to do so, why would you think they will ever use it?

The Wizards (6-33) are on pace to be the worst NBA team since the 2017-18 Suns, who were the last group to finish last in both offensive and defensive rating, like the Wizards currently are. That was the year head coach Earl Watson got fired three games in and Eric Bledsoe tweeted from a hair salon.

Even terrible teams have some areas of the game they can be somewhat proficient in but Washington is shockingly low in just about everything. The only parts of the Wizards’ statistical profile that places them outside the bottom-third of the league is the ninth-best conversion rate around the rim, but of course they are 21st in rim frequency, per Cleaning the Glass. And then in transition defense, they are top-10 in efficiency. The rest is garbage.

Anything less than a clean win would be unacceptable. And it was an ugly one, as most have been lately for the Suns.

They fumbled away a 24-point lead in the fourth quarter, surrendering a 17-3 run over four minutes and change to only lead by three with just over a minute to go. There were more awful stretches too.

Phoenix got off to a 16-2 start, making its first six shots and keeping Washington out of the paint. The Wizards are a horrific jump-shooting team, shooting a league-worst 37.3% at the midrange and a second-worst 33.7% from deep. The only way Washington was scoring early was by getting downhill or finding easy opportunities around the rim via offensive rebounds and transition.

At two separate points in the first half, the Suns let the Wizards get back in the game with that formula, allowing the advantage to get cut to six in the early second quarter before later extending it to 20. That’s when Washington ripped off an 11-0 run in just over a minute that included the last eight points in a 37-second spurt coming off three straight Suns turnovers.

Washington produced 18 points off Phoenix’s nine turnovers in the first half, which speaks to how bad those giveaways were. Phoenix still was up by 14 at halftime because the Wizards are horrendous.

The Suns got back to a relatively solid run of play to be up 22 just a few minutes into the third quarter, opening up the possibility of a legitimate blowout.

At a 21-point lead for the start of the fourth quarter, Devin Booker still remained in the game, a wise decision by head coach Mike Budenholzer given how suddenly the Suns can fracture. The first five minutes is when Phoenix could really put it away and get some rest.

Washington cut it to 15 three minutes in and to 14 another two minutes later. Thus, it was not put away, and Phoenix was one bad stretch away from having to sweat this one. Kevin Durant stayed on the bench, so Budenholzer was still trying to get him a full period off.

But the lead was trimmed to 10 with 3:19 to go, so in came Durant. Booker then missed a 3 Durant grabbed, and rookie Oso Ighodaro was blocked at the rim. Durant then did the same to Washington’s Corey Kispert before a Suns turnover for a free runout. The same thing happened again to make it 120-114 Suns with over 90 seconds remaining.

Grayson Allen, who had been the hottest shooter of the night, missed an open 3 before Kyshawn George, Washington’s hottest shooter of the night, drilled a ridiculous quick-catch 3 to make it a one-possession game.

Booker knocked down his own triple the next time down to calm everything down so the Suns could eek out the victory, an embarrassing end for an embarrassing sentence to summarize an embarrassing game.

Newly acquired center Nick Richards was not with the team and is expected to join them in Detroit on Friday ahead of a matchup on Saturday against the Pistons, so the immense rebounding issues would still be put to the test for at least one more game. Washington started 7-foot rookie Alex Sarr, more of a finesse player, but backup 5 Jonas Valanciunas sure is not. He’s had some major performances against the Suns in the past and is the type of brute-like rebounder Phoenix can also have problems with beyond the long and athletic types.

But the Wizards, one of the worst offensive rebounding teams in the league, only grabbed 12. It should have been lower, as 15 second-chance points is still too many, but it’s progress.

The most predictable turn, however, was some other part of the game hurting the Suns greatly. That occurred with points off turnovers, which the Wizards had 29 of. Washington, you guessed it, also sucks at creating turnovers and this one was only the second time this year they had 25-plus in that statistic.

Phoenix was fortunate to get Allen’s 21 points off the bench and a career-high 18 from Ryan Dunn so Booker’s 37 and Durant’s 23 had enough support for a high-end offensive performance. Or else the Suns would have lost this game.

Dunn’s play continues to be in the running for largest bright spot of this dimly lit Suns season. He has really hit a new form over the last few weeks, the type that a first-year player can reach when given opportunity and confidence from the coaching staff.

In the last 10 games, Dunn has reached double figures in seven of those contests after doing so just four times in his first 26 appearances. He’s being used more in ball-screen actions as a short roller and hitting the offensive glass with ferocity, where he’s grabbed multiple offensive rebounds in four of his last five games.

As we learned with Cam Johnson five years ago, there’s a giant misconception with seasoned collegiate players when it comes to development. The improvement that can come over those first couple of seasons is still a thing, regardless of if a rookie is 18 years old or 22.

Bradley Beal was initially listed as doubtful on Wednesday’s injury report before getting downgraded to out the morning of the game. He sprained his left ankle in Tuesday’s loss that marked the eighth straight game he, Booker and Durant had played together. That doubled the previous best streak of four games in a row for that trio.

Follow @KellanOlson