Suns Strokes: Daniels’ career-high 32 not enough for Suns to beat Raptors

PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns were playing hard and competing with teams most nights at the start of this season.

They were surprisingly outside of the five worst records in the NBA, even after trading Eric Bledsoe. They were 7-11 after a win on Nov. 19 over the Bulls.

Nearly a month later, the same effort level is still there, but the wins are not.

It partially took Devin Booker missing an expected 2-3 weeks to get here, but the seemingly inevitable skid has arrived.

The Suns fell to the Toronto Raptors 115-109 Wednesday night, making it five straight losses and 10 out of their last 12 games ending in defeat. Phoenix’s 21 losses are now tied with Atlanta for the most in the NBA.

The Raptors (18-8), one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference, did not look very engaged but still managed to come away with a win in Phoenix.

All-Star guard DeMar DeRozan was one of those Raptors who didn’t look completely locked in, scoring 13 points in a back-and-forth first half that ended with the Suns down 58-52.

DeRozan, however, turned it on in the third quarter and that was all it took for his team to create separation. He scored 18 of his 37 points in those 12 minutes to make it 92-79 through three.

Once again, though, the Suns (9-21) showed they will fight. They went on a 10-0 run to open the fourth, backed by Troy Daniels, who had his best performance as a Sun to date.

He finished with a career-high 32 points on 16 shots, shooting 7-of-10 from deep, but did not score for nearly eight minutes after that run until a jumper with 22.8 seconds left made it 111-109 Toronto.

The game remained close throughout the quarter, but the Suns could not consistently get stops and Toronto’s execution offensively was enough.

Greg Monroe finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds while Tyler Ulis added 16 points, five rebounds and eight assists.

T.J. Warren had an off-night, making it a bit of a surprise the Suns were even in the game. He shot 5-of-15 for 17 points.

Following a 3-of-14 shooting night on Tuesday, Josh Jackson struggled for the second straight game. He was 0-for-7 with two points and one rebound.

The Suns know they are competing and playing hard, but admit it’s frustrating for most of those efforts to end in a loss.

“Tired of seeing that, tired of hearing that,” Ulis said after the game.  “We want to get some wins. We’re going out there, fighting, playing our hearts out, but we just want to come up with a couple.”

NOTED

– Monroe got the start for the Suns. Tyson Chandler was not with the team because of personal reasons.

– Isaiah Canaan was wearing No. 2 for the Suns and was active after being signed from the NAZ Suns a day after the G League team traded for him. He did not play.

– Triano took on the team he coached from 2008-2011.

UP NEXT

The Suns get two days off before taking on the Minnesota Timberwolves on the road Saturday. That’s the start of a three-game road trip.

The game tips off at 6:00 p.m., with pregame coverage beginning 30 minutes prior on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station.

The Timberwolves are 16-12 as Tom Thibodeau continues to figure out how to mix his very talented roster together in his first year as head coach. The team acquired All-Star wing Jimmy Butler from the Chicago Bulls and signed former Atlanta Hawks point guard Jeff Teague in the offseason.

What Thibodeau has been doing is playing those key guys lots of minutes, which is not a surprise given his past tendencies coaching in Chicago.

In minutes per game across the league, Butler is second (37.4), Andrew Wiggins is tied for fifth (37.0) and Karl-Anthony Towns is 15th (35.4).

The teams have met twice this season. The Suns got a 118-110 win on Nov. 11 while on Nov. 26 they lost 119-108.

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