Poor start cancels out great response from Suns in loss to Thunder

Phoenix Suns head coach Igor Kokoskov switched things up in his pregame media availability.

Before Monday’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Kokoskov gave an opening statement to the media instead of immediately taking questions, preaching key bullet points for the Suns, according to The Athletic’s Gina Mizell,

That included an answer to early aggressiveness from the Thunder. The Suns had that answer but they waited far too long, to say the least, in a 118-101 loss to the Thunder.

On the first play of the game, Devin Booker’s uninspiring closeout opened the lane for Terrance Ferguson.

"You better MOVE outta my way!"#ThunderUp | #PHOvsOKC pic.twitter.com/4J8fw9JYrV

— FOX Sports Oklahoma (@FOXSportsOK) November 13, 2018

Suns rookie center Deandre Ayton had the time and space to contest the shot but only watched as Ferguson rose high and emphatically opening the scoring for Oklahoma City.

On the other end, the Thunder had a clear game plan to attack Booker.

When Ayton would come to set a screen for Booker, Thunder center Steven Adams would “show hard,” cutting off any space for Booker around the screen and essentially trapping him. The help defense behind Adams would cut off Ayton’s rim roll and recovered well enough on Booker’s next pass to let Adams be out of position like that.

What that all added up to was the Thunder eliminating Booker’s early rhythm and his hold on the game, challenging other Suns ball-handlers to do damage instead.

That brought on a whole lot of possessions like this one, which includes the aforementioned defensive game plan executed by Adams.

Ball screen to get Warren to the rim. Immediately passes out because he has no space after using the wrong side. Booker tries to improvise but Adams shows hard again. Now Ariza tries. Ayton jumper. pic.twitter.com/4P4YecZdLm

— Kellan Olson (@KellanOlson) November 13, 2018

Take a majority of Phoenix’s offensive possessions looking like that with the team’s usual lackluster defense and the first quarter ended at a 32-13 deficit.

Most of the Suns’ blowout losses this year lacked a run and response in either the second or third quarter to give Phoenix some momentum back and get them in the game.

Monday’s loss, however, did have one after a 64-40 halftime score.

Every player came out with noticeably more energy in the second half, overwhelming the Thunder with such a drastic shift in intensity.

Ayton and Mikal Bridges were pumping each other up at several times in the third quarter. Ayton played all 12 minutes while impacting the game all over the court and the Suns outscored the Thunder 35-22 over that time.

Bridges and Jamal Crawford were a large part of the run.

Bridges had 13 points, four rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block in 26 minutes when he was a team-high plus-13. Crawford also scored 13, and while he had four turnovers, he made four of his eight shots and was plus-eight in 15 minutes.

At one point, the game was down to single digits, a 91-83 score with 9:02 left.

That’s a point in the game where the Suns would traditionally see Booker take over the game, but once again, he didn’t seem to have it going for the second straight game as he continues to not look 100 percent back from a left hamstring strain. He finished 7-of-18 from the field for 19 points with four rebounds and six assists but was a team-low -32.

From there, Oklahoma City pulled away and the Suns realized that was it, so the deficit climbed all the way back up to 17 to end the game.

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