With no Booker or Warren, Suns’ strong effort not enough to beat Magic

PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns were without Devin Booker (left big toe) and T.J. Warren (right ankle), the team’s two best players, against the Orlando Magic on Friday night.

Now, for some of the deeper teams across the league, they would be able to limit the damage. The Suns are not one of those teams.

They rolled out a very young and inexperienced starting lineup.

Trevor Ariza was drafted by the Knicks in 2004. The Suns' other four starters tonight were all less than eight years old when Ariza was picked in the second round. Deandre Ayton was 5, Elie Okobo was 6 and both MIkal Bridges and Josh Jackson were 7.

— Kellan Olson (@KellanOlson) December 1, 2018

The Suns’ singular advantage with that lineup is athleticism. Ayton, Jackson and Bridges are all top-tier for their position while Okobo and Ariza still provide pluses in certain areas.

What that translates to with some great effort and sound defensive principles is a chance in the game depending on how much they can provide offensively.

Despite the Suns bringing that effort and keeping the game within range for 40-plus minutes, missing 42.2 points per game in the lineup loomed large in a 99-85 loss to the Magic.

The Suns won the first quarter 25-21 thanks to some tremendous energy and good performances from Deandre Ayton, Trevor Ariza and Josh Jackson.

The juice was there through most of the game, but as Jackson puts it, what the Suns ultimately needed to be the victor wasn’t there.

“I think the thing that we were really missing was toughness,” Jackson said. “I think we came out with it in the beginning but I don’t think we sustained throughout the entire game.

“One of our struggles we’ve been having throughout the season is just being consistent with things that we’re trying to do so it’s another learning process, another learning game.”

The game was absolutely there for the taking. Several stretches of offensive ineptitude, however, left them without a win.

But don’t get it twisted — the effort and camaraderie it takes for the Suns to win these games are present. They are not sulking around as they post a 4-18 record, the worst start in franchise history.

It’s leaving Ayton a bit confounded.

“We gotta finish out these games,” he said. “Sometimes I wonder how do we lose? It feels like everybody is competing, but try and go back to look at the numbers … Kinda confusing because I’m like, ‘Yo, I know everybody is playing hard today but we still lose.'”

The player who led with their motor was Jackson, who continues to impress in the past week by playing through nonstop aggression and a breakneck pace.

With that being said, Jackson’s wild play can’t be an overall positive if he keeps making out of control, bad plays.

In particular, he’s going to need to reel in his decision-making as a ball-handler. His shot selection is erratic and he’s not particularly efficient anyway when it isn’t, so that’s gonna lead to some nights like Friday when he’s 5-of-21 from the field.

He’s aware.

“One thing I could of did better today, just shot selection,” Jackson said. “I think a few of my shots were kind of questionable, came at bad times, so I gotta get better with that.”

Jackson had 10 points, nine rebounds and a career-high seven assists.

After arguably his worst game in the NBA on Wednesday, Ayton set a clear pace for himself early. He was running up and down the floor off misses, rolling hard to the basket and looking to be physical when he could on offense.

He had one of his best shifts of his rookie season in the first quarter, but faded the rest of the way and looked particularly indecisive in the second half. Ayton scored 19 points and was a team-low minus-17.

Once again, like Jackson, the rookie understands where he has to improve.

“I know I have to be more aggressive down low, get to the line more,” he said, noting his role is to not chuck up a bunch of shots but that he still has to find a way to look for his scoring more.

Jackson said the team chemistry is strong. That’s not the problem. The issue is the players don’t understand how they are losing or where to go from here when they play extremely hard but don’t wind up winning.

“Still trying to figure that out right now, I honestly don’t know,” Jackson said when asked how they become more consistent.

Head coach Igor Kokoskov liked what he saw given the spot his team was in.

“We can’t be pleased with the outcome, we lost the game, but I think we battled, we tried,” he said.

What can become problematic is if the losses continue to pile up, will the effort of the team and improvements over the last two weeks maintain? They are one of the least talented teams in the league and the limitations to that have shown, even if they have progressed well as a group in the second half of November.

Last season, the Suns were rejuvenated when interim head coach Jay Triano came in, and despite Booker missing 10 of their first 46 games, they managed a 17-26 record under Triano up to mid-January.

That fire, though, eventually burned out once they lost badly enough times in a row. That team lost 32 of its last 36 games.

This Suns team is far more talented and should avoid that type of skid, but one has to wonder if the ship sinks like last year if a small burst of winning doesn’t come relatively soon.

UP NEXT

The Suns head back to Los Angeles for their second meeting with LeBron James and the Lakers. Listen live to the action on ESPN 620 AM.

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