Phoenix Suns lose their first game of the season: By the Numbers

Nov 2, 2014, 3:39 AM | Updated: 3:39 am

Things looked so good early on.

The Phoenix Suns began Saturday night’s game against the Utah Jazz on a 9-2 run, and looked poised to improve their record to a perfect 3-0. Alas, an unblemished record was not in the cards on this night.

Phoenix lost its first game of the season 118-91, getting outscored in three of four quarters. The Suns were outrebounded (52-34), out-free-throwed (27-12) and outmatched in Salt Lake City.

No Sun broke the 20-point barrier. Gerald Green led all Suns with 16 points.

Utah fought back from a one-point deficit early in the second half, taking a lead 1:20 into the third quarter and never letting it go.

Nights like these happen and the Suns will take a few days off before returning to action against the Los Angeles Lakers. Before that, here’s a look at Saturday’s loss by the numbers:

5

Saturday’s loss adds another season to the number of years since the last time Phoenix began a season 3-0. They started the 2009-10 season 4-0.

118

After holding their first two opponents under the triple-digit mark, the Jazz dropped 118 on the Suns defense.

-3

No Sun was better than -3 in +/-. Marcus Morris had the worst +/- at -22, while Shavlik Randolph’s -3 in 4:44 on the floor was the team’s best. Conversely, the Jazz had only one player in the negative, Ian Clark (-1).

23

After shooting 50 percent from beyond the arc on opening night, the Suns have shot only 18 percent from downtown in the last two games, including 23 percent against Utah.

10

Ten Suns played at least 10 minutes on Saturday, including Archie Goodwin who did not play against the Spurs on Friday.

19-2

The Suns shows some life late in the first half, going on a 19-2 run to bring them within one point. It was a big reason the Suns were able to briefly take the lead early in the third quarter.