Phoenix Suns’ mindset must change if the results are to change
Feb 25, 2015, 1:43 PM | Updated: 1:44 pm
PHOENIX — Losing is one thing. Losing to a team you should beat is another.
Making a habit of both will turn a contender into a pretender.
The Phoenix Suns (29-28) are teetering along that line.
With their fifth straight loss Monday, a 115-110 setback against Boston, the Suns find themselves in 10th place in the Western Conference, a half-game behind New Orleans (29-27) and three games behind Oklahoma City (31-25) in the race for the eighth and final playoff spot.
“We’re underachieving a little bit right now,” P.J. Tucker said, referring to this stretch in which they’ve dropped eight of nine with three of the losses coming against sub-500 teams. “Even with all the trades, all the stuff going on around the team, we still feel like we’ve got the tools to be able to win every single game we step out on the court.”
The Suns will attempt to find their way back in the win column Wednesday when they visit Denver to play a Nuggets team that has lost 16 of 18 and is just 20-36 on the season.
Though at this point it may not matter who the opponent is if the Suns don’t shore up a few things.
Head coach Jeff Hornacek pointed to slow starts — the Suns have not held a lead after the first quarter in 14 of 21 games including each of the last five — and turnovers as culprits. Phoenix has given the ball away 17 times in each of their last two games.
There’s also a matter of defense, or lack thereof.
Beginning with Houston’s 127-point performance, the Suns have allowed an average of 116.2 points with teams shooting 47.3 percent from the field and 44.3 percent from the three-point line in the past four games. And twice they’ve given up a 41-point quarter. The Rockets scorched the nets for 41 in the first quarter, while Boston exploded for 41 in the second quarter Monday night.
Following practice Tuesday, Hornacek hinted at changes, but nothing in regard to the starting lineup or rotation.
“If we just corrected five or 10 mistakes every game, that’s five to 10 possessions that we get stops. That might be a difference of 20 points,” he said. “If we can just fix those — and it’s not like one guy has got six errors. It’s every guy on the team is doing two or three things every game that ends up being a little costly on a play. If we can just straighten that stuff out — we re-emphasized our weakside defense — and if we get the effort, then they can pick it up and get to be playing better defense.”
Hornacek called it a mindset.
“A lot of times, our guys use a bailout like ‘there’s going to be help or someone was supposed to be there,’ we’ve got to quit doing that,” the second-year coach said. “You’ve got to take care of your own guy.”
Communication, Hornacek added, is key and was brought up by several players during an extended film study prior to the on-court work.
“Yeah, we’ve been saying that all last year, all this year,” Hornacek said. “We’re trying to get them to talk, even if nothing is going on. And we showed them situations on the tape that, ‘look, if you were just talking and even if you’re saying you’re clear, you’re clear, you’re all right, you’re all right,’ it gives guys the faith that someone is behind them.”
For the most part, the Suns do have good, or at least above average, defenders. Collectively though their five-man units are falling short of expectations.
“(It’s) the little things, and that’s what today was all about at practice,” Tucker said. “We didn’t do a whole bunch. We just went over the little things that are killing us in the big scheme of things. We got a lot of good individual defenders, but our team defense has not been there this year, so if we’re going to continue in this playoff push, we’ve got to clean that up.”
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