Suns unable to bounce back in OKC despite return of Devin Booker

The Phoenix Suns got Devin Booker back on Friday after his three-game absence due to a right forearm contusion.

That was great news, even better considering the Suns are in the middle of a four-game losing streak and received a blow on Tuesday when Deandre Ayton sprained his ankle in his first game back from a 25-game suspension.

A strong bounce-back game from Booker could represent the team’s own.

Instead, Phoenix’s defensive shortcomings came back to bite them once again and Oklahoma City beat them 126-108.

In the first half, the Suns (11-17) were fine. The offense was OK and so was the defense. Despite only 50 points, they did shoot 48.6%, but zero offensive rebounds and nine turnovers didn’t allow them to break through. And they never got on much of a scoring run outside of the first four minutes when they had 12 points. They went on to score only 11 in the next eight minutes of the first quarter and 27 in the second.

That meant little spurts by the Thunder (14-14) were enough to control the game and be up seven at home, but the Suns defended well enough to be in the game.

The wheels fell off after that.

All the shot-making came in the third quarter. Through the first 6:30, there were a combined four stops between the two teams. That, unfortunately for the Suns, is where they could have made up some ground by locking in defensively but they were unable to chain anything together.

The Suns found themselves down even more at the end of the third despite scoring 41 points due to 44 from the Thunder, who owned a 10-point advantage.

It was a quick 7-0 run by Oklahoma City to start the fourth that quickly had the Suns down 17 and effectively out of the game.

Booker, like his team, was decent. It was not one of his better games or his worst. He was 6-for-11 with 18 points, four rebounds and three assists.

Head coach Monty Williams adjusted his normal rotation patterns, pulling Booker at the six-minute mark of the first three quarters to give him more rest and have him end at 28. Booker was playing hard, but was also very much picking his spots and not going with all-out aggression, a wise choice as he looks to avoid re-aggravating his previous injury.

Ricky Rubio had his most efficient and productive night of scoring as a Sun. He scored 24 points, one away his season high, and was 9-for-11 from the field to go with eight assists.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a career-high 32 points while Danilo Gallinari had 22 and Dennis Schroder provided 24 more off the bench.

The loss hurts all the more for the Suns because they have to quickly travel from the midwest back home to face the 19-9 Houston Rockets Saturday night. That game tips off at 7:00 p.m. on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station.

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