Suns blow 21-point lead to Kings in another baffling loss

PHOENIX — How can they look so good and then so bad?

It’s a wonder that head coach Monty Williams will need to investigate for his Phoenix Suns, who on Tuesday traded even blows for a half with the Sacramento Kings and lost a 21-point lead in a matter of eight minutes then didn’t recover from tired defense and even worse offense.

In the end, it was a 114-103 loss at Talking Stick Resort Arena, the second of three defeats amid a five-game homestand.

“This is our hard right now, the ability to get to a level and keep it there,” Williams said, referencing his “everything you want is on the other side of hard” mantra that he began the year reciting.

“Their bench came in and did a job on us. That is on me to get our guys to a point where we can sustain momentum for 48 minutes.”

Two days after walking out of his postgame press conference without taking questions following a loss to Memphis, Williams answered how the Kings put it on his team.

The score was 53-all at halftime, but a 21-6 run by Phoenix with the Aron Baynes-Deandre Ayton starting lineup put the home team ahead 74-59 with 6:49 left in the third quarter.

Phoenix’s lead would build to 83-62 with 4:35 left in the third quarter before things derailed.

Sacramento denied Devin Booker, who had 25 points and seven assists through three quarters. Ayton, who had 14 points and eight rebounds at halftime, lost his edge.

The Suns’ defense, which had held the Kings to 41% shooting through three quarters, disappeared, leaving Nemanja Bjelica to get hot for 14 fourth-quarter points and point guard De’Aaron Fox to add 11 and four assists in the final 12 minutes.

Williams, who’d already pushed Booker’s minutes as Phoenix pulled away with the big lead, tried to ride things out.

But nobody on the Suns, including Booker when he finally returned with a five-point lead and nine minutes left, had an answer for cutting off Sacramento’s momentum.

“(Gain) control, run the plays,” point guard Ricky Rubio suggested, “but we weren’t running the plays. We were all over the place without sense.”

To that point, the Suns shot 29% (4-of-14) in the fourth quarter, turned the ball over six times and picked up nine fouls as the defense unraveled.

Booker did what he could. He scored nine fourth-quarter points to finish with 34, his seventh game in a row with 30 or more.

It was another wasted effort on his part, as he added seven assists and plenty of strong defensive possessions, even at times taking on the challenge of guarding Fox, who finished with 27 points. Maybe it’s concerning that Booker had more success against the speedy Kings point guard than Rubio, who had a team-worst plus-minus of -19.

Offensively, Booker dealt with aggressive blitzing by the Kings on pick-and-rolls, and he piled up early dimes with Ayton diving and shooters spreading the court. All that good disappeared late.

Speaking of Ayton, it was another night of highs and lows. He went for a season-high 21 points and added nine rebounds on 10-of-14 shooting. Ten of those points came in the first quarter, and it was clear Phoenix made it a point to get him involved on offense.

The lowest of lows was obvious.

Midway through the second quarter, Kings center Harry Giles scored on a tip putback after Ayton failed to box him out. Williams called for Aron Baynes to enter for Ayton.

But before Baynes replaced him, Ayton grabbed two angry offensive boards, drawing a foul on the second. A Suns timeout sent Ayton to the bench still perturbed, and the second-year pro kicked his seat on the bench multiple times before sitting down. His conversation with Williams and assistant coach Mark Bryant continued as the game action began again.

Ayton followed that with an assertive final three minutes of the second quarter.

He only had one rebound in the second half.

The inside-out offense got going in the third as Phoenix ramped up the tempo, and the Suns had nine fastbreak points in the quarter. The lead reached 21 with 4:25 left, but Sacramento’s three-point shooting got it back in the game to trail by nine points heading to the fourth.

Ayton’s diving, early establishment in the paint and solid defense waned as the game grew old. The Suns’ offense turned into quick, hopeful three-point chucking.

Phoenix’s bench was outscored 42-18 with big games coming from Sacramento’s Trevor Ariza (15 points, 7 rebounds), Dewayne Dedmon (12 points, 10 rebounds) and Cory Joseph (10 points).

“They put pressure on us,” Williams said. “We turned the ball over a few times. They started denying Devin and we don’t counter that well enough. It is something that has plagued us. We play two or three quarters well and then we have that where we get a bit deflated and we can’t bounce back. This is our hard. We need to figure out how to get through those moments.”

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