Suns’ chaotic rallying effort ends in last-second loss to Grizzlies

PHOENIX — Monday night’s 114-113 loss for the Phoenix Suns to the Memphis Grizzlies was much more than a rally coming up short.

It had been quite the 36 hours for Phoenix, seeing head coach Monty Williams, center Deandre Ayton and forward Jae Crowder go into health and safety protocols. In a month where the league has been ravaged by COVID-19’s omicron variant, it was the Suns’ first case of having players out because of it, and they honestly played like it.

The Suns didn’t have a shootaround Monday morning, as their new COVID-19 testing window took place in the early morning and will shift their schedules for the foreseeable future. They had that shootaround a few hours before the game in the arena instead of at their practice facility and were down to 11 available players.

The whole ordeal seemed to throw them off.

Both teams came out stagnant in the first quarter before Memphis was the one to stabilize and quickly found itself up by as many as 18 points in the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, however, Phoenix found some life that knocked the game off its axis until the very end.

And you could tell how much it meant to the Suns to do that. It was as if they were overcoming the adversity mid-game and going to use it as fuel to complete the comeback.

But for a game that got kooky in the end, it still came down to a rather simple fact of the Suns’ inability to stop Memphis’ Ja Morant or Desmond Bane.

Bane had a career-high 32 points, the second-leading scorer on the night to Morant’s 33. The Grizzlies needed all 65 of those points, dealing with their own COVID-related issues down key players Dillon Brooks and De’Anthony Melton.

Morant scored four points in the first quarter and then ended the third quarter with 27, with 15 of those coming in the third.

When he went for a rest, it turned into a quick one because the Suns responded with a 16-5 run to only trail by three with seven minutes left.

Phoenix, more or less, elected for chaos during that spurt.

“We had to find a way to change the game, we were getting killed,” Suns guard Cam Payne said. “We had to find a way to slow these guys down, had to find a way to pick up our pace.”

The Suns pushed off misses or turnovers and kept the game at a certain tempo, one that held the Grizzlies off balance. Memphis on the night turned the ball over 19 times for 25 Suns points.

Then everyone couldn’t stop making shots.

After Chris Paul missed a three-pointer with 3:43 left, the two teams scored on the game’s next 10 possessions, bringing us to 51 seconds left and the Suns down four.

Phoenix pressured Memphis full court on the ensuing inbounds pass, one that brought, well, chaos.

Paul’s steal on the pass Memphis’ Kyle Anderson never turned around for led to two straight open misses by Phoenix, only for Mikal Bridges to convert on the third attempt to make it a one-possession game.

Chaos in Phoenix pic.twitter.com/yUu7GsfIG6

— Matt Petersen (@TheMattPetersen) December 28, 2021

On Memphis’ next possession, the Suns doubled Morant, forcing the ball into the corner for the low-volume shooter Anderson. His shot didn’t go, and even though Memphis grabbed the miss, the shot clock expired.

Phoenix called a timeout with eight seconds left, setting up a crucial sideline out of bounds call from acting head coach Kevin Young.

The motion drawn up completely stumped the defense on Devin Booker from Bane, who positioned himself perfectly to be screened by Jalen Smith and left Booker absolutely wide open.

Booker caught the ball and turned, expecting to see Bane in a situation where he’s trying to beat him to a spot. Instead, Bane was nowhere to be found, and Booker happily drilled the uncontested 3 to give the Suns the lead.

DEVIN. BOOKER. pic.twitter.com/ZLpR8CvOjv

— Bally Sports Arizona (@BALLYSPORTSAZ) December 28, 2021

The roles reversed at five seconds remaining and a miscommunication by the Suns on a switch for Morant gave the lightning-quick point guard just enough of a driving lane.

Morant warped through it and was met at the rim by a strong bit of verticality from Booker, only for Morant to inconceivably hang in the air long enough to finish the shot on his way down to put Memphis back in front with just 0.5 seconds on the clock.

JA MORANT LADIES AND GENTLEMEN@JaMorant | #NBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/p5m2dikURl

— Bally Sports: Grizzlies (@GrizzOnBally) December 28, 2021

The shenanigans were done there, as the Suns’ final possession yielded a shot Bridges couldn’t get off in time.

Booker contributed 11 of his 30 points in a very important stretch of the third quarter where the game would have been lost if not for him. Cam Johnson, starting in place of Crowder, added 12 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter.

An Ayton-less front line for the Suns got dominated on the glass, mostly via Memphis’ Steven Adams. He grabbed nine of his 16 rebounds off misses by his teammates and the Grizzlies were +15 overall in rebounding.

Phoenix’s JaVale McGee did his best with that tough matchup but had foul trouble and ultimately got his sixth in the fourth quarter, leaving the second-year big Smith to play crunch time. The aforementioned chaos seemed to benefit Smith, who plays with never-ending energy. He had his best game as a Sun with 15 points, nine rebounds and a game-high plus-minus of +19.

“I thought he gave us a huge lift,” Young said of Smith.

It was the once in a blue moon type of evening where Chris Paul wasn’t able to pull the strings in crunch time or consistently knock down his midrange jumper. He shot 4-of-13 for 13 points, six rebounds, 13 assists and three steals.

Follow @KellanOlson