EMPIRE OF THE SUNS

Phoenix Suns’ winning streak ends at 11 after hot shooting from Hawks

Feb 3, 2022, 9:25 PM

Phoenix Suns head coach Monty Williams said after Tuesday’s win, their 11th straight, that the Suns are getting the best from each team they play now. A record of 41-9 will make that happen.

Thursday night sure felt like the Atlanta Hawks’ best, a barrage of 20 3-pointers and 43 points from All-Star starter Trae Young, an effort the Suns couldn’t quite execute enough against in a 124-115 loss.

The margin of error for victory across any sport can vary by the night and on Thursday it was rather microscopic for the Suns.

Atlanta (25-26) converted a bevy of triples off the bounce, shots that Williams pointed out postgame are the most difficult to hit in the NBA. While there were a few of those 3s that came down to scouting report discipline or navigating screens, the Suns just have to live with shooting performances like that.

“You have to,” Williams said of living with it.

“The ones Trae knocked down off the dribble and there was a few more, you tip your hat to those guys,” he added.

It’s just the second loss for the Suns since January kicked off and the other was when the Heat were a blazing 50% from deep with 22 long balls. The Hawks weren’t far off with their 20 on 48.8% efficiency.

Like that Miami game, there was a window to win. It was just a below average defensive performance compared to the top standard the Suns (41-10) are held to on that end.

You can imagine who holds that standard the most.

“Our defense didn’t show up tonight,” point guard Chris Paul said. “For us to be a defensive team all season long, and usually we can lock in in the fourth quarter. We ain’t do it tonight.”

The Suns shot 9-of-32 (28.1%) from deep, making that margin a whole lot tougher on themselves.

“I think we just didn’t defend a the level that we usually do,” guard Devin Booker said. “We missed some shots. There’s nights like that. As much as we want to win every game, and I never say we’re gonna lose one, but the day has came. So we just have to move on from it, respond how we respond, get to D.C., regroup and finish out this road trip how we want to do it.”

This is not to say the Suns were the better side through three quarters but they managed to stay close with Atlanta despite the Hawks chucking up 18 made 3-pointers. Both teams notched at least 30 points in all three of those quarters.

As Williams noted, there were just little pockets of slippage for the Suns through sections of that opening 36 minutes that never let them get in front and allowed the Hawks to stick in front by a possession or two.

“That kind of stuff happens,” Williams said. “We just didn’t have that rhythm to get consecutive stops tonight.”

Phoenix was only down by three at halftime after 11 of those Atlanta 3s went down but a torrid third quarter from Young created the separation. He scored 18 of his 43 points to extend Atlanta’s lead to nine entering the fourth and Young had the Hawks’ last 12 points across the remaining 2:40 of the quarter. That was exactly when Paul checked out for a breather.

Williams at the opening of the final frame turned to Paul, Booker, Cam Johnson, Jalen Smith and JaVale McGee, a lineup that has zero minutes together this season and was Smith’s first action of the night. When Williams does that, it’s a tell-tale sign he thinks the current effort isn’t cutting it and something unorthodox is the only way out of it. He knows this team better than anyone reading (or writing) this, so while going to Smith didn’t make much sense, that’s his call.

The new lineup and big frontcourt didn’t do much, with Booker going for his first rest of the half after two minutes and Smith only lasting three. At the 7:28 mark down a dozen, Booker checked back in for McGee, with Williams’ last Hail Mary going small through a lineup of Paul, Booker, Bridges, Johnson and Crowder.

That group found the mojo Williams was searching for, getting the deficit down to seven a few times, but never made it too dramatic.

Bridges scored 20-plus points for the third consecutive game with 24, plus eight rebounds, four assists and two steals. This is the most aggressive he’s been since the start of the season when it looked like he could be in the middle of an offensive breakout. Phoenix has been running a few more actions for him as a result and Bridges is taking advantage of that.

Booker added 32 points, maintaining his average of that amount of points per night in his last 11 games. Paul contributed 18 points, 12 assists and three steals but the Suns didn’t get much else offensively from anyone else outside of Cam Johnson (13 points) and JaVale McGee (12). It was a game where the absences of Cam Payne (right wrist sprain) and Landry Shamet (right ankle sprain) were especially felt.

Atlanta had six players in double figures and four of them had at least four 3-pointers, including five for Kevin Huerter, who amounted to 19 points.

With the Suns’ 30 assists, it was only the third game this season they’ve lost after dishing out at least 25.

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