Shorthanded Suns put up fight before fading vs. Kings

The Phoenix Suns were shorthanded on the second game of a back-to-back on Wednesday and gave you about everything you would want to see in that type of situation, with this one ending in a 127-104 loss to the Sacramento Kings.

On top of Kevin Durant’s (left calf strain) expected absence, Bradley Beal was ruled out due to a left calf contusion. Beal exited midway through the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s victory and did not return. In addition, Grayson Allen (right hamstring soreness) was a surprise name on the injury report and also did not play.

While Phoenix’s depth is better than the majority of the top-heavy rosters in the NBA, the bottom line is it is still a top-heavy roster. And without two of the Big 3, the sting of being without someone like Allen is multiplied. The Suns started Royce O’Neale in place of Beal, putting a lot of pressure on the reserves, especially with Ryan Dunn once again taking Durant’s spot.

Regardless of the opponent, this would be a matchup where Devin Booker had the gravity of the defense shifted his direction in a way that resembled the dark years of his Suns tenure. But Sacramento already employed this tactic on Sunday, which led to Phoenix attempting 57 3-pointers, so it was just about a guarantee coming in we would see more of that unfold.

It did, and while the Suns didn’t knock ’em down in bunches the way they needed to, they put up a worthwhile fight through it. The final score did not do this one justice at all.

Phoenix set its season high for offensive rebounds in the first half alone with 14, and ended the game at 19. Despite the Kings shooting 25% better than the Suns at halftime, it was only a five-point deficit thanks to Phoenix taking 14 more shots and being +4 at the foul line. Booker’s rhythm was disrupted through that gameplan and he never quite found it but 16 of Josh Okogie’s 25 points and eight of Ryan Dunn’s 10 headlined awesome grit from the supporting cast to hang in there.

Phoenix even went on to lead in the third quarter before the Kings went on a 13-0 run to go up nine, boosted by a seven-point portion of back-to-back Domantas Sabonis assists to Kevin Huerter that sandwiched a chase-down block by Keegan Murray, and Sabonis’ third 3 of the evening set off the home crowd.

Suns head coach Mike Budenholzer has shown he will tweak lineups to find something that works, and at this point with Booker requiring a rest at 2:53 remaining in the period, he went with Tyus Jones, Monte Morris, TyTy Washington, Okogie and Mason Plumlee as his five. Morris played well in the first half while Damion Lee did not, so Washington fresh off an emergency call-up from the Valley Suns got an opportunity.

3s from Washington and Morris actually cut the Sacramento lead down to five before it ended the third quarter on a 14-6 spur to regain a 13-point advantage heading into the fourth.

Kings star point guard De’Aaron Fox was ruthless with his rim pressure. He and the Sacramento ball-handlers were aggressive to attack the deep drop coverages the Suns play with Jusuf Nurkic and Plumlee. The Kings had loads of success, to an alarming degree. A bit of this also had to do with Phoenix not having Beal and Durant but it was the first full game where we’ve seen the defensive shortcomings really exposed.

And this was without much of DeMar DeRozan, who scored two points before not playing in the second half due to low back tightness. The Kings were 18-of-22 (81.8%) at the rim and 13-for-22 (59.1%) on shots from floater range, per Cleaning the Glass.

Phoenix actually began the final frame on an 8-0 run via Okogie and Washington before Fox kept rolling, assisting or scoring the next 10 points to put the Kings ahead 13 again. That is when the Suns, at long last, ran out of steam.

Extreme shot-making was required from Booker to beat this defense, something he has pulled off plenty of times before, but the challenging looks at difficult angles weren’t falling on Wednesday. He was 6-of-16 for 18 points, five assists and three turnovers.

Phoenix is now 4-6 without two of the Big 3 dating back to last season, and when that one remaining guy isn’t thriving, the Suns will need everything else to break their way.

The Suns were 13-for-43 (30.2%) from 3, including a combined 5-for-25 (20%) mark from the four other starters alongside Booker. The Suns scored 29 points off Sacramento’s 17 turnovers to keep it close at times.

Fox was 11-of-17 for 27 points with six rebounds, 10 assists, two steals, a block and three turnovers. Huerter added 22 and the expected regression to the mean for a Kings team that entered the night last in 3-point shooting percentage (30.4%) came on 15-for-28 (53.6%) production.

Okogie was tremendous with 25 points and eight rebounds, six of which came on the offensive glass. He’s back on his work from two seasons ago when he continued to play well whenever he got a legitimate opportunity.

Follow @KellanOlson