Suns’ Jeff Hornacek comments on team’s inconsistency, turnover issues
Nov 10, 2015, 9:41 AM
Phoenix Suns guard Eric Bledsoe (2) looses the ball as he fouled by Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) in the second quarter of an NBA basketball game in Oklahoma City, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2015. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
The Phoenix Suns are only seven games into their 2015-16 campaign.
They sit 3-4 after consecutive losses to the Detroit Pistons and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Head coach Jeff Hornacek, who is in his third year on the Phoenix bench, admits the beginning of the season has been up and down for his team.
“We do a lot of good things, then we do some crazy things,” Hornacek told Doug and Wolf Tuesday on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM. “We’ve just got to eliminate some of that stuff — silly plays, our turnovers have been hurting us. We’ll shoot the ball better, we had the one game that I thought would catapult us into our shooting, but we just need everybody to get on the same page in terms of how we play, and we’ll be OK.”
The game Hornacek is referring to is the Suns’ 118-97 win over the Sacramento Kings last Wednesday at Talking Stick Resort Arena. Phoenix shot 54 percent from the field and a blistering 61 percent (14-of-23) from three-point range. However in their two most recent losses, they’re shooting 42.6 percent from the floor and 37 percent from behind the arc.
Turnovers have been a problem as well. The Suns average the fifth-most turnovers per game (17.1).
“They’re playing hard,” Hornacek said. “That’s one thing I can say, they’re playing hard. I thought we did a lot of right things against Oklahoma City except for turn the ball over.”
And turn it over they did. The Suns coughed it up a season-high 23 times in the loss to the Thunder Sunday. That led to 30 Oklahoma City points.
One player, however, has made progress in the turnover category and that’s point guard Eric Bledsoe. The third-year Sun averaged 3.5 turnovers per 36 minutes last season. That number is down slightly to 3.0 this year. In Oklahoma City, he dished out 11 assists while committing only two turnovers. It was only Bledsoe’s third career game with 10 or more assists and two or less turnovers.
“I think Eric’s done a much better job this year with his turnovers,” Hornacek said. “He doesn’t have the ones where he’s jumping up in the air and he’s stuck.”
The Suns have a little time to think about their last two losses as they don’t play again until Thursday night when they host the Los Angeles Clippers.
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