PHOENIX — The hits keep on coming for the Phoenix Suns, and you can decide for yourself if the injuries or overall play on the court is more concerning. The choice itself existing is foreboding.
Tuesday’s 117-112 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies was a “new season, same me” Suns performance.
Devin Booker returned after missing five games due to a left groin strain, and on the same night, Bradley Beal took a hard fall on his left hip that had him ruled out after the first quarter. This is the third straight time that in the first game back for Beal, Booker and Kevin Durant together one of them has gotten injured in that same game.
Tuesday marks the 22nd time in the Suns’ last 23 games when they have been unable to play a full game with that trio while also avoiding injury.
Yep, pretty concerning! But my own personal vote goes to the on-court product.
Because while the Suns (15-17) have been hit by injuries, they have had a handful of contests against opponents with serious absences as well. Tuesday was an extreme version of that and one that is a shining example of how to overcome it, making Tuesday a nice litmus test for the Suns that proves how far they have to go.
Memphis (23-11) was missing its star point guard (Ja Morant), starting center (Zach Edey), four top wings coming into the season (GG Jackson, Jake LaRavia, Marcus Smart and Vince Williams Jr.) and two quality rotational bigs (Santi Aldama and Brandon Clarke). The Grizzlies have somehow prevailed through 10-plus games missed for Morant, Smart and Edey, as well as only three games played for Williams and zero for Jackson.
Like the Suns, their depth has been tremendous, thanks to terrific finds like third-year undrafted guard Scotty Pippen Jr., No. 39 pick Jaylen Wells (on his way to a First Team All-Rookie nod) and fourth-year undrafted stretch big Jay Huff.
So what’s the difference? Why is Memphis able to win through all this?
It defends. The Grizzlies, despite lacking some of their best defensive personnel, are fourth in defense, per Cleaning the Glass.
And that undersells how a team you wouldn’t even rank in the top-10 or maybe even top-15 of offensive personnel sits sixth in offense.
When Booker was asked afterward what has ailed the Suns the most over the last month, defense is where he started, and his answer speaks to how the Grizzlies make all this work.
“I always like to hang my hat on the defensive end,” Booker said. “I think if we take care of that and we have a base coverage where we’re all attached, we’re all defending on a string at a high level, that the rest will take care of itself. We’ve been better in spurts, and then when our defense got better, I think our offense slowed down.”
What boosts that is the Grizzlies rack up extra possessions thanks to the NBA’s second-best offensive rebounding rate, and via the backbone of an excellent defense, they capitalize on it with the league’s top transition rate.
In Cleaning the Glass’ database that can chart how many points a team adds in transition off live rebounds, a.k.a. strictly misses by the opponent, Memphis’ league-leading number almost doubles the team in second and is the highest since the 2016-17 Golden State Warriors (in Durant’s first season there).
Point is, the Grizzlies leverage their effort and energy into tangible aspects that make them elite. Most of the time Phoenix’s shortcomings do not come down to a lack of trying but it’s not translating in ways that make it better.
The Suns were well aware beforehand. Head coach Mike Budenholzer shouted out Memphis’ “defensive will” and noted its pace as “elite” pregame.
Despite that, the most predictable 11-2 surge from Memphis began the game, and it controlled the game from there.
Memphis big Jaren Jackson Jr., a skilled and mobile 4/5, was shredding Phoenix’s pair of centers with his individual shot creation to get to floaters in the paint. Jackson had 19 of his 38 points in the first quarter. While the suggestion would draw much ire, that’s the type of matchup when the Suns would give Jusuf Nurkic (suspension) a few post touches, especially with Jackson’s proclivity for fouling. But without him, Jackson was too quick for Mason Plumlee and too strong for Oso Ighodaro.
Both 5s each picked up two fouls in the opening period, and with their struggles anyway, that forced Durant to play the 5 for chunks of the game.
Memphis only had nine available players to dress, so the stretch aspects of Jackson and Huff helped it craft together somewhat of a conducive rotation. Opponents with that aspect showcase a jarring difference with Phoenix, where spacing issues that have intensified since it has to play Ryan Dunn and Josh Okogie for the energy the duo brings.
The Grizzlies led for the entire game, extending their advantage late in the first half to 14 for halftime once they began getting 3s to fall. Desmond Bane had 13 of his 31 points in the second quarter.
Talent on the floor be damned, the extreme gap in both identity and execution trumped that. Memphis’ ability to get out and run off makes or misses was like house money all evening.
Phoenix’s intensity picked up considerably coming out of the half, forcing giveaways against a turnover-prone Grizzlies squad, but Memphis was not going to stop or get rattled by the switch-up. A 20-8 Suns opening to the third quarter was swatted away by a quick 7-0 Grizzlies counter.
A spark via Suns backup point guard Monte Morris got this one into a back-and-forth nature for the majority of the fourth quarter.
At a little over two minutes to go, a Memphis offensive rebound generated a Luke Kennard corner 3 to put it back up five. The Suns were able to do the same on the other end for Booker, but another snagged miss by Memphis was actually Bane grabbing his own for a layup. Booker’s attempted answer was a shot blocked at the rim by Jackson, and the Grizzlies actually slowly moved the ball up the floor to reset for what felt like the first time on the night.
But then no one on Phoenix picked up Memphis’ John Konchar, who floated into the lane in semi-transition uncovered for an and-one dagger. It was the clear moment when Phoenix ran out of gas both mentally and physically. It couldn’t even play a full half at Memphis’ level.
Jackson and Bane not only outplayed Booker and Durant, they severely outworked them. And that’s not to sit here and say the Suns’ duo lacked effort. But the energy Memphis’ pair played with was three games worth. Both were constantly around the ball, and when they had it, were attacking downhill with extreme regularity.
Jackson ended up with 38 points (12-for-23), 10 rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block in 38 minutes while Bane added 31 points (13-for-25), five rebounds and seven assists.
Durant was 11-of-19 for 29 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, a steal and two blocks. Booker had his worst game of the year, shooting 4-for-20 with 16 points, four rebounds and nine assists. The Suns are clearly facing problems that are too big to overcome on the average NBA workrate. They are going to have to start outworking teams and develop some resolve to pick up enough wins to automatically make the playoffs. And it starts with those two.
For Booker’s return, the frequency of groin or hamstring injuries in his left leg around this point of the season makes the first few games for him particularly nerve-wracking, as any re-aggravation of the injury would sideline him for a substantial amount of time, like in the 2022-23 season.
Phoenix is now 13-4 when he and Durant play together, which isn’t quite the most reliable number since most of those games came before the Suns started struggling immensely in mid-November. The Suns are now 6-15 since Nov. 13, the larger sample than the 9-2 beginning. This is who they are at the moment. A bad team.
If you need any proof of how rough things are for the Suns right now, Tyus Jones had five turnovers in this game. Even the NBA’s premier assist-to-turnover ratio dynamo stood no chance to combat Phoenix’s turnover plague. It is only the fifth time in Jones’ career he’s had more than three in a game, per Stathead.
The left ankle sprain sustained by Royce O’Neale in Saturday’s loss has indeed sidelined him, with a re-evaluation timeline set that will keep him out of the lineup for at least five games. Grayson Allen, meanwhile, was initially listed as probable to return after a four-game absence in concussion protocol. His left shoulder, however, started flaring up Tuesday morning and he was out for soreness in that shoulder.
Allen has not been able to find his footing this year due to injuries. Achilles soreness had him literally start the year slow, with a visible lack of mobility before a sore right hamstring kept him down for two later games. Right after that short stint out, Allen started to look like the very impactful role player he was last year, and then his collision in the Dec. 21 loss was the latest roadblock.
To end, a question to Budenholzer on a few recent losses including a dramatic change in intensity after a slow start echoed not only the biggest problem for this Suns team, but the biggest problem for the 2023-24 Suns as well.
“Every game is different,” he said. “We get different questions. We’ve had tough third quarters, we’ve had tough starts — it’s playing 48 minutes. We gotta find a way to play 48 minutes. Tonight we were better in the third quarter. I think it’s just finding that way to be good, from start to finish. More the 48 minutes. There’s just not enough of those that we can hold our hat on right now.”
