The Phoenix Suns fought like hell in Wednesday’s 119-111 loss to the Houston Rockets, an admirable effort while so shorthanded but still a performance when their key problems persisted.

Houston scored 28 points off Phoenix’s 18 turnovers. Tyus Jones had a career-high six of them, the majority of which came on passes to Kevin Durant that were free points the other way. Durant’s shot-making was sublime, but he had seven of his own to go with 37 points (15-for-22) and nine assists. The Suns were +5 in his 42 minutes.

Jones has gone through some rough struggles in each of the last two months, especially on defense where teams have been relentless hunting him. While he’s being asked to not play a role he ever has as an off-ball offensive player, he has to make shots and take care of the ball like anyone else in those spots. The logical decision is to move Jones to the bench but that is when things get awkward, with the potential guarantees the Suns made him to bring him in on a veteran’s minimum contract coming into the fold.

The Rockets also won second-chance points 19-14, areas where Phoenix continues to not finish possessions and lose focus for other easy opportunities.

The Suns were without their three best guards, making any semblance of offensive rhythm a monumental task.

Devin Booker played 26 straight games to start the year before missing five and then was at 22 in a row prior to getting ruled out for Wednesday’s last game before the All-Star break due to a low back contusion. Booker was bracing for contact after landing with both feet on a finish around the rim on Tuesday, and when falling afterward, landed on his back.

This is the eighth patch of games Bradley Beal has been out for, now at four fixtures in a row due to a sprain in his left big toe. With 53 games played last year and 37 this season, Beal has missed 35% of his possible games for Phoenix since arriving. It might be worse that none of this is due to a serious long-term injury and instead smaller nagging stuff. For reference and those saying to your screen, “What did you expect?”, Beal played 79% of his possible games for the Washington Wizards in 11 seasons.

Grayson Allen has had a bothersome left knee for the past two seasons and sees it flare up from time to time. He was listed as probable for Tuesday’s loss and logged just 20 minutes, so it was reasonable to expect he wasn’t going to suit up in Houston.

For the Rockets, Jabari Smith Jr. (right metacarpal fracture) and Fred VanVleet (right ankle strain) remain out.

This was not as lopsided of a matchup coming in as you’d think.

Houston snapped a six-game losing streak on Sunday in a deplorable basketball contest against the Toronto Raptors. For the standard sports trope of “they sure look like they could use the break coming up,” that is the Rockets. Head coach Ime Udoka has criticized his team over this stretch, at one point saying they looked like one of the softest teams in the league.

VanVleet is not having a good year but Houston’s offense is completely aimless without him. While Jalen Green and Amen Thompson are two highly talented players, there is no rhythm or consistent ball movement when playing through the pair.

Across the opening 8:35 during which Houston scored 22 points, only five of those came when it was not via a foul, offensive rebound, turnover or in transition. The Rockets’ half-court offense was as bad as expected and this is how they’ve made up for it all year. Phoenix shot over 50% in that opening burst but had just a two-point lead, the game script in many Suns losses the last two years.

But Phoenix halted those types of giveaways to Houston in the second quarter, and all it took was a brief spurt offensively at the end of the half to lead by six.

Durant reignited to begin his heater to open the second half and extend the lead to 11 before the Suns’ bad habits emerged expeditiously. Houston went on a 13-1 run in 2:32 to reclaim the lead.

Take away both of those back-breaking stretches in the beginning quarters of each half that were totally self-inflicted and the Suns would have been up over 20.

For the second straight quarter, though, Phoenix put up a giant spurt at the end of a period to snatch it. This one was 11-2 to go up eight entering the fourth quarter.

With Durant at 32 minutes and having played 43 the night prior, the question would be how long the Suns could afford to be without him on the floor. Phoenix missed a few jump shots and the Rockets got comfortable shots to immediately go on a 6-0 run in under 90 seconds. A Suns timeout was called and Durant checked back in.

If the Suns weren’t on the second game of a back-to-back, that would have been fine and they would have been able to grind out a closely contested finish. But the cracks were going to start, erm, cracking further to make things easier for Houston if it just kept trying to win in its usual areas.

Back-to-back Phoenix turnovers put Houston up three with under eight minutes remaining, its largest lead of the game since the mid-second quarter.

Another live-ball turnover two minutes later got the Rockets back ahead by three before a Bol Bol 3 tied it up. But then he committed goaltending and traveled, which led to a Green pull-up 3 out of a timeout to see the Houston lead grow to five at 3:28 remaining.

Durant missed an iso baseline fallaway and Houston’s Alperen Sengun bullied his way into free throws, only to whiff on both. Durant found a driving lane for a dunk to make it a one-score game but Dillon Brooks drilled a 3 to officially put the Suns into catch-up territory they are not equipped to survive in.

Suns head coach Mike Budenholzer went with two-way contract members in Collin Gillespie and TyTy Washington Jr. as part of a nine-man rotation. Gillespie provided nine points and three assists while Washington added 11 points, four rebounds and three assists. Both guys played well.

Houston’s Tari Eason had 25 points (11-of-16) with nine rebounds, four assists and three steals. He was one of five Rockets starters with at least 17 points. Durant was the only Suns starter to go beyond 15.

The Rockets own by far the worst assist percentage in the NBA and amounted to 32 assists in this game, while the Suns had just 25. Phoenix’s 26 3-pont attempts to Houston’s 42 was further indicative of that gap.

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