Suns Fall to the Brooklyn Nets

Phoenix were unable to feel any Brooklyn love losing 119 - 128.

I've said and written multiple times that this current 2 week stretch is the toughest of the season for the Suns and that rung true, as they lose their 2nd game in a row for the 1st time since January in a back-to-back against Denver.

The loss here shows how important it is to execute on both ends of the floor down the stretch and also how dangerous this Brooklyn team is, even with James Harden not playing and Kevin Durant on reduced minutes.

There were 3 main factors to this loss in my opinion:

1. Kyrie Irving

2. Kevin Durant

3. Unable to hit our 3's

Kyrie was scorching from the start in this one. In the 1st quarter he went 4/5 from the field and 7/7 from the free throw line for 16 points. He finished with 34 points and 12 assists.

Kevin Durant didn't play in the 1st quarter, came off the bench in the 2nd and immediately made an impact on the game. Of course there was the shot making, but his gravity had us scrambling on the defensive end to finish the 2nd quarter. He had 33 points to end the game.

The Suns were unable to hit their 3 point shots again, especially in the 4th, when we needed them most. We finished shooting 12/34, which is a recipe for disaster, especially against this stacked Brooklyn team. We only managed 4 in the whole of the 2nd half.

Another point to make was the acting skills of Blake Griffin. He was flopping around the court all night and to be fair, the strategy worked. He caused Deandre Ayton to pick up 2 fouls from flailing and also "got thrown" to the floor by Devin Booker after hooking Book's arm, successfully getting under skin.

Moving on to the positives, with Griffin being a below average defender at this point in his career, when he was on the court, the Suns sought him out to take advantage of the match-up. When ever either CP3, Booker or Ayton were marked by him, the Suns went to town. The guards went one-on-one with him out on the perimeter and Ayton used his size to score down low.

Speaking of Deandre Ayton, the big guy played fantastic in this game. In the 1st quarter he was a beast, scoring 8 points and grabbing 6 rebounds, 4 of them offensive. Ayton used his size all throughout the game, bumping in the paint to get some lovely looking hook shots to go. He was an animal on the offensive boards, yanking in 8, which is a season high for DA.

Brooklyn didn't have an answer for Ayton, they double teamed him in the post and he was able to find the open teammate, logging 3 assists. There would've been more had we been able to knock down some open 3's. Brooklyn's only line of defense was the aforementioned Griffin. As I mentioned, Griffin drew a couple of silly fouls on Ayton, one of which being his 5th foul, meaning he missed the majority of the 4th quarter, which is when we needed him most.

One man that was doing everything he could to keep us in this one was Devin Booker. Seemingly in a funk the last week or so, he seemed to shoot himself out of it in this game. He had a so-so 1st half shooting 4/10 for 13 points, but exploded in the 2nd half. Book shot 8/14 in the second half for 23 points. For the game he totalled 36 points, hitting 4/5 of his 3-pointers. Good to have you back Mr Booker.

The only blemish was that he didn't have as many assists as you'd usually see, but as discussed, we could barely buy a bucket in this one.

The biggest surprise in this game was the big double-double from Torrey Craig. He posted 20 points and a career high 14 boards. He did this by bringing his usual energy, hustling for rebounds, cutting to the basket and hitting 3 point shots that you initially wince at, till they go in.

Chris Paul had an off game here. He struggled with his shot, but also had 6 turnovers. This is so, so low by his standards, especially considering the recent run he had of only 1 turnover to 46 assists. He did have some lovely highlight plays though, an almost full court pass to the cutting Cam Johnson and through the legs bounce pass for a 3 from Carter and this little beauty:

(Of course Blake flopped. I imagine that's what CP3 was jawing about after the play)

So that was it. A fun, competitive 1st half, but a poor 3 point shooting display, along with not being able to get any stops down the stretch. Luckily there's another team in New York, who we face tonight, in an attempt to snap their 9-game winning streak.

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