Disappointing Suns look to get on track at Sacramento
The Phoenix Suns are spiraling downward as one of the biggest disappointments over the first third of the NBA season.
Star guard Devin Booker can feel the urgency and put out the “It’s time to pick it up” message on Thursday, one day before the Suns visit the Sacramento Kings.
Phoenix has dropped seven of its past 10 games and allowed a 16-point lead to slip away Tuesday night before losing 109-104 at Portland. The lowly Trail Blazers snapped a seven-game losing streak with the comeback win.
Kevin Durant poured in 40 points against Portland, but it still wasn’t enough.
“Don’t be scared to hold each other accountable,” Booker said on Thursday. “We’re all on the same path and we all have the same goal and that’s to win basketball games. We understand it’s not going to be easy, it’s not an easy league and we have enough guys on this team who have been around the block. They understand that.”
The Suns were looked at as a title contender with Durant and Booker beginning their first full season together. The offseason acquisition of guard Bradley Beal was expected to provide another boost, but he has played in just six games due to back and ankle injuries.
Instead, Phoenix is just above .500 at 14-13 and playing well below expectations.
“We all feel it,” Booker said. “Not just one of us. It’s everybody in here. We all have a job, and this is the highest form of basketball in the world. It’s not an easy job and we understand that. We have the talent. We have the basketball minds in here to play better than we were.”
Durant made it clear it’s not time to panic, though a change does need to occur soon.
“It’s a good time for us to find that togetherness as a group and keep building,” Durant said. “It sucks to lose games, especially games I feel like we should win, but we just keep building. That’s all you can do.”
One of the setbacks during the 10-game stretch came against the Kings in Phoenix. Sacramento star De’Aaron Fox poured in 23 of his 34 points in the fourth quarter as the Kings posted a 114-106 win on Dec. 8.
Booker scored 28 points that night, while Durant was sidelined with an ankle injury.
Fox has been on a torrid streak, scoring more than 25 points in 11 of his past 12 appearances. He produced two 40-point outings during the span and tallied 29 on Wednesday in Sacramento’s 144-119 home loss to the Celtics.
Boston had a 30-6 edge in fastbreak points and led by as many as 30 in the convincing victory.
“That was a good old-fashioned butt-kicking,” Kings coach Mike Brown said afterward. “Give the Celtics a lot of credit, especially coming off a back-to-back. They for sure didn’t look like the team that was waiting on us here.”
Sacramento had won eight of its previous 11 games before yielding a season-worst point total.
Still, the Kings are 3-1 on a six-game homestand that concludes Saturday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Brown will be watching closely to see how his team responds against Phoenix.
“If we’re going to be the team that’s supposed to be the physical group out there, then when we face physicality, we’ve got to figure out a way to play through it and let’s try to play our game and not let it impact us on either end of the floor,” Brown said.
Sacramento has won the past three meetings with Phoenix.
