A night after winning a game they probably shouldn’t have against the Brooklyn Nets, the Phoenix Suns refused to leave this one up to chance, playing purposeless basketball in a 89-79 loss to the Cleavland Cavaliers.
The Cavaliers led by as much as 30, before their bench struggled in garbage time and the Suns mounted a muted and ultimately irrelevant come back.
More from Suns News
- Ranking the Phoenix Suns’ 5 holiday games in 2023-24
- Zion Williamson gets compared to Phoenix Suns legend
- Suns player preview: Bol Bol can be the perfect role player
- Former Suns’ guard shows he is officially done with Phoenix
- NBA insider guarantees Suns’ rival won’t make blockbuster trade
With Alex Len out with a ankle injury, Cleavland — led by the the immortal Timofy Mozgov — got whatever they wanted inside, outscoring Phoenix 40-24 inside the paint.
The Suns shot a combined 18.6 percent in the second and third quarter that featured a litany of bad shots, even worse passing and a pervasive sense of unified apathy.
It took Phoenix until the 4:09 mark of the second quarter just to score their third and fourth points of the period.
None of the players made any significant effort to get into the lane and showed almost no emotion throughout that 24 minute beatdown.
Cleavland needed little from LeBron James, but the King still chipped in 17 points, eight assists and six rebounds. Mozgov led the Cavs with 21 points.
Markieff Morris was the best of the worst, pacing the anemic Suns with 16 points and five boards. T.J. Warren was efficient in his limited minutes dropping eight points on 4-of-5 shooting.
Opening Treys
Both teams embraced Phoenix’s offensive first mantra in the first quarter. A night after winning despite bricking their way to nearly the worst three-point shooting night in league history, Phoenix opened up the first going 4-for-7 from beyond the arc. Cleavland wasn’t far off at 4-for-5.
Three of those came courtsey of the hot shooting of Kevin Love, who at that point had made over half of his last 20. On the Suns’ side Brandon Knight in particular looked sharp as he releaseed his two early threes almost instantly after catching the ball.
The teams shot a combined 54 percent from the field and hit even when they weren’t trying as Aussie Matthew Delladova’s attempted alley-oop to Timofey Mozgov was off target enough to bank in.
The Coldest Winter
In an act of treason that’ll forever forge a rivalry between these two franchises, Cavs coach David Blatt broke the no-defense pact without telling Jeff Hornacek, or the Suns offense might have just fallen off a cliff. Phoenix slugged their way through a 2-for-20 stretch and gave up a 26-8 run to Cleavland.
Correction: The Suns went 7:12 without scoring & missed 12 consecutive shots before Markieff Morris ended it. CLE 46-30, 2:46 2Q #SunsAtCavs
— Paul Coro (@paulcoro) March 8, 2015
It was incredibly reminicent of the last time this team was on NBA TV, setting franchise lows against the Spurs. At least this time Markieff can’t blame the crowds. In fact, he doesn’t have to blame anyone because he was the one who ended the streak and finished with seven of Phoenix’s pathetic (for an offensivly constructed team) 13 points in the second quarter.
Last Gasp
Phoenix was able to cut the 30+ point third quarter lead all the way down to 10 in the final minutes of the game, led by a rag tag line-up of Archie Goodwin, Gerald Green, T.J. Warren, Marcus Morris and Brandan Wright. Wright in particular changed the game with his defense, altering shots and providing the semblance of an interior threat the Suns had lacked all game.
Seeing Goodwin and Warren’s energy and effort felt like watching a completely different sport. It felt like watching a movie in color for the first time. Suffice it to say after tonight these guys earned more minutes.
Goodwin Note
He hit a corner three! That’s a big deal considering he shot under 16 percent from those spots last season in his incredibly limited NBA minutes. Goodwin has been suprisingly solid from beyon the arc since the deadline. Just don’t ask about sample size.
So Archie Goodwin is 5/10 from three since the trade deadline. I won't listen to any small sample size commentary.
— Scott Howard (@ScottHoward42) March 8, 2015
Next: Phoenix Suns: 5 Reasons To Stop Being Depressed