Phoenix Suns: 10 Worst Moments Of 2014-15
2. The Game-Winners
In games decided by three points or fewer, the Suns tied the Indiana Pacers with the most losses in the NBA (12). Both teams were 4-12 in such contests, but the Suns also recorded four losses in overtime. Every night, it seemed like this team found new ways to blow close games, but every time it was just as painful to watch.
The buzzer-beaters made it 10 times worse. It started with a Blake Griffin step-back three in overtime. The Suns had hung tough and needed one stop to close the game. Despite P.J. Tucker’s best efforts, the Flyin’ Lion made the ugliest buzzer-beater you’ll ever see:
I mean, come on. That ball was on a straight line to the rim, hit it head on, bounced straight up, grazed the backboard and somehow fell in. That thing was ugly up until the moment it wasn’t. But only a week later, the Suns were burned by yet another buzzer-beater that left everyone shaking their heads:
Khris Middleton and the Milwaukee Bucks went on to have quite a nice season, but really? A leaning three-pointer out of a spin move? Off the backboard and rolling around the rim before dropping in?
The defense on that possession wasn’t great, and Middleton hit another game-winner from that very position against Dragic and the Miami Heat later in the season, but at least that one was pure. This one was just plain unlucky.
Luck had nothing to do with the third buzzer-beater drained in Phoenix’s mug, though. It’s no secret the Suns don’t have a superstar who can carry the load when his team needs it, but the Houston Rockets do, and the Suns got a good look at what one looks like when James Harden broke Tucker’s ankles and calmly drilled a step-back jumper over Isaiah Thomas:
That’s three winnable games the Suns dropped because they couldn’t close out the game with a stop, but there’s still more! And unfortunately, this one might have been the most brutal, one of the final nails in Phoenix’s playoff coffin.
Needing a road win to keep their postseason hopes afloat, the Suns went home empty-handed and broken-hearted after Boogie got a lucky bounce to sink them at the horn:
To be fair, that was a brilliant shot fake to get Markieff Morris up into the air and clear enough separation for the game-winner, but…wow. That ball hit the back of the iron, bounced up, hit the front of the rim, bounced backwards on the iron and somehow found the net. Unreal. BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
At this point in the season, the Suns were only playing for pride. They fought hard against the Golden State Warriors — the league’s best team — in a building where only two visiting teams won in 41 tries this year. In a back-and-forth final minute, Bledsoe’s reverse layup out of an inbounds play gave Phoenix the lead with 4.5 seconds to go.
That’s when Harrison Barnes put the icing on the cake for this depressing Suns season, as yet another bounce failed to go the Suns’ way.
But hey, since he made that shot with 0.4 seconds left on the clock, at least this one wasn’t a buzzer-beater, right?
Buzzer-beaters and game-winners are a part of what makes the game of basketball so wonderful and exciting. But nobody had five losses on go-ahead shots in the final five seconds of regulation or overtime like the Suns did (the next closest was three). There’s no better way to break a young team’s morale than breaking their backs at the buzzer over and over again.
Next: No. 1