Suns Slip in Denver, Are Scrambled by Jokic
By Adam Maynes
Suns’ Western Conference Woes Continue in Mile-High City
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There are multiple stories to this game that can be mentioned when discussing what happened in last night’s loss to the Denver Nuggets: Bledsoe and Booker continuing their combined tear as the best up-and-coming backcourt in the league; Tyson Chandler practically disappearing on defense; the Suns being severely out-rebounded 28-46; Dragan Bender not playing due to injury and Jared Dudley playing a significant role off the bench; the Suns defense allowing 127 points – the most they have allowed to a team this season that does not feature either Steph Curry or James Harden.
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The Suns succumbed to what has all too often been a usual pattern – fall behind early, scrap to get back into the game, then if things do not break their way, fade late and lose.
Falling behind early, the Suns used a unique lineup that included Leandro Barbosa and Jared Dudley due to early foul trouble by the starters. The reserves made a run to tie the game and eventually take the lead. However, while the Suns stretched their lead to 9 points on several occasions through the third quarter, and looked as if they could hold off Denver despite all of Phoenix’s defense short-comings, the Nuggets clawed back and the Suns showed that they just do not have a killer instinct.
Playing from behind for most of the fourth quarter, Denver pulled away late with a 9-4 run that sealed the Suns’ fate.
As a team, Phoenix shot a season-high 53.9% from the field, and a smoldering 41.7% from three. However, Denver severely out-rebounded the Suns 46-28 – a season low, and had six of their own shots blocked while blocking only two of Denver’s.
The Suns are now 5-25 against Western Conference opponents for a 16.7% winning percentage. So far that is the worst winning percentage against any individual Conference in franchise history.
As mentioned, Bledsoe and Booker have been playing as one of the best guard tandems in the entire league. Finishing with a combined 52 points, 4 rebounds and 11 assists, the two shot 50% from the field. Booker shot only 1-6 from beyond the arc, however, and Bledsoe broke his 35 made free-throw streak finishing 7-9 from the line.
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T.J. Warren had a fantastic game – something we are fortunately beginning to become accustomed to – scoring 21 points on 56.2% shooting while grabbing 8 caroms.
Tyson Chandler had a generally ineffective game against the Denver bigs scoring 4 points and grabbing only 5 rebounds. His 5 rebound night tied a season-low for him, having recorded only 5 back on December 6 at Utah.
Brandon Knight had a nice game off the bench scoring 17 points in 28 minutes on 8-11 shooting. Hopefully teams around the league took note.
The Nuggets’ offense was led by Danilo Gallinari and Nikola Jokic. Gallo scored 25 and grabbed 7 boards, his 25 falling two points shy of his season-high. Jokic dominated the Suns as he dominates most teams, scoring 29 points, grabbing 14 rebounds, and dishing out 8 assists. With less than two minutes remaining Jokic stumbled on defense and fell hard in obvious excruciating pain. All reports are that he has a strained left hip and his return is unclear.