Phoenix Suns: The good, bad and ugly from last week’s road trip
By Noah Velasco
Phoenix Suns good, bad and ugly at the Orlando Magic
The good
Free throw attempts
It’s hard to find the good in a sour game where Phoenix blew a lead to one of the bottom teams in the Eastern Conference but they limited the turnovers and got to the free-throw line 22 times, a problem they’ve had the entire season.
Additionally, they had three players score over 20 points but it wasn’t enough to see out the win.
This game will put a dent in the three wins out of four for Phoenix.
The bad
Playing down to their competition
One problem facing the Suns this season is playing down to their competition. Of the Suns’ 14 losses this season so far, they’ve lost eight games to teams under .500. A number of those losses are teams at the bottom of their respective conferences.
One recent example is the Orlando Magic. Granted this was the second game in their back-to-back but this loss will be distasteful to stomach for Phoenix. The Suns lost 112-111 and to rub salt in the wound, they lost it on the last play of the game.
After leading for the majority of the game the Suns down by one had the last possession of the game. The Suns had an inbound pass and the ball found Devin Booker who through loads of traffic attempted a reverse layup and missed poorly, losing the game.
The ugly
Cold fourth quarter
One common theme throughout this road trip was Booker going cold in the fourth. Booker is the fifth-best first-quarter scorer in the NBA with 8.3 points this season. However, in the fourth quarter and overtime, he averaged 4.3 points this past week.
The scoring load isn’t totally on him now with the addition of Chris Paul. As the best player on the team, Booker did not show his clutch gene in the fourth quarter that he normally has. While it only cost the Suns one game it’s something that was uncharacteristic.