Josh Hart ruthlessly exposes the Suns' biggest weakness in devastating loss

The Phoenix Suns fell to what was likely their worst loss of the season on Wednesday night - live on ESPN no less - as the New York Knicks came to town and took their souls in embarrassingly straightforward fashion.

The Suns falling into a hole early contributed massively to the loss, and offensively it was ugly for much of the game. Devin Booker did his best by pouring in 33 points - and it felt like the 10 of Monte Morris were more significant in the moment than they ended up being - but when shots aren't falling, this team struggles to get anything going.

Josh Hart also exposed this group's biggest weakness right now.

This was a typical Josh Hart game, as he had 19 points and 11 boards in 39 minutes of action. There are periods of every game where the offense doesn't go through him, before he pops up with a timely 3-pointer or easy make around the basket. Yet there was one thing he did better than every Suns' player combined in truth.

He played hard.

If your shots aren't going in, then at the bare minimum you have to get back in transition on defense and become as hard as possible to score on. Yet in the first-quarter the Suns gave up 44 points - and although that was as much to do with the Knicks' incredible shooting from deep more than anything else - the effort of the Suns was nowhere near good enough either. This guy could have helped.

There were two occasions that stick out, and Hart was central to both of them. In the first half there was a weird, broken play in which multiple Suns tried to poke the ball away from him. They actually did get it free from Hart - yet through his sheer persistence - he got it back, had a nice spin move in the paint and scored. His will alone was the reason that Hart scored on that occasion.

There were no times during the game when that happened for the Suns, and the second instance was even more depressing. A 3-pointer was taken from the corner later in the game, and it missed badly and ended up hitting the top of the back board. Yet despite have several defenders back, Hart grabbed the offensive rebound which led to another easy basket.

On both these occasions Hart expressed real emotion having created both opportunities for his team, and everybody around him and on the bench fed off that energy. Contrast that with the Suns, who looked like they were sleepwalking through most possessions on both ends of the court.

It is great that Booker can carry them offensively for stretches - but if his teammates aren't at least trying defensively - then there's really no point. This wasn't a good night for center Jusuf Nurkic - and there's been a lot of them recently - and Karl-Anthony Towns had his way with him whenever they were matched up as he finished with 34 points.

But this is not just Nurkic's fault - and if you have rookies Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro - the least their young legs can do is play hard. Particularly on the defensive end, which is the main reason both are on the roster, yet they were outworked regularly by not only the 29-year-old Hart, but most of his teammates as well.

Hart may be among the most hardworking players in the league, and the Suns will be thankful they don't have to face him every night. But matching his energy doesn't require talent, just a willingness to work hard. You would think facing a fifth straight defeat that there would have been more hustle - but in this deflating defeat - there was anything but. A terrible evening at Footprint Center.