As legendary Phoenix Suns Coach Cotton Fitzsimmons would say, “flush it.” The Suns opened the 2026-27 season on the road Wednesday night against the Portland Trail Blazers and suffered their worst season-opening loss since Earl Watson was patrolling the sidelines as head coach, 124-83.
The Suns were awful on offense, awful on defense, and generally looked completely overmatched against a retooled Blazers team that appears well-positioned to finish ahead of Phoenix in the Western Conference standings once again.
Miles Bridges had a forgettable Suns regular season debut, and only three Phoenix players finished scoring in double digits. Suns broadcasters Kevin Ray and Rex Chapman described the blowout loss as “an avalanche."
Here are key takeaways from the Suns’ embarrassing loss to open the new campaign.
Defensive rebounding remains a massive issue for Suns
Phoenix was out-rebounded 56-39 on the night, a number that looks much worse when looking strictly at the defensive boards: 40-26.
Bridges, who needed to come in with a mentality to crash the boards for a team missing its leading rebounder from a season ago in the injured Mark Williams, finished with four rebounds in 29 minutes. Two of those rebounds occurred in his final two minutes of action, doubling his game total in the fourth quarter when the game had long since been decided.
That’s simply not going to cut it for a Suns team that needs to somehow replace the eight rebounds per game Williams grabbed a season ago. Even with Williams, the Suns were a poor defensive rebounding team last season, finishing second-to-last with only the Brooklyn Nets below them in the category.
Khaman Maluach led the way for the Suns with six boards in 17 minutes of action, but the team's rebounding discrepancy has the potential to snowball if Phoenix doesn’t start rebounding by committee.
The Suns’ lack of size was on display early and often against Portland.
Oso Ighodaro injury could be disastrous for Suns
Oso Ighodaro was one of the few bright spots for Phoenix coming off the bench behind surprise starter Khaman Maluach. He finished his night with eight points, three rebounds, three assists, and no turnovers. Unfortunately for the Suns, his night ended early when he was sent back to the locker room with an apparent hip injury. He played just 15 minutes.
The aforementioned rebounding woes could get much more dire if Ighodaro is set to miss significant time. The Suns were already shorthanded in the frontcourt, prompting late signings of Duop Reath and Drew Timme. Those new faces might need to get ramped up quickly in Jordan Ott’s system depending on Oso’s injury severity.
Needless to say, not a good development at all for a Suns team already missing their starting center.
Suns already miss the 3-point shooting of Allen, O’Neale
It certainly didn’t help that new addition Luke Kennard didn’t play in the opener due to a knee injury, but the Suns’ outside shooting was (no surprise) much depleted without Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale. Those two sharpshooters were sent to Charlotte in the Bridges trade, bringing their 371 made triples from a season ago with them.
The Suns finished a shockingly bad 6-of-31 shooting from 3-point range in the loss to Portland.
Collin Gillespie finished 0-of-8, Bridges was 0-of-5, and Rasheer Fleming whiffed all three of his treys late in the game. Only Jalen Green (2-of-6 shooting) made more than one 3-pointer for the Suns.
Getting Kennard back should help, but the Suns’ outside shooting without Allen and O’Neale had a truly brutal debut.
Collin Gillespie’s play could make or break Suns’ season
On a night when former Suns guard Ty Jerome went ballistic for the Memphis Grizzlies with 45 points, seven rebounds, and six assists against the Utah Jazz, it was the opposite side of the coin for Gillespie.
In addition to his 0-of-8 shooting night from beyond the arc, Gillespie was called for three personal fouls, turned the ball over four times, and only dished out two assists. He did have four steals, but he missed his only free-throw attempt and finished with 0 points in 21 minutes.
After a breakout year a season ago, Gillespie was re-signed as a free agent in the offseason. Chalk this one up to a bad game, but if performances like this persist as opponents key in on Gillespie as a legitimate threat to score that they game plan to stop, that will be a terrible development for the Suns' offense.
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