The Phoenix Suns‘ season is going from bad to worse as their record fell to 19-20 after a 117-122 loss to the Atlanta Hawks. The Suns blew a nine-point lead in the third quarter as the Hawks improved to 20-19 with this win.
Trae Young was the lynchpin for the win, putting up 43 points (13-31 FG) and three steals in the win. Onyeka Okongwu had the first 20-20 game of his career with 22 points (9-14 FG) and 21 rebounds. Garrison Matthews came off the bench to put up 19 points (6-10 FG) while starter Vit Krejci had a well-rounded 15 points (6-9 FG), five rebounds, and six assists.
The Suns’ two-headed monster showed up, as Devin Booker had 35 points (12-23 FG), four rebounds, and five assists while Kevin Durant had 31 points (13-20 FG), nine rebounds, and six assists in the loss. Ryan Dunn had 14 points (6-12 FG) as a starter while Bradley Beal off the bench was the only other player to score in double-digits with 11 points (3-9 FG).
Let’s analyze the major takeaways from this result.
Suns Big-Man Issues Continue Haunting Them
The Suns will be angry about this loss, as both Booker and Durant could have led them to a win with their incredible offensive performances. The fact they lost by just single digits is quite incredible considering how badly they were out-performed on the boards.
The Suns as a team grabbed 37 rebounds, which was 17 fewer than the Hawks’ 54 rebounds on the night. The main difference comes through offensive rebounds, as the Suns grabbed only 6 compared to the Hawks’ 20. This led to 14 more shots for the Hawks, who went 43-98 (43.9 FG%) from the field and 17-41 (41.5 3P%) from three. The Suns went 43-84 (51.2 FG%) from the field and 13-35 (37.1 3P%) from three, as their greater two-point efficiency was rendered moot by the Hawks’ volume.
This happened because the Suns had no real big-man option, with the recently benched and DNP’d Jusuf Nurkic out with an illness for this game. Mason Plumlee (5 REB) and Oso Ighodaro (5 REB) were out-rebounded thoroughly by the Hawks’ Onyeka Okongwu (21 REB) and Clint Capela (8 REB), giving Atlanta an insurmountable advantage in this win.
Trae Young Is One Of The Best Guards In The World
Trae Young (43 PTS, 3 REB, 5 AST, 3 STL, 13-31 FG, 6-12 3P, 11-14 FT) deserves all the plaudits he can get for ensuring the Hawks won this contest when there were several holes in their performance. Their team defense was unconvincing and they allowed the Suns to try and shoot their way to a win without having any real answer. Thankfully, their answer wound up being Young, who took the game by its horns in the fourth quarter.
There was no convincing defensive option to try and limit Young’s production, with the 6’1″ guard even cooking the Suns’ best defenders like Ryan Dunn. While his playmaking was muted, he decided to let his scoring touch shine once again to blow the Suns out. The win wouldn’t have been possible without Okongwu’s career night either, but Young was the on-ball difference-maker that led the Hawks comeback.
The Hawks have a mishmashed roster of veterans and young stars, but Young’s continued brilliance might push the team into making a win-now move this trade deadline as they’re above .500 and owe their 2025 first-round pick to the San Antonio Spurs.
Suns Need To Find A Solution For A Failing Roster
The Suns can’t allow this to go on. They’ve built an objectively bad roster that has competitive pieces but the sum of the parts doesn’t amount to a serious contender. Devin Booker and Kevin Durant might be a championship-caliber duo, but the assets the Suns gave up to put them together meant they would never be able to fill their roster out with the complementary stars they needed.
They made the roster much worse in 2023 when they acquired Jusuf Nurkic and Bradley Beal, both players they would trade for a bag of chips right now if they could. Without any draft assets to trade Beal or Nurkic for a real upgrade, this roster is stuck without many ways of actually improving.
They can continue running this core out but they need to wake up and smell the roses soon. They might eke out another Playoff appearance with this core but a push for a title is miles off reality right now. We might be coming closer to a potential Durant or Booker trade, as the Suns need to recoup a decade’s worth of assets that they traded away in the last two seasons for this ‘championship contender.’
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