PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns aren’t going to be able to establish anything in a new era if they continue playing a sloppy brand of basketball and continue to get unrecognizable performances from their star.
Phoenix lost 114-113 to the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday, its fourth straight loss to drop to 1-4 to start the season.
The Suns gave up 37 points off turnovers, including 15 in the fourth quarter. They entered the night last in opposing points off turnovers per game (25) and now have surrendered 23, 24, 28 and 25 before this 37.
“I would imagine that it comes out as a pretty good defensive night if we can just stop turning the ball over,” head coach Jordan Ott said. “Kick it out of bounds. How about we kick it out of bounds instead of giving it to the other team?”
It is an entirely different conversation to have in October than March when dealing with sloppiness, especially for a new program and group. Showing some good faith in it getting cleaned up over time would not be foolish.
But those numbers do not even count the miscommunications defensively, poor organization and bad fouls. This will be a long process to get right.
We are now a week into the season still looking for the real Devin Booker. If you’re missing the game and peeking at box scores the morning after, you might not agree with that conclusion. Wednesday’s effort, 32 points on 10-of-26 shooting with three assists and three turnovers, would be the latest.
But he flat out does not look like himself at all, in just about any aspect of his game. As repeated over the years in this space, Booker’s greatness is defined by his tempo and flow, a guy that almost never looks rushed or out of his comfort zone no matter the chaos happening around him. That has only briefly shown through five games, mostly in the second half.
Booker is now shooting 14-for-41 (34.1%) in the first half and 31-for-53 (58.5%) in the second half.
He was the first to call his play in the season-opening win “nasty” and surely would have gone to similar lengths on Wednesday. He left the building before speaking with the media.
It shouldn’t be all that surprising that two shorthanded teams not projected to play postseason basketball facing off before Halloween would yield a messy style of play resembling a highly competitive college game.
The Suns avoided a poor start for the first time this season, and mostly had a good night defensively, holding Memphis to 49 points in the first half.
Slippage from Phoenix was a constant throughout, so it was just a matter of if the Grizzlies could find enough consistency on their end to take clear control. In a script ripped straight from Monday’s Suns loss, Memphis at points in the second half led by nine (1:16, 3Q), 10 (7:00, 4Q), nine (5:04, 4Q) and six (3:23 4Q), only for the Suns to rally back in some fashion to cut into those deficits.
Booker scored six straight after that last Memphis lead to tie the game with 2:23 to go, and then hit a 3 after four straight points for the Grizzlies to make it 112-111 Memphis at 90 seconds remaining.
A Suns forced turnover, free bucket on a runout for the lead and great straight-up defense on Ja Morant from Booker to force a miss fully turned it in their favor with half that time gone.
Booker isolated and attempted a very difficult step-back from the left wing that didn’t go down at 17 ticks to go, and the Suns off that miss matched up poorly while defending in semi-transition, another big-time theme a week in.
Royce O’Neale initially went to stick himself to Morant so Morant couldn’t get the outlet pass, but once the ball was passed to Santi Aldama, he switched there to stop the ball. By then, Grayson Allen realized he was the guy that had to swap to Morant, but Morant was already in the process of catching a pass while going downhill and worked his way into an easy floater to retake the advantage.
At seven seconds left down one, that’s when you call a timeout to advance the ball and set up a play. The trouble is, the Suns didn’t have one left. At the two-minute mark, Booker had a drive swiped at by Morant as a help defender, and when Booker dove to corral the loose ball, he immediately called timeout to retain possession but also burned the last timeout. Phoenix had also lost a timeout earlier in the quarter on a failed challenge for a call that rarely gets overturned.
So, the Suns turned to the play you work on in training camp for those situations, an elementary version of one with Mark Williams getting the inbounds pass at nearly half-court to set up a handoff to Booker. He got it, and after Williams sprinted down toward the key to drag the extra help defender with him, Booker had Jaren Jackson Jr. in 1-on-1 with four seconds to go after just crossing half-court.
At a one-point deficit, Booker could have drove, but instead elected to try and surprise Jackson with a quick swiveling crossover and fallaway 3 from 28 feet out. The high launch angle required to even get it off almost had the shot fall in, but it did not, and that was that.
The sequence in totality:
JA MORANT WITH THE CLUTCH FLOATER.
MEMPHIS WINS A WILD ONE ON THE ROAD 😱 pic.twitter.com/NbclexIYe5
— NBA (@NBA) October 30, 2025
In the final three quarters, the Suns produced 17 assists and 19 turnovers.
Williams had his best game as a Sun, affecting plays defensively while doing his usual work as a scorer and rebounder. He finished with 20 points, 12 rebounds and four steals in 28 minutes of his first start. It sure would be fun to watch if he could stay healthy, because imagine this guy once he gains the rhythm of playing for a few weeks (or months) in a row.
Collin Gillespie added 14 points, six rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block in 31 minutes. He closed the game in place of Ryan Dunn, a deserved nod with how much Gillespie was providing on both ends.
Jalen Green (right hamstring strain) and Dillon Brooks (right groin soreness) remained out for Phoenix. Green was initially listed as questionable on the injury report, inspiring hope he might be able to play.
Green did not suffer a setback with his hamstring strain, per Ott pregame. A 10-day window for another update was created upon the original announcement of the news, with that window expiring on Friday. There was no additional information, although Arizona Sports’ John Gambadoro did say there was lots of optimism from the Suns that Green would return within the first five games of the season. Both Green and Brooks are described as “day-to-day” in their statuses.
Memphis was without Brandon Clarke (right knee surgery), Zach Edey (left ankle surgery), Ty Jerome (right calf strain) and Scotty Pippen Jr. (left toe surgery).
Morant offered up 28 points (10-of-19), eight rebounds, seven assists and six turnovers. He still does not look like the same dude from 3-4 years ago that looked poised to take over the league, using the same moves with his hyper-agility and explosiveness that just don’t create separation anymore. He’s still only 26 years old.
Cedric Coward contributed 14 points and closed the game for Memphis. The Grizzlies rookie already generating some buzz is a good reminder of the patience Suns fans will have to channel with their own first-round selection Khaman Maluach, taken one pick before Coward.
Coward is a great story. He was playing D3 basketball before the head coach of Eastern Washington was circumstantially watching Willamette University and said, “Who’s that kid?” and got to work on him in the transfer portal the next year. Coward went on to play two strong seasons of Big Sky hoops for Eastern Washington, and then transferred with that coach to Washington State, only to get injured after just six games.
He came out for the draft anyway, making him one of its mystery boxes, seen as a borderline first-round pick a few months before the big night but eventually inspired enough groundswell to go in the late lottery.
Coward is a whole three years older than Maluach, so again, patience.