Vince Marotta has been the Phoenix Suns’ PA announcer since 2016 in addition to his duties as co-host of Bickley & Marotta. After every Suns home game, you can listen to Vinnie’s View on Arizona Sports 98.7 at 7 a.m. or read what he saw from the front row at Mortgage Matchup Center here.
A return home for the Phoenix Suns provided observers with different optics but another loss — this one a 114-113 gut-punch from the Memphis Grizzlies.
The change? The Suns, for the first time this season, didn’t fall behind by 20 points at any point in the game. They led by four at halftime after giving up only 49 points in the first half — a far cry from the 69.5 points opponents averaged in the first half of their first four games of the season.
Unfortunately for the Suns, another ingredient is still present — sloppiness with the basketball.
In the second half alone, the Suns turned it over 13 times, leading to 26 points for the visitors. On the night, the Suns yielded 37 points off of 20 turnovers — not a recipe for success when two of your top three players were out in Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks.
But Wednesday night also brought a new issue: timeout management. With about six minutes to go in the fourth quarter, a disjointed defensive possession by Phoenix left Jaylen Wells alone in the right corner. Wells drained a 3 right in front of the Phoenix bench, and Devin Booker was called for a foul. The 3 stretched the Grizzlies’ lead to 7.
With only two timeouts left, head coach Jordan Ott was urged to use his remaining challenge, which of course comes with a timeout. Booker was not in foul trouble, and Wells had already hit the 3, so the use of the timeout and challenge was ponderous. The Suns lost the challenge, Wells made the free throw and the Memphis lead was 8.
But the Suns chipped away.
With two minutes to go in the fourth, the Suns trailed by a point. A crucial possession ticked away, and an errant pass at the feet of Booker caused him to sprawl on the floor to regain possession, which he did, but also instinctively called their final timeout with only 2.7 seconds remaining on the shot clock.
After the timeout, Royce O’Neale committed a turnover on a bad pass, and seven seconds later, rookie Cedric Coward hit a dagger 3 to put Memphis up 4.
A 5-0 run gave the Suns the lead again after a Mark Williams dunk with 51 seconds to go.
But Memphis wasn’t done. Ja Morant hit another go-ahead shot in the lane with 7.6 to go.
The Suns normally would call a timeout there to advance the ball, but instead, O’Neale curiously took several seconds to inbound the basketball, letting Memphis get its defensive bearings. Booker’s contested 3 from 28 feet rimmed out, and that was your ballgame.
There were positives in the game: Booker’s second-half breakout, O’Neale’s 3-point shooting, Mark Williams with a 20-12 double-double in his first start.
But this very much smacked of a game defined by teachable moments and learning experiences for a young, revamped team and coaching staff likely to be faced with a lot of them this season.