PHOENIX — The game can punish you just as quickly as it rewards you, the tale of a 124-122 Phoenix Suns loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
Phoenix (8-6) went up by 21 in the early fourth quarter, fresh off a 15-0 close to the prior period that lasted only 2:37, and all of it came without Devin Booker. The Suns were using desperation in a positive way, hustling like maniacs on the majority of possessions to work through a shooting slump and yet again win the possession battle.
That came to a head in the late third quarter with the play of the night from Collin Gillespie to save a ball right to teammate Jordan Goodwin.
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Later on, a Goodwin bucket with 8:33 to go had the Suns hold that 21-point advantage, and that is when they got comfortable. A little too relaxed. The foot was off the gas.
Atlanta (9-6) quickly scored six points off poor Suns focus on both ends, inspiring an immediate timeout that has become Jordan Ott’s signature.
That didn’t do the trick, and Atlanta’s momentum began multiplying rapidly to eventually snowball into a 47-point fourth quarter.
“I thought overall in the fourth we lost our way at different points. … At that point, you just gotta regain your composure, execute a little bit offensively and then just get one stop and then the snowball goes the other way,” Ott said.
For the Hawks’ next three possessions, they forced a turnover leading to a fastbreak dunk, drew a technical foul for a free point, nailed a 3-pointer off an offensive rebound (after a Suns turnover) and one more triple via a grabbed miss suddenly had it 107-101 Suns at 5:39 remaining. Just like that, the 15-0 run had been matched.
Phoenix remained in a daze, unable to locate its connectivity defensively or make shots offensively. Booker had a brutal fourth quarter, and kept missing shots when someone had to stabilize the night.
Atlanta got another offensive rebound with a tip-back by Dyson Daniels, who also grabbed the previous two that led to 3s. Dillon Brooks, who was the man through three quarters, then tried his own go at it and missed on a wild out-of-control drive, which allowed the Hawks to run to find an and-one in transition via Nickeil Alexander-Walker.
Booker then briefly found his way, scoring five straight, only for a heat-check 3 off a steal in transition to not fall, and then the Hawks to get an Alexander-Walker four-point play off a beautiful possession.
Brooks and Booker would then score to deny Atlanta a chance at the lead and kept theirs at three. But then a Booker miss on a bunny at the rim off a Hawks miss was a crucial whiff on a potential dagger. Because by then, Atlanta was sizzling with full offensive flow. The Hawks then put together a gorgeous passing sequence to set up an Alexander-Walker floater, Brooks committed an offensive foul and a clean Hawks lob finally had them ahead with 1:16 to go.
Brooks got a bucket, only for Atlanta to answer once more. With Phoenix down one and 44 seconds to go, it kept attacking a mismatch for Booker, but the possession broke down and forced Collin Gillespie to try to score on the Defensive Player of the Year nominee Daniels. That ended in a Hawks stop and free-throw shenanigans ensued from there to bring us to a Suns loss.
“Great third quarter, fourth quarter wasn’t. … I think some of these are great lessons learned but you do have to look at the film of what exactly went down,” Ott said.
A “day-to-day” diagnosis for Grayson Allen (right quad contusion) presented the biggest challenge yet for the Suns offense, one it struggled getting through on Sunday.
While they’ve made up for no Jalen Green (right hamstring strain) for all but five quarters this year, and pockets without Brooks, what Allen has done as an extreme volume 3-point shooter and consistent driver has made him easily the second-most impactful offensive weapon beyond Booker. The extremely positive effect Allen has on those two areas that has made the Suns decent offensively honestly reaches heights that didn’t seem plausible for anyone else but Booker to hit this year.
Phoenix only got up 30 3s, making 10 for a 33.3% knockdown rate. It had 23 assists to 17 turnovers, good for a 1.35 assist-to-turnover ratio. When that number is below 1.5, the Suns are 1-5. When it’s above 1.5, they are 7-1.
Booker ended up with seven assists and five turnovers, a night where he easily could have registered a dozen dimes if shots were going down. But regardless of that, there wasn’t a ton of rhythm for the offense even when he was making those plays. He shot 10 of 23 for 27 points and was 0-for-6 from 3. Atlanta’s athleticism and length posed significant problems for his initiating.
Brooks led the way for the offense, with 34 points (14-for-25), 16 of which came in that third quarter. Both he and Booker were part of the problem on defense, especially in the fourth quarter, and neither got the offense on proper footing.
To go back to that technical foul, it was issued to Brooks after play was stopped for injured second-year Hawks forward Zaccharie Risacher.
On a dunk in transition, Risacher was moving so fast as he dunked it that he lost his grip on the rim. The result was terrifying, with his feet going out from underneath him and Risacher flipping backwards and landing on his side.
The replay shows how everyone on the Suns visibly reacts, including the players on the floor, before they realized that play was still ongoing. Maddeningly, no whistle was blown for the roughly three seconds since Risacher had landed and the Suns went to inbound the ball. Realizing their error, the officials eventually blew the possession dead, but not before the Suns were a full five seconds into their possession looking to score in a 5-on-4 scenario. No foul was even called on Atlanta.
While members of the Hawks rushed over to make sure Risacher was OK, Brooks let the refs have it for the stoppage, earning him the T.
Brooks was still quite upset about it after the fact. When asked a general question on what he saw happen for the Suns in the fourth quarter, he went at the officials.
“I seen us playing seven against five,” he said. “Emotional refs, they’re making calls out of emotion and smirking while they’re making the calls. That should be reviewed.”
Brooks understood the situation but wanted the referees to show more urgency.
“If that’s a serious play then hold it dead right there and then,” he said. “That’s outrageous. And then when you want to tell them what’s wrong, you’re going to have to take it. You’re a ref. And then you want to control the game the whole game, give calls for other team and then not call it on the other side, missed calls at that — that changes the whole game.”
He went on to criticize other missed calls for Booker.
“Three refs miss it? [Expletive], we might have to add a fourth ref if that’s going on. It’s just bad energy. I don’t know who has to look at it, Joey (Crawford), Adam (Silver) — because that’s not it.”
Crawford, a former long-time referee, helps the NBA oversee the officials while Silver oversees the league as its commissioner.
Gillespie was tremendous once more off the bench with 15 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Goodwin added 14 points and seven rebounds in another strong effort for him as well.
The Hawks move to 8-2 without Trae Young (right MCL sprain) if you include the first victory during which Young only played seven minutes in. They look totally legit.
Jalen Johnson’s All-Star rise looks on proper trajectory, with 25 points (9-for-13), 10 rebounds, seven assists and five turnovers serving as his latest stud performance. Alexander-Walker’s big-game experience shined all over that final frame, the quarter he scored 16 of his 26 points in. Starting center Onyeka Okongwu, in for Kristaps Porzingis (right knee soreness), contributed 27 points with two steals and two blocks.