Sometimes it’s not hard to diagnose why a team loses a basketball game.
And if you’re a Phoenix Suns fan, you didn’t need a PhD to figure out the team’s 111-102 loss to the Miami Heat on Sunday night at Mortgage Matchup Center.
In today's #VinnysView, Vince talks about #Suns life without Devin Booker and Jalen Green pic.twitter.com/QXfE494WAx
— Bickley & Marotta Mornings on Arizona Sports (@Bickley_Marotta) January 26, 2026
It’s hard to win an NBA game when you go into it shorthanded and the available players can’t make shots.
Devin Booker and Jalen Green were in street clothes again after both exited the loss in Atlanta early Friday. So, head coach Jordan Ott needed others to step up. Outside of Dillon Brooks, Isaiah Livers and Mark Williams, nobody did.
The Suns’ offense, which completely bogged down after Booker went down with a seven-point lead late in the third quarter Friday, remained stuck in quicksand against “Heat Culture”. Their 13 assists were the second-lowest total of the season. Their 20% accuracy from three-point range also was the second-worst mark of the year. It’s hard to win when Royce O’Neale and Grayson Allen combine to hit 1-of-11 from long range. The Suns are now 0-3 when O’Neale doesn’t hit a least one three.
The Suns’ calling card this season, regardless of player availability, has been effort and generating opponents’ turnovers. Well, Miami took pretty good care of the ball and you’ll rarely out-hustle a Miami team for 48 minutes, so more light got shined on the Suns’ poor shooting.
This isn’t a time for doom and gloom, though. The Suns announced Booker’s sprained right ankle will be re-evaluated in a week. That’s good. But considering his absence lines up with the most robust one-week schedule of the season with five games in eight days, it’s not ideal.
Hopefully the Brooklyn Nets, who have lost five straight and 13 out of their last 15, will be the visiting remedy the once-again banged-up Suns need to get right on Tuesday night.