A 121-94 loss for the Phoenix Suns to the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday went about as bad as the first game back from the All-Star break could go.
Outside of Dillon Brooks’ suspension, their whole group of regulars was projected to be available, a rare sight all season that could have offered another glance in the upcoming weekend.
But then Grayson Allen sprained his right ankle at shootaround and Devin Booker injured his right hip a few minutes into the game, putting the cycle right back into motion.
Out of a timeout with just under six minutes remaining in the first quarter, Booker was in the left corner and began to work his way around the 3-point line to swivel through a screen toward the top of the key.
At some point, he aggravated that hip, which was evident when Jalen Green turned it over because Booker didn’t move as quickly as he thought. Booker immediately called for a sub to the bench at that stoppage, and had to wait until the Suns got the ball back for a timeout to get him to the locker room.
Booker was then back there for a healthy enough amount of time that suggested it’s just a matter of moments before official word dropped that he had been ruled out. But midway through the second quarter, he checked back in.
In two minutes of additional action, though, Booker stayed in first gear on both ends of the floor. Whatever happened in the back that led to him and the Suns believing they had fixed the issue with his hip clearly didn’t do the trick. Phoenix took another timeout and Booker went to the back again before getting ruled out just after halftime concluded.
Within all of that, the Suns were only down five after the opening quarter before San Antonio grew its lead as high as 19 in the first half.
Phoenix’s trio of absences expectedly tanked the offense but it was not the type of reestablishing effort defensively it would have liked to see, either.
The Suns entered Thursday 19th in defensive rating since Jan. 19, a 13-game sample size that drops to 25th when you do just the six games in February. It’s the time of year when a lot of teams wind down, whether it’s the distraction of the break approaching or actually needing it.
With that said, a good defense is a nonnegotiable for the Suns when it comes to winning games. They have relied on that end of the floor to get to this point and the offense is not going to get enough time this season to properly set a foundation and develop dynamics to grow beyond the average-to-below-average unit it has been this year.
A large part of the offense’s success has been due to the defense.
So, the defense on Thursday was a concern.
San Antonio was the better physical team. Its downhill drives were bullying the Suns. Even though they won their first two games against the Spurs, it’s a particularly bad matchup due to how De’Aron Fox, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper can all attack Phoenix’s poor on-ball defenders when it comes to limiting penetration.
The Spurs, off both Suns misses and makes, were pushing the ball ahead early to find those 1-on-1 opportunities with lots of room under the basket. Most teams can offer some form of secondary rim protection when there isn’t a big man around the rim, but that does not apply to the Suns.
Phoenix cross-matched Victor Wembanyama, meaning it deployed a smaller player on him and put center Mark Williams elsewhere, but it barely played a factor with how much San Antonio’s guards were dictating things elsewhere.
The Spurs extended their advantage into the mid-20s a few minutes into the third quarter and didn’t look back. They only had six turnovers through three quarters.
Green started the game and played 26 minutes, the lone Suns positive from Thursday. It was the most he has looked like himself since his Suns debut a few months ago. Green scored 11 of his 26 points in the first quarter, full of the pep in his explosive step that you would expect.
Castle had 20 points in 21 minutes for San Antonio with three steals and Fox had eight assists to go with his 15 points. Wembanyama blocked five shots and scored 17 points with 11 rebounds and four assists.
The bad breaks continued for Allen, who has now had five separate stints out due to injury this season.
In mid-November, he got kneed in the quad, developing a contusion that refused to reduce its swelling in a timely manner, forcing him to sit for seven games.
He was down for a game with an illness at the start of December and then an ailing right knee kept him out for another nine contests later that month. Allen was then able to play for a month straight before spraining that same right knee, and that kept him sidelined for the last three games before the All-Star break.
He was off the initial injury report, suggesting the knee was good to go. But the culprit on Thursday was a tweak of his right ankle at shootaround earlier that day, per azcentral’s Duane Rankin.
Brooks returns on Saturday. He will now be suspended an additional game for each pair of technical fouls going forward through the regular season, and then that counter would reset in the postseason. He is also two flagrant foul points away from a suspension, which would be triggered if he picked up either two more Flagrant 1’s or a single Flagrant 2.