Nearly a new low
Suns manage only 69 points in another blowout loss to Oklahoma City
Suns power forward Markieff Morris hoisted an 11foot jumper with 21.9 seconds remaining that bounded off, and the Suns were headed for franchise infamy once again on Sunday night.
Oklahoma City guard DeAndre Liggins was merely dribbling out the clock to pin the worst offensive performance in franchise history on the Suns. He lost his dribble, and the Suns had a flicker of hope in what had been another overall dismal performance against the Thunder.
Suns point guard Sebastian Telfair tried a 3-pointer. The shot missed, but Suns forward Wes Johnson flew in for a putback, allowing the Suns to post 69 points before the final buzzer. It was still a blowout loss, 97-69 at US Airways Center — quite similar to Friday night’s127-96 pasting in Oklahoma City.
But Johnson’s late tip-in at least let the Suns escape hitting the franchise scoring low of 68 points, set in 1981 against Kansas City.
“With how everything has gone this season, we didn’t
need that,” Johnson said. “We would’ve heard about it a lot, so I’m glad I tipped it in.”
Saving face on that did not keep the Suns from disgrace. The team that went six second-half minutes without scoring in the second half on Friday night went eight minutes without a point in the second half on Sunday night.
Friday night’s collapse resulted in a decisive 21-0 run for the Thunder. Sunday’s scoring drought turned a 21-point deficit into 35.
“We didn’t know what we were doing defensively and offensively,” said Suns point guard Goran Dragic, who said the team emerged with no confidence at tipoff. “Everybody was, I don’t know, on All-Star break.
“We have a team that some nights, some days, they bring it and play hard and then we get lost for three, four games. I was talking with Lindsey and with all the players and saying, ‘We’ve still got 30 games left. If we shut down now, everybody is saying next year we’ll make the playoffs. If weshut ourselves down now, then we cannot improve ourselves and try to be better next season. We cannot just click and come back next season and start playing well. It has to start now.”
The Suns (17-35) again have dropped to last place in the Western Conference by going 4-7 since Lindsey Hunter became interim head coach. It was the fifth loss that the Suns have taken by 25 points or more this season.
“You always expect if you got in a fight to come back the next day and put up a better effort,” Suns captain Jared Dudley said. “And obviously, today was the same if not worse because you’re at home.”
Dudley did not play in the second half because Hunter said he was trying to “kick-start” the offense by putting Dragic at shooting guard and rookie Kendall Marshall at point guard.
The move did not have the desired effect, especially with the attention Dragic has attracted from defense since his 15-point fourth quarter at Memphis and a 16-point first quarter Friday night at Oklahoma City.
The Suns only managed 48 points in the first 42 minutes of Sunday night’s game and did not have a scorer in double figures until Morris made a 3-pointer after that.
“We didn’t make shots, we didn’t stop layups, we didn’t stops 3s,” Hunter said. “It was a combination of a lot of things. When you give a great team every option in their playbook, you’re not going to win. We let them do pretty much whatever they wanted to do.
“In this process, sometimes we’ll take two steps back,” Hunter said. “We’re trying to change a lot of stuff in a short period of time. That’s why I’m never really discouraged.”
Thabo Sefolosha led the Thunder (39-12) with a season-high 20 points.