00:00What's up Suns fans, the team's season-long momentum, reaching one high point after another,
00:06hit a sudden and significant low point in Friday's 110-103 road loss to the Atlanta Hawks,
00:12with injuries to both Devin Booker and Jalen Green casting a shadow over the game.
00:16Late in the third quarter, with the Suns on their biggest surge of the night, Booker was
00:21lightly slowing down as a whistle blew to his right. Turning to look, he unknowingly collided
00:25with Atlanta's Onyeka Okungwu, badly twisting his right ankle. Booker, not a player who typically
00:31stays on the floor in pain, was down for about 30 seconds. He then gingerly made his way toward
00:37the locker room with a heavy limp, needing to take a few breaks on the way back. He had sprained his
00:42left ankle just 10 days prior in Miami, which forced him to miss only one game. He was clearly
00:47playing through some limitations from that, but the degree of that sprain was not as severe as
00:52Friday's injury appeared. Strictly off the eye test, this looks like the more severe variety
00:57that could sideline him for weeks instead of days. The team defined Green's re-injury of his
01:01bothersome right hamstring as, precautionary tightness. We'll have to see if that means
01:06Green avoided something serious and will only need a short period of rest. However, the concern level
01:11is extreme, considering this is the second re-aggravation of that hamstring for Green.
01:15The initial instance was, on Nove, eight, and cost him two and a half months, with just about that
01:23amount of time remaining in the regular season. If this is more than just tightness, the legitimate
01:28fear is he could miss the rest of the year. For the second, straight time, Green's extended absence
01:34ended only for him to re-injure himself in the first half of his second game back. It was an even
01:40tougher moment that it appeared to come on a highlight play, with Green cleanly blowing by,
01:45Atlanta's Luke Kennard on a baseline drive, Green went to the locker room immediately after.
01:51We already know Phoenix is capable of maintaining a top-six seed in the Western Conference without
01:56Green, but the possibilities, of what his inclusion could unlock, were captivating to see with each
02:03possession he played the last two games. Instead, the wait for that lengthens yet again, and it might
02:10now have to include some time joined by Booker on the bench.
02:14Four, how often we talk about the danger of soft tissue injuries and how difficult they are to
02:19manage. NBA teams have gotten proficient at handling them. We rarely see them ravage a player's entire
02:25season the way Green's is this year. That's even the case for a guy who had missed only six games over
02:29three years and just 21 total in his first four NBA seasons before sitting for 41 of Phoenix's 45 games
02:35this time around. As deflating as this development is for Suns fans, it's worth reminding everyone that
02:41this group has thrived through adversity. On that same note, though, they have never faced as much
02:46as they will if both star guards miss more than just a blink of time together. Booker, prior to that
02:51injury, was in the midst of a 16-point third quarter. Phoenix's defensive activity had also reached
02:57game-changing levels, tilting a back-and-forth affair in their favor. Even as he exited, Colin
03:03Gillespie and Oso Iguodaro kept sparking the game enough to keep the Suns not only in it but in
03:10control. That duo, however, had to get a rest in the middle of the fourth quarter. While they both were
03:16able to get back on the floor with Phoenix down just two points with three and a half minutes to go,
03:21the offense was expectedly stuck as Atlanta ratcheted up its own defense to seal the deal.
03:26This was the Suns' 12th straight loss in Atlanta. While statistics like this are often meaningless
03:32due to different team iterations over time, the context is that this was the ninth defeat out of
03:37those dozen, where Phoenix played the game at either the beginning or the end of a road trip.
03:42Anyone in the league will tell you there's something more to overcome in those contests.
03:46A few things were just easier for Atlanta than we're used to seeing from Suns' opponents.
03:50The Hawks were able to get out in transition, find space, and were able to jumble up Phoenix's
03:55switching more often. Even a 30-12 Suns advantage in points off turnovers was not enough to make up
04:01for those shortcomings. Colin Gillespie scored 16 points with six rebounds, four assists, two steals,
04:07and one turnover in 35 minutes. Grayson Allen added 16 points off the bench with four steals.
04:13The two of them could have some major heavy lifting to do over the next couple of games.
04:17It's worth noting that two-way guard Jamari Bouyea recently returned from a concussion
04:23to score 27 points in a G League Valley Suns victory on Thursday. Oso Iguodaro was once more
04:29phenomenal, and the superior five-man, what he does as a hub, to create extra movement offensively and
04:35ignite activity defensively through switch-first schemes, is undeniably the better dynamic than what
04:41Mark Williams has brought for the last six weeks. Phoenix clearly tried to get Williams the ball more,
04:46particularly in short-roll situations. In those spaces, he struggled to pick his spots for the
04:51right shot, going three of eight from the field for six points with five rebounds, one assist,
04:56three steals, and zero turnovers in 21 minutes. His physicality in those areas continues to get
05:02tested by stronger opponents. Iguodaro played 27 minutes, ending up with eight points, seven rebounds,
05:09two assists, two steals, a block and a turnover. Dylan Brooks reached double figures in his first 35
05:15games as a son, which was one of the 15 longest streaks by a player to begin this season,
05:20per Stadhead. But since then, Brooks has scored 5, 27, 6 and 11 points. His performances have become
05:27more streaky overall, rather than showing the ebbs and flows of getting white hot or ice cold by the
05:33quarter, which we saw earlier. That pattern eventually evened out within each game before.
05:38But, that is no longer, the case. He shot 4 of 18, and his one-on-one play had no answer for the
05:46high-end perimeter defenders the Hawks deployed. It is not a reliable source of crunch-time offense,
05:51and will heavily depend on the night. So, with the potential for a significantly short-handed
05:56backcourt, what's your level of confidence in this team's depth to navigate this latest and most
06:01serious wave of adversity?
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