00:00Ladies and gentlemen of the Suns faithful, let's break down Thursday night's tough 10197 loss to
00:06the Golden State Warriors. Too often, it felt like our Phoenix Suns were a step behind in all facets
00:11of the game. Both teams were shorthanded, and Golden State played a 5-out offense all night,
00:17seamlessly generating 3-pointer after 3-pointer. Now you could argue that when a team attempts 37
00:23of its 55 3-point tries in just the first half, they're forcing it. But our Suns defense was
00:28lagging on the ball, and the rotations behind that weren't nearly as smooth as they needed to be.
00:34It was clinical for the Warriors to simply take what the defense gave them. That execution allowed
00:39their group, playing without Stephen Curry, due to right patellofemoral pain syndrome, Jimmy Butler
00:45with an ACL tear, and a trio they traded away in Buddy Heald, Jonathan Kaminga, and Trace Jackson
00:50Davis, to have more than just a shot at a win. This victory, clearly, meant a ton to Golden State.
00:56Their head coach, Steve Kerr, said afterward it felt like they won the championship, and that the group
01:02needed it. They were previously 1-5 this season, when without their two stars, it was another night
01:08for Phoenix without Devin Booker, due to a right ankle sprain, and Jalen Green, out for right hip
01:14injury management and a left hip contusion. Our shot quality from deep was an issue, rarely yielding
01:19clean, catch-and-shoot threes, and instead relying on highly volatile pull-up looks. After a lot of those
01:26looks fell in Tuesday's win, they were not falling in the first half, going just 7 for 21, or 33%,
01:32but Phoenix shot a remarkable 75%, from two-point range, to counter the Warriors' 15 first-half
01:39threes. Golden State didn't produce much offensively beyond that, so our halftime deficit was only four
01:45points. For the Suns to take control, we had to start denying some of those threes, and forcing
01:51giveaways. We had only forced two turnovers to that point, both of those goals came to fruition
01:56in a dominant 27-17 Suns third quarter, we caused five turnovers, and more importantly, held the
02:03Warriors to one for 10, three-point shooting in that frame, and just three for 15 overall in the
02:09second half. That effort got our Suns' lead up to six points, and it quickly grew to 14 less than two
02:15minutes into the final quarter. However, Golden State cut it to four, with under five minutes left,
02:21and then to two, a handful of possessions later. A critical moment in that run included Grayson Allen
02:27hobbling back to the locker room after tweaking his right knee. He did not return. With the Warriors
02:33down two and calling a timeout with just over a minute to go, they generated a great look at the
02:38rim off a DeAnthony Melton drive. Our Suns' ensuing possessions resulted in Colin Gillespie getting
02:44blocked at the rim, leading to a Warriors runout for a layup that put Phoenix behind. An isolation
02:50play for Dylan Brooks out of the timeout never got anywhere, and his difficult step back three did
02:55not go down, killing the clock down to 12 seconds. The miss resulted in a scramble for multiple loose
03:01balls that the Warriors eventually came away with to run out the clock. A sobering statistic, the Suns
03:06scored only two points in the final seven minutes and 19 seconds of this loss. Head coach Jordan
03:12Ott alluded to a halt in our ball movement being one of the culprits. Looking ahead, Phoenix has
03:17three more games remaining until the NBA All-Star break, beginning Saturday, and ending with back-to-back
03:22games next Tuesday and Wednesday. The concern now grows much more for the return of either Booker or
03:28Green, given Allen's uncertain status after his knee tweak, for the Warriors forward. Pat Spencer scored
03:34a career-high 20 points, largely via a career-high six three-pointers. His previous best mark was three.
03:42Dylan Brooks worked his way to 24 points on 24 shots, making 10 of them. Grayson Allen was at 21 points
03:49on 7 of 17 shooting before his exit. Key margins were far too tight for us to succeed offensively in
03:56this state. Second chance points were tied at 13-13, and points off turnovers were nearly even,
04:0214-13 in the Warriors' favor. Coach Ott mentioned all of that in his assessment, as well as a stark
04:0915-1 Warriors edge and made free throws for the second half. We gotta find ways to get offensive
04:14rebounds, that's what we've done so well, Ott said. There, for a stretch we couldn't turn him over,
04:20especially in the first half. Injury updates, Devin Booker has now missed seven straight games and
04:26remains day-to-day. Jalen Green is up to three straight absences, having now missed a full week
04:31since his fall. While the team continues to sight his hip, the right hamstring keeps getting listed,
04:36which means it will be a factor in his ramp-up. Coach Ott emphasized pre-game that it's about how
04:41Green's body responds to the work the day before. Additionally, Isaiah Livers injured his left
04:46shoulder in the first half and did not return. So, after a game where our defense found a rhythm but
04:51our offense disappeared late, what's the one adjustment you believe is most critical for
04:56this team to find consistency before the All-Star break?
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